This is the first entry in a multi-part series revealing the significance of bilge dumping globally. SkyTruth has observed bilge dumping incidents around the globe many times since 2007. But in 2019, we started seeking out these incidents more systematically. In total, we found 163 slicks around the globe.
SkyTruth followers know that we generated a lot of momentum in 2019, laying the groundwork for major impact in 2020. Here’s a quick list of some of our most important projects underway for the new year: stopping oil pollution at sea, protecting wildlife, identifying poorly reclaimed mine sites, characterizing harmful algal blooms from space, and revealing fossil fuel drilling on public lands.
Johnna Armstrong had, what she calls, a sheltered upbringing in a rural community in Upstate New York. The oldest of six children, she often had to care for her younger siblings. So when it came time for college she was anxious to find out “who I was separate from my family,” as she puts it. She had no idea that ultimately she would end up in the computer field. Now, she serves as SkyTruth’s systems administrator, keeping our systems humming, the website running, and managing the SkyTruth Alerts system.
The call came two weeks in advance: SkyTruth was chosen to be one of four nonprofits featured at the AWS re:Invent Hackathon for Good held December 2, 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Our goal: leveraging the collective brainpower of hackathon engineers to automate the detection of bilge dumping at sea by vessels violating international law and polluting the ocean.
Last month, an article in MIT Technology Review described strange GPS anomalies in Shanghai. I began investigating, and have now found evidence of a novel form of GPS manipulation occurring at at least 20 sites on the Chinese coast during the past year.