The Chic Ecologist

The Gulf Oil Spill is Sad, But How Does It Affect Me?

I am sure many people are uttering these exact words right now when seeing images and news of the Deepwater Horizon BP oil spill in the Gulf. It is really sad, but unless you live along the affected coast or are a fisherman, it can be hard to connect with the devastation and see it for the disaster it really is.

It may be helpful to look at a similar disaster to see the likely effects, the Exxon Valdez oil spill. That oil spill killed as many as half a million birds, including more than 150 bald eagles and approximately 4,500 sea otters. While it may be something you may have not even thought twice about, it is still impacting us to this day, in ways you may not have imagined.

Even though the Exxon Valdez spill was in 1989, it is still killing wildlife today, 21 years later. Everything from Salmon to Pacific herring and pigeon guillemots — are not recovering. Populations of clams and mussels are still affected by the lingering oil, as are sea otters and birds such as harlequin ducks and black oystercatchers. Digging down only 4 to 10 inches, you will find pockets of oil still left over from the 1989 spill.

What may be even more scary is that we haven’t really had a spill like this to compare to, and the unprecedented use of a toxic chemical dispersant only adds to the unknown.

The environmental fallout:

• Oceanic Currents
• Hurricane Season
• Containment
• Fishing Impacts
• Bird Migration
• Estuaries and Marshes
• Coral Reefs

Given the location and the extent of this spill, we may be in much bigger trouble. The Exxon Valdez spill was large, but was largely contained and somewhat isolated when compared to the far reaching and ranging Gulf oil spill. Converging oceanic currents in the area can carry the oil hundreds, even thousands of miles from the spill site and the upcoming hurricane season could spread and disperse it even more rather than floating in a large slick.
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Tags: disaster, Environment, environmental impact, Gulf of Mexico, oil spill

Gulf Oil Spill Disaster

So by now everyone who doesn’t live in a cave has heard about the oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Since the April 20th explosion of the offshore oil rig, Deepwater Horizon, an estimated 210,000 gallons of crude oil per day has been released into the waters off the coast of Louisiana. So far the slick has traveled mostly north and west, hitting Freemason Island, a Louisiana bird sanctuary, on Thursday. According to NOAA projections, oil could hit hundreds of miles of coastline from Louisiana to Florida, even traveling out into the Atlantic. There was recently an attempt to cap and funnel the leak. The attempt was not a success. Plan B includes drilling a “relief well” that could literally take months to complete.

The following media frenzy has been distressing to watch, and frustratingly shallow on facts. Media responses range across the board, from John Stewart’s Daily Show brilliant simulation of the failure to cap the oil leak, to Rush Limbaugh’s statement that the oil is as “natural” as the ocean water it’s polluting and therefore should be left alone. › Continue reading

Tags: Energy, Environmental Awareness, Environmentally Responsible, Gulf of Mexico, oil, oil spill, pollution