Preview

Environmental Disaster

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1059 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Environmental Disaster
Environmental Disaster Who would have known that on April 20th 2010, the United States would soon be facing the worst environmental disaster. On that fateful day, an offshore oilrig named the “Deepwater Horizon” suffered an explosion. Seventeen people were injured and eleven people died from the accident. The damaged oilrig sank into the Gulf of Mexico the next day, and a one-by-five mile oil slick appeared in the ocean. At the time, it was unknown whether the oil was from the rig or if the underwater oil well was leaking. The BP oil company soon realized the well, which is five thousand feet below the surface, was gushing oil at a rate of thirty-five thousand to sixty thousand barrels a day. The Gulf region is in a state of emergency because tourism, wildlife, jobs, and the environment are going to take catastrophic hits. Tourism in the cities on the Gulf are hurting severely because of the oil spill. Tourists visit those cities for their sugar-sand beaches and their great seafood restaurants. However, the sugar-sand beaches are coated with oil and the seafood restaurants have closed down because of the lack of seafood. In Biloxi, Mississippi nine miles of beaches are nearly empty at a time when local residents say bathers and vendors typically swarm the sands (Wall Street Journal). In Florida, tourism is one of the top money-making industries. Furthermore, if oil hits the beaches of Pensacola that could in turn hurt Miami’s tourism. People can change and fix what is being done on the Gulf; however, wildlife cannot. There are many species of animals that live in and out of the water and are in danger from the oil spill. Animals have no idea about ingesting oil or how to run away from danger. Birds will usually ingest the oil through their feathers, causing kidney damage or irritation in their digestive tract. Since they have used a dispersant to break the oil up, the oil then sinks and the fish or other marine life think it is food.


Cited: "Tar Balls Avoid Mississippi -- But So Do Tourists. " Wall Street Journal (Online)  14  Jun 2010,ProQuest National Newspapers Core, ProQuest. Web.  15 Jun. 2010. [Make sure this is double spaced and that all spacing between words and punctuation is correct. Apply the latter throughout.] Jeffrey Ball, and Robert Lee Hotz. "Gauging Harm to Ecosystem Could Take Years. " Wall Street Journal (Online)  28  May 2010,ProQuest National Newspapers Core, ProQuest. Web.  16 Jun. 2010. "The Gulf Oil Spill: In Louisiana, Scrambling for Work. " Wall Street Journal  10  Jun 2010, Eastern edition: ProQuest National Newspapers Core, ProQuest. Web.  16 Jun. 2010. "Gulf oil spill as a lesson on humans in nature. " The Christian Science Monitor  2  Jun 2010,ProQuest National Newspapers Core, ProQuest. Web.  16 Jun. 2010.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Bp Oil Spill

    • 475 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Oil Spill, due to the mismanaged oil drilling by British Petroleum (BP), in the Gulf of Mexico, has turned into one of the worst environmental disasters to happen to an ocean ecosystem of all time. Although many people only notice the effects on the hydrosphere, which include the oil going almost a mile deep under the sea, destroying the sediment and rock on the ocean floor, as well as disrupting coastal patterns, many have not realized the drastic effects on the biosphere because of this catastrophic event. The BP oil spill is viewed as the largest decimation of ocean wild life known to man, as well as also killing human lives in the process. Entire ecosystems have been affected in the process, harming animals like whales, dolphins, fish species, pelicans, seagulls, sea turtles, etc., several of which are already endangered. This destruction of wildlife has also lead to a slowdown in many fishing industries, further affecting human life, and causing severe poverty for those who rely on such business to survive. Even if some of the animals did survive, the trauma faced from this experience will lead to reproductive problems, or most likely, death. Even though life is returning back to the Gulf, the damage done can never be replaced, and the area will never be the same.…

    • 475 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Bp Oil Spill

    • 1713 Words
    • 7 Pages

    The BP Oil Spill has been a huge environmental issue; it was the worst oil disaster in US history. The government estimated up to 2.6 million gallons per day with a total of 205.8 million got into the gulf. Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida all had miles on miles of surface oil problems. BP put nearly 2 million gallons of chemical “dispersants” into the ocean, which actually make the oil more toxic to ocean life. It’s considered and environmental issue because of its massive amount of damage and was caused by humans, the oil company. The spill made more than 1,000 miles of shoreline covered in oil.…

    • 1713 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Today, with the continual and rapidly growing need of energy demand by big nations like United States and China continuing to furnish their domestic consumptions of oil have led to increased prices of gasoline whereby alternative forms of energy production are sought. With this in mind, offshore drilling can be a viable option for satiating the need of oil and also to boost the economy of the nation. In this report, I am going to discuss how the current Deepwater Horizon rig explosion has led to disastrous oil spill into the Gulf of Mexico causing environmental problems and also discuss how the oil spill if resolved and with safe and secure drilling techniques, the economic impact of offshore drilling can outweigh the environmental issues.…

    • 1476 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Bp Oil Spill

    • 2831 Words
    • 12 Pages

    “Thank God men cannot fly and lay waste to sky, as well as the earth,” said Henry David Thoreau on environmental damage. The BP, or British Petroleum, Gulf oil spill has been widely referred to as the biggest environmental disaster that the United States has ever faced, with over four million gallons of oil pouring into the waters off the Mexican Gulf Coast. The BP oil spill occurred in April of 2010. It was, and still is, the biggest oil spill in all of U.S. history. The massive spill wreaked havoc on Gulf Coast inhabitants, including animals, plants, and humans, in late April. Most of the sea life in the Gulf Coast waters perished, drowning in the oil that has monopolized the waters. The BP oil spill has been rated one of the biggest environmental disasters of this century. To examine what contributed to this title, and to stop another disaster like this from happening again, the public must look at how it happened and why, the economic and environmental impact, and the cost of cleaning it up.…

