Lessons Learned From The Gulf Oil Spill
In April of 2010, a tragedy struck the planet that we continue to be reeling from: the Deep Horizons oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The episode was the result of a leak from a British Petroleum (BP) oil rig that experienced a malfunction that caused it to gush oil into the Gulf and even now, we are trying to clean up the disaster. We’ll have a look at how things are proceeding 10 months after the leak began and 7 months after it was capped on July 15th, 2010. We’ll take a look at the destruction this environmental catastrophe has caused on the environment, in addition to what people are doing to try and lend a hand not just to human beings, but the other lifeforms which share Earth with us.
Conceivably one of the most visually noticeable impacts belonging to the Gulf Oil Spill has been the sights we glimpse on the news involving animals injured by the toxic crude oil. Reported by Wikipedia, it’s estimated that a full 53,000 barrels’ worth of oil gushed into the Gulf of Mexico throughout the 3 months the Deepwater Horizons oil platform was leaking. This means just about 5 million barrels of oil entered the water. In the ordeal, animals of all types were poisoned and therefore died in record numbers, washing up over the shores of the Gulf. Enumerable more have been harmed from the poisonous waste and they continue to be cared for in the hopes that they can be saved.
According to a recent story in the Tween Tribune (http://tweentribune.com/content/cleanup-continues-oil-damaged-animals), efforts are ongoing for rehabilitating sea turtles, egrets along with other animals that will be powerless to survive in the wild without human involvement. The cost of these rehab efforts have reached above half a million dollars, paid for by BP, so far. Understand that this identical oil is needed to produce not just gas, but also plastics.
Various estimates place many hundreds of creatures dead, as reported by LouisianaToday.com (http://www.todayslouisiana.com/gulf-oil-spill-cleanup.html) with no living creatures within an 80 mile radius of the oil platform at the moment. If you take time to think about all of the birds, fish and even reptiles that live within a typical mile of open ocean, you will get an idea of the mortality rate. This individual incident genuinely needs to serve as a reminder to most of us as to the importance of selecting green shopping bags along with doing even the littlest things to try to improve our ecosystem.
Creatures just like shrimp, crabs and marine seafood are a large component of the Gulf region eating habits and without being able to harvest these animals, countless bistros must now shut down. The shortage of consumers in this tourist heavy area really impacts the economy and, as blogger Alexander Higgins noticed (http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/2010/09/29/video-dangers-lurk-beneath-surface-gulf-mexico-6102/), the dangers still lurk beneath the Gulf’s surface.
We consumers really can do something to help our environment. If we utilize eco bags, we aren’t only reducing garbage immediately, we’re reducing dependency for the very oil that is used to make these bags. This is a single small advance towards a cleaner earth any of us could effortlessly do.
As it is easy to distinguish, the Gulf Oil Spill’s devastation is having lasting effects. We still combat the spoiling of our planet, but on the optimistic side, we can all do something to help fight the calamity from ever occurring again.