The Environment Chronicle

On 16 December 2011, the Maltese-registered cargo ship TK Bremen ran aground off Erdeven beach in southern Brittany, on the north-west coat of France. The public authorities said in a statement a kilometre-long strip of fuel was headed towards the beach.

On 7 November 2011, Chevron had an oil spill when unexpectedly high pressure in the oil pool caused a spill and seepage through weak ocean bed rock. Estimates of the amount of oil entering the ocean vary depending on the source of the reporting, but a conservative estimate is at least 3000 barrels escaped.

On 5 October 2011, the Liberian-flagged container ship Rena, grounded north of New Zealand, some twenty kilometres off the coast of Tauranga. The ship was carrying 1,368 containers, eight of which contained hazardous materials, as well as 1,700 tonnes of heavy fuel oil and 200 tonnes of marine diesel.

On 12 September 2011, an explosion occurred at a nuclear waste processing center in the Marcoule nuclear facility in southern France. The Nuclear Safety Authority said no radioactive leaks have been detected in the blast at 12:37 p.m. (1037 GMT, 6:37 a.m. EDT) at an oven in the Centraco nuclear site.

On 10 August 2011, an oil spill was caused by the rupture of a pipeline on the Shell-owned Ganett Alpha platform, located in the North Sea. The oil platform is 113 miles (180km) off Aberdeen. Two leaks broke out, causing a spill of 218 tonnes of crude oil. The leaks were plugged after 10 days: this was the worst oil spill in this area in 10 years.

Northern German nuclear reaktor Brokdorf was taken offline on 7 August 2011.

On 4 August 2011 UNEP presented its new report to the President of Nigeria, The Hon Goodluck Jonathan, in the Nigerian capital Abuja. The independent scientific assessment of the environment and public health impacts of oil contamination in Ogoniland, in the Niger Delta, shows that pollution from over 50 years of oil operations in the region has penetrated further and deeper than many may have supposed.

BP has reported a pipeline leak at its Alaskan oilfields. BP said a pipeline at its 30,000-barrel-per-day Lisburne field ruptured during testing and spilled a mixture of methanol and oily water onto the tundra. The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation said the spill occurred on 16 July 2011 and amounted to 2,100 to 4,200 gallons.

The Bohai bay oil spill was a series of oil spills 2011 at Bohai Bay, China. On June 4, 2011 the Penglai 19-3 oilfield caused an oil spill from a sea floor leak that lasted until June 7. On June 17 a second oil spill that occurred at the Penglai 19-3 oilfield, but was contained within 48 hours. A third leak took place on July 12 with the Suizhong 36-1 oil field.

The Fukushima nuclear accidents are a series of equipment failures and releases of radioactive materials at the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, following the 9.0 magnitude Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami on 11 March 2011.

On 28 April 2011, Plains Midstream Canada experienced a pipeline failure on its 20” Rainbow Pipeline, located in Northern Sunrise County approximately 95 km northeast of Peace River, Alberta. The failure resulted in a release of approximately 28,000 barrels of crude oil.

On 25 April 2011 fire broke out on the High Fens, Belgium. Some 1,000 hectares of this nature area have been destroyed.

On 4 April 2011 TEPCO discharged 11 500 ton of contaminated water from their radioactive waste treatment facility to the sea.

The German tanker Alspray caught fire in the night of 29 March 2011 at BP's Emsland refinery. The vessel sank after various explosions with 900,000 litres of gasoline on board. The accident happened during loading works.

MS Oliva ran aground on Nightingale Island on 16th March 2011. All 22 crew were rescued by 17th March before the ship broke up and Nightingale Island is now facing an environmental disaster.

Ontario Power Generation notified the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) at 11:33 pm on March 14, 2011, that there was a release of 73,000 litres of demineralized water at the Pickering A nuclear generating station earlier that day, due to a pump seal failure. The radiological risk to the environment and people's health is negligible.

The 2011 Tōhoku earthquake, officially named the Great East Japan Earthquake, was a 9.0-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Japan that occurred on Friday, 11 March 2011. The earthquake triggered a tsunami that devasted Japan´north-eastern coast and caused a number of nuclear accidents.

An earthquake of magnitude 9.0 hit north-east Japan followed by a series of powerful aftershocks and Tsunamis. The epicentre of the earthquake is located 400 km away from the capital Tokyo at a depth of 32 km. The earthquake occurred at 14:46 local time (05:46 GMT) on March 11. The areas most affected are the prefectures of Miyagi, Fukushima, and Iwate.

On 4 March 2011 NASA's Glory mission launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 5:09:45 a.m. EST failed to reach orbit. Telemetry indicated the fairing, the protective shell atop the Taurus XL rocket, did not separate as expected about three minutes after launch. The new Earth-observing satellite was intended to improve our understanding of how the sun and tiny atmospheric particles called aerosols affect Earth's climate.

On 17 February 2011 an Icelandic-owned container ship ran aground around the islands of Hvaler on Norway’s southeast coast. The cargo vessel Godafoss was leaking oil in an area that borders the new Outer Oslo Fjord National Park. It was unknown exactly how much oil is on board the ship, built in 1995, but estimates are as much as 800 tonnes. Oil was leaking from two tanks that can contain 250 tonnes each on both sides of the ship, which currently sits lopsided where it has run aground.

A tanker ship, the Waldhof, carrying 2,400 tonnes of sulphuric acid capsized on the Germany's Rhine River on 13 January 2011. The accident took place near the Lorelei rock.