How do you clean up an oil spill?
In 2006, the world consumed more than 3.5 billion gallons of oil each day [source: U.S. Dept. of Energy]. Sixty percent of that oil reached its destination by sea [source: Corn]. Fortunately, due to stricter penalties and better ship design, the number of oil spills has decreased since the oil shipping boom began in the 1960s. Unfortunately, they haven’t been eliminated. Between 1990 and 1999, an average of 150,000 tons of oil spilled each year into the world’s waterways [source: National Academies]. 2001 was a particularly bad year, with five spills occurring within
