News followers around the globe have recently been receiving shocking daily updates about the gigantic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico caused by an explosion of a British Petroleum (BP) oil pipe far beneath the ocean. This is said to be the biggest oil spill in the history of America and that 163 MILLION LITRES have been spilled so far. I have been quietly reading the news for the past weeks and can only say that I am saddened and very disappointed. How can such large, rich companies such as BP not be prepared for unexpected disasters such as these? There have been oil spills before, and the devastating effects have been observed, why aren't we learning from our mistakes? How many oil spills, how many millions of litres of oil will we accidentally spill before we come up with alternative or better thought out plans to fix them?
As a "tree hugger", I am mainly concerned for all the wildlife, plant life and microscopic ocean life in and around the Gulf that will be destroyed/killed/poisoned/affected/undiscovered/lost. Pick a word, they all work. However, although that is a huge consequence we have to face, there are also many others that may not be as easily seen.
Massive amounts of oil in the Gulf can mean
> loss of jobs for people who live off the coasts
> huge negative impacts on fisheries as so many fish, shrimp, etc will die
> destroyed coasts which may effect tourism. who wants to visit lifeless, dirty beaches?
> altered natural food chains that can lead to out of control population drops or rises of species
> rises in gas prices, seafood prices from Louisiana and other affected coasts, and also even prices from random things like coffee that cannot be shipped as quickly through the Mississippi river because of efforts to block the oil spread
And there's more bad news: Hurricane season started two days ago, and may cause these disastrous effects to happen faster and be more serious.
The good news? I cant call it that, but for the sake of hope let's pretend there is good news. Obama promises to investigate, find the culprit and change laws if necessary. Investigations have started already, and there seems to be speculation of some neglect or unsafe practises but nothing has been confirmed yet. Let's hope the truth comes out; there are billions of people looking for answers. The world is waiting.
Here are some informative sites:
=Hurricