Offshore Drilling Essay

Williams Ozuma

Environmental Impacts of Offshore Drilling Offshore drilling Energy bonanza or Environmental disaster? if any choice is going to be made, one fact that makes the environment much germane than the offshore energy bonanza is that unlike energy, the environmental does not have a substitute and if it is destroyed we would have no where to live. Industrial extraction of hydrocarbons did not move offshore until the early 1950s. The first offshore platform was built off the coast of Louisiana in 1947. Reoccurring hikes in fuel prices, unprecedented home foreclosures, rising unemployment and increasing need for energy have prompted support for offshore oil drilling, often with dismissal of concerns about the safety of
Long term exposure to waste water or drilling fluids from offshore platforms can result in ailments such as anemia, leukemia, reproductive problems, and developmental disorders. Similarly, toxins bio accumulates in fish and people who eat fish and shellfish from affected waters may experience nervous system effects, such as loss of vision and seizure (Rose, Annette 30). These diseases can be very severe and pandemic to human society, consequently causing death and abrupt reduction in human
This is evinced by what is happening in the Nigerian Niger delta where the majority of its population lives in abject poverty even though this location has one of the world’s largest reserves for oil and gas. The delta has one of the largest wetlands and drainage basins in Africa and this incredibly well endowed eco- system contains one of the highest concentrations of biodiversity on the planet (Greenpeace internationals 11). It supports a wide variety of planting activities and fishing, which is the main occupation in this area. The Department of Petroleum Resources estimated “1.89 million barrels of petroleum were spilled into the Niger Delta between 1976 and 1996 out of a total of 2.4 million barrels spilled in 4,835 incidents” (approximately 220 thousand cubic meters) (Vidal, john 11). However oil pollutions like this and many others over the past years have caused a high rate of loss in the productiveness in this region. In conclusion, the need to have a safe environment surpasses luxurious intent of obtaining energy. For us to be able to live in a safe environment and eat fishes without fear of getting diseases as a result of oil contamination; in order to conserve magnificent species of aquatic animal and also farm on fertile and productive land that will supply us food; more offshore drilling