Australia’s Sydney Harbor was hit this week by an 80,000-liter (21,000-gallon) oil spill, creating a seven-mile-long slick that lapped at the side of the famous Sydney Opera House and pungent fumes that drove tourists and locals away from the area. The cleanup is expected to take a month, and a serious risk will be posed to wildlife for at least two weeks. The spill has ignited a debate over the value of the harbor as a tourist attraction versus its value as an industrial port. Some enviros have called for oil tankers to be banned from the area permanently, or at least during the Summer Olympics next year, but the government has nixed the idea.
