The largest oil spill in history wasted more than 1 billion barrels of oil, which is sufficient amount to fill up around 48,000 Olympic-size swimming pools. Imagine pouring 48,000 Olympic-size swimming pools filled with oil into the sea. The sea will be covered completely in black, with no trace of the natural blue. The horizon will be black and you will never be able to see its end as it will continue to spread and grow into endless blackness. Imagine the animals caked in black ooze, struggling to open their eyes and move their heavy wings, tails, legs and arms. The corpses of the victims are floating about, eternally suffering from the toxic, even in their afterlife. These are the outcomes of an oil spill. When oil spill happens, the environment becomes living hell, and the life slowly fades and finishes. Oil spill is a disaster, deadlier than any other. It ruins the environment, kills the animals, and also hard to fix. Although actions are being taken, I believe that in order to stop the damage on the environment and suffering of the victim animals the oil spill causes, the usage of oil has to decrease to the minimum, taking less than 10% in the global energy consumption.
The contamination that had been caused by oil spills was devastating and hopeless. The sea becomes black and the toxic spreads, harming the nature severely. One of the largest oil spills in the history, Deepwater Horizon oil spill, also known as Gulf of Mexico oil spill and BP oil spill, polluted wetlands, shores and ,of course, the gulf. The quote was said during the recovering of Gulf of Mexico when the damage seemed unmeasurable. "You get hit by a hurricane and you can rebuild. But when that stuff washes up on the white sands of Pensacola Beach, you can't just go and get more white sand.'' Public Service Commissioner Benjamin Stevens. The quote tells us that the damage the oil spill cause can be equal as hurricanes and other disasters. However, the oil spills are tougher to face as the toxic can sink into soils and water and bring about further contamination. Not only it harms the environment continuously, but it is arduous to clean up. Cleanup and recovery from an oil spill is difficult and depends upon many factors, including the type of oil spilled, the temperature of the water (affecting evaporation and biodegradation), and the types of shorelines and beaches involved. In the quote, oil spill is hard to clean up due to the various factors that can be affected, meaning that the restoration takes a long period of time. As a result, an oil spill can surely provide an unmeasurable amount of damage to the environment as it lasts for long and simultaneously threatens the environment.
Furthermore, the oil spill terminated tremendous lives through its catastrophic chemicals. As a result of BP oil spill, myriads of animals died slowly due to the oil’s toxic. The toxic gradually crawls into the animals, making them infested with oil. In addition, the oil causes mutations as well, as the chemicals get stacked inside them. Shrimp born without eyes, clawless crabs, and fish with visible tumors are among the "horribly mutated" marine animals found in the waters off the Gulf Coast, according to a new report from Al Jazeera. This shows how the infestations resulted from oil spill can be long lasting. Moreover, it is evident in this quotation that oil spill is as impactful and detrimental as nuclear, resulting death and mutants. Furthermore, The oil spills affect plethora of animals species inhabiting in the area by altering the food chain. "We'll see dead bodies soon. Sharks, dolphins, sea turtles, whales: the impact on predators will be seen in a short time because the food web will be impacted from the bottom up." Marine toxicologist Dr. Susan Shaw, director of the Marine Environmental Research Institute. An oil spill can be threatening enough to wipe out all the animals as bringing an end to a single part of a food chain resulting the destruction of whole food chain. This means that oil spill has dangerously tremendous impact on the environment, having capacity to eradicate all the lives through a simple contact.
Today, people are unearthing more varieties of renewable energy that will soon take over the consumption of oil. Hydropower is one of the most consumed among the renewable energy soureces. The hydropower is gathering the power of water currents, and does not pollute the world and it is eternal. ‘As a clean and renewable energy source, hydropower can help to reduce climate change by cutting our dependence on carbon-based fuels.’ This fact is telling the us, oil consumers, that the hydro energy is the resource that we need to improve on to solve the environmental problems we are now facing. In addition, hydropower is one fifth of the world’s total energy consumption. Since it does not produce any greenhouse gas, which means that it is opposing the global warming. Additionally, Seaweed is a new natural friendly energy source that contains more benefits than any other renewable energy source. The sugar inside kelps can be made into a biofuel.
The ocean is a vast and stable environment
No food supply conflict
No need for fresh water
No pesticides
Grow faster than any land plant and are just as productive or more, at capturing CO2
Seaweed are ocean biofilters
The seaweed energy is in the spotlight as the new efficient energy resource. The seaweed energy has dominant benefits. As a biofilter of ocean, it is restoring the environment rather than destroying it, which is an important characteristic, which is one of the plethora of reasons why it is being encouraged. As a result of discoveries of many renewable energy sources, the consumption of oil has to decrease to slow down the global warming and decrease the chances of oil spills.
The oil spills devastate lands and ocean, silently slaughters hundreds of animals and should be prevented with more notion and care. If we do not take actions, and stand up for what we believe, we will never change anything and no one would remember us. However, if the people do stand and fight, we will be the catalysts of change, and our names will be remembered for the influence we had caused, which will affect from the next generation to the very last. Therefore, if we fight for the prevention of the oil spill and join our ideas for innovation with other current organizations and people, we can shorten the time that the oil spill will strike to the minimum. So, what can you do?
No comments:
Post a Comment