Oil spills from tankers have fallen to less than one-thirtieth of the levels seen in the 1970s

We’ve all seen the dramatic images of vast parts of the ocean caked in oil; birds and other wildlife stuck in the thick, dark liquid. These spills are both environmentally damaging and expensive to clean up.

As the chart shows, in the 1970s, over 300,000 tonnes of oil were spilled from oil tankers in most years. By the 1980s and 1990s, this had dropped, but the annual average was still over 100,000 tonnes.

These losses have fallen dramatically since the millennium. Last year, 10,000 tonnes were spilled, less than one-thirtieth of the amount lost in a typical year in the 1970s.

This decline has occurred despite global oil production and trade increasing dramatically.