    • 2831 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Oil has been a vital part of everyday life for decades. It is our main source of fuel in automobiles and other machinery. Oil has its benefits, but people seem to ignore the process of acquiring oil. Oil drilling is a dangerous and risky process. It runs the risk of contaminating the surrounding water and harming the organisms that live in it. The process also emits large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, better known as the BP oil spill, was a prime example of how oil drilling is an extremely harmful process. An explosion on the rig caused it to spill 60,000 barrels of oil per day into the Gulf of Mexico. It also cost millions of dollars to clean up the oil spill. The BP oil spill is a clear example…

    • 1194 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Many people do not realize the impact of the oil spills that occur in the ocean. It is like putting water into a heated oil frying substance. It is quite catastrophic. With all the oil spills that have already occurred it is important to help clean ,and prevent oil spills from reoccuring. There is indeed a lot of reasons as to why we should clean and help prevent oil spills from happening but here are the three main reasons. First reason being oil spills cause immense harm to the marine habitats that intern affect the entire ecosystem disrupting its cycle. A second major reason being is all the things that the oil contains and where they go. The third reason we found that plays a major role involving…

    • 830 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Gulf Oil Spill

    • 1344 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Reed, Travis. "Spill hasn 't yet emptied hotels on Gulf Coast". The Sun News. Associated Press. 5 May. 2010. Web. 8 Nov. 2010.…

    • 1344 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    First was the sheer magnitude of the damage the spill which will have an impact to the wildlife in the Gulf and the ecosystem for years to come and who actually was responsible for the cleanup. BP began to blame others and would not take full responsible for the event. However, BP did acknowledge the oil soaked wildlife, natural habitats that would be destroyed by the oil, thus impacting many different type of species. BP did talk about the miles long underwater plumes of oil, but would not discuss if the large plumes of oil had the potential to poison and suffocate life across the food chain, which was what many people did believe was happening. The chemical dispersants that were used on the oil were also unique to the Deepwater Horizon and its effects on the animals were unknown, but they were used anyway. The problem with using dispersants on the oil is that this type of treatment was considered experimental and they did not know for sure how the chemical would affect the animal, many believe that the chemical dispersants are toxic…

    • 1236 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hurricane Katrina Impact

    • 418 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Being that hurricane Katrina had a bad oil spill, scientist say “that the damage to birds and wildlife could be disastrous.” Ongoing assessment, conducted on Sept. 27, showed high levels of petroleum hydrocarbons, or fuel oils, and E. coli bacteria in sediment samples of residue left over from receding floodwaters. According to EPA spokesman Michael Dorff, “we are not sure what the wildlife long-term effects are going to be. It’s going to take time to pull everything together, and get the big picture and figure out what this is going to mean for the…

    • 418 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In recent years the fish and all the other marine animals that live in the Gulf have been affected by different natural disasters or disasters caused by us humans. For example, the most recent natural disaster that affected the lives of many marine animals in the Gulf was Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which caused the Gulf Coast entered the United States with lots of water and different types of animals from the gulf. This caused many fish to die and some to even become endangered. The human-caused event which also affected the Gulf was when thousands of tons of oil spilled into the gulf due to failures at the oil digging plant of BP. All these events may have been prevented perhaps but unfortunately, when BP…

    • 1150 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Hurricane Katrina caused an interruption in the oil supply, destroying thirty oil platforms and closing nine refineries. The foresting industry also took a major hit, considering 1.3 million acres of forest were destroyed. Due to the extensive flooding and property damage, hundreds of thousands of local residents were left unemployed and had no choice but to relocate from the Gulf Coast (“Hurricane Katrina”, 2012). Although the greatest damage inflicted by Katrina was economic, the environment took a hit as well. Hurricane Katrina caused significant beach erosion and land transformation, devastating coastal ecosystems. Not only this, but the hurricane caused oil spills from forty-four different facilities in Southeastern Louisiana (“Hurricane Katrina”,…

    • 1050 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Offshore Oil Drilling

    • 667 Words
    • 3 Pages

    On April 20th, 2010, an oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico. As a result, approximately 4.9 billion barrels of oil poured into the gulf over the course of 87 days. This tragedy resulted in lives lost, both human and animal alike, and really brought the issue of off-shore oil drilling to attention. While some may believe that offshore oil drilling may seem like a harmless source of revenue for the United States, it is imperative that citizens realize that drilling does more harm than good. America needs to consider the negative effects of offshore oil drilling on the environment, the economy, and the future.…

    • 667 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    This presentation had a deep impact on me because I had been living in Gulf Breeze, Florida at the time of the spill. Gulf Breeze is located 15 miles West of Pensacola and the reefs and beaches were severely impacted by it. Not only did the spill impact the environment but also the tourism which that city needed to thrive; in turn businesses closed and restaurants plundered. When I looked outside my bedroom window at the ocean, instead of seeing the bright blue colored ocean waves, I instead looked out at green murky foam covered waves and algae blooms. The sand got covered in black oil and impacted the sea birds that used the splashing waves to gather small fish and organisms. So, when I listened to this…

    • 637 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Also, the researchers are deeply concerned for the lingering effects of the oil spill to the immediate ecosystem and are passionate to point out these effects for the information of the people in the community.…

    • 1681 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The spill has caused extensive damage to marine and wildlife habitats as well as the Gulf's fishing and tourism industries. Skimmer ships, floating containment…

    • 1675 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays

Related Topics