Oil Spills


Oil Spills Blog

The environment is an ever shifting, ever changing cycle, that impacts our lives everyday without us realizing it, from things as simple as rainstorms to things as complex as gravitational pull and positive and negative pressure zones. The environment is far more complicated than most people realize and yet a large part of that is due to the human species. From something as simple as littering to global warming, humans have drastically changed the environment, and not always in ways for the better.

                                                 

Exxon Valdez

Oil spills are a huge problem in our world today, yet this has been happening for years and years, the Exxon Valdez oil spill, March 24th 1989, according to ExxonMobil the supertanker struck Alaska’s Prince William Sound, spilling over 250,000 barrels of oil.

Although this may not seem like a huge issue, and some may argue that it is not, the effects of this spill were drastic, the oil spread 1300 miles of coastline, and killed 250,000 seabirds, roughly 3,000 sea otters, 300 harbor seals, 250 bald eagles, 22 killer whales, and billions of salmon eggs (National Geographic) Not only did this destroy the wildlife populations in this region, it also collapsed the fishing industry in Southern Alaska.

                                               

Deepwater Horizon

A more current oil spill happened in 2010, when the Deepwater Horizon, a massive oil rig exploded, killing 11 workers and dumping 4 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. This spill dumped almost 16 times as much oil into the ocean as the Exxon Valdez spill (EPA) The oil spill happened after “a pulse of gas shot up, buckling the drill pipe. The emergency valve designed to cap the well in case of an accident, the “blowout protector,” failed, and the gas reached the drill rig, triggering an explosion that killed 11 crew members.” (National Geographic)

Since 1969 there have been 44 significant oil spills-thus being described as over 10,000 barrels, and these 44 oil spills have directly impacted US waters.


Conclusion

Oil Spills are still an issue in today’s society as it takes many years to clean up spills in general, there is always the threat of an oil spill happening today anywhere in the ocean, and this could ultimately kill a species of animal and create an unstable environmental hazard in a matter of seconds.



Comments

  1. Ms. LaClairJanuary 5, 2021 at 8:14 AM

    Good points about previous major oil spills. Are there statistics about how frequently they happen? For example, when was the most recent one?

    Don't forget citations.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousJanuary 11, 2021 at 2:19 PM

    I like all the examples on previous oil spills. What is a better way to stop them from happening?

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousJanuary 19, 2021 at 11:24 PM

    I think that oil spill can be horrible to the environment. Not only do they just hurt animals and the climate but they can effect different types of environments, like mangroves, which can effect different ecosystems and the food that we eat. Do you think that stopping the need for oil and replacing it with more reusable forms is possible? Do you think that people would be willing to make the switch?

    ReplyDelete

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