On Our Radar: Capsized Ship Stirs Environmental Worries January 17, 2012, 10:30 am With an estimated 2,380 metric tons of fuel on board, the wrecked Costa Concordia cruise ship is "an ecological time bomb," the mayor of the Tuscan island of Giglio says. The waters are treasured by divers. A Dutch salvage vessel is expected to start removing the ship's fuel within days; the process could take two to four weeks. Facing growing public protests about pollution, China's leaders are reaching for a remedy that they have otherwise shown little appetite for: letting the courts decide. One test case is collective litigation over cancer cases in a village where runoff from chronium mining has been a big problem. The Bulgarian government cancels an exploration permit that it had granted to Chevron allowing it to explore for gas through the controversial drilling process known as horizontal hydraulic fracturing. The company will be allowed to prospect for oil and gas only by using conventional drilling methods. Dismissing "certain people in the United States" who would "like to see Canada be one giant national park for the northern half of North America," Prime Minister Stephen Harper says that foreigners should not be permitted to hijack the decision-making process on the country's proposed Northern Gateway pipeline. The 730-mile pipeline would carry crude from oil sands in Alberta to Canada's western coast.