The Worst Disaster in History

The article “Catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico: Devastation Persists” (http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs) talks about the big oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and about what we can do to help and prevent it from happening again, in the article it says, “It’s been more years since BP’s Deep-water Horizon rig blew up in the gulf of Mexico, killing 11 people and unleashing the worst environmental disaster in U.S history.” Not only can oil spill affect the animals living in the waters it can affect people in many different ways.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector

Three years later and the Gulf of Mexico is still dealing with the worst environmental disaster in U.S history. 11 people lost their lives that day when the BP’s deep water Horizon exploded. 82,000 birds, about 6,000 sea turtles, approximately 26,000 marine mammals and many fish were all harmed by the spill.  More than 2 million gallons of oil spilled and covered almost 1,000 miles of the shore line.

 

 

The oil spill reached the shores of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. There were so many marine lives that were trapped because of how thick the oil was. In the article it says, “BP flooded the ocean’s surface and depths with nearly 2 million gallons of chemical “dispersants”, these chemicals can actually make oil more toxic to ocean life.” The oil won’t just affect the wild life living on top of the of the ocean surface, the oil can also go deep into the ocean closer to the bottom and also hurt those animals as well.

The gulf was a habitat to many animals that now could be threatened or endangered after this tragic event. People tried to keep the oil away from the shores.  The “offshore ecosystem” still has some devastating impacts. The oil soaked the gannets, brown pelicans and the eggs; the oil on the birds made it impossible for them to flap their wings and to be able to fly out of the water.

In a way this event kind of reminds me of the “Lorax” movie that we watched in class. It reminds me of it because the oil ruined so many animal habitats just like in the “Lorax” when the Thneed factory started cutting down the trees in the truffle forest, all the Brown bar-ba-loots lost their habitats. We need to find a way to prevent oil spills from happening. Oil Spills happen every year, having spill-prevention technology will help protect animals and their habitats.

 

There are so many things you can do to help prevent more oil spills and save many species. One way we could help prevent oil spills is to lower the demand for oil, that way the cargo ships don’t have to go across the ocean and have that as a risk factor. This will also prevent people from drilling into the ground for oil. Oil spill usually happen because the people drill off the shore, many of them are just small leaks, there are some big leaks and occasionally an enormous one, like the tragic on in the Gulf of Mexico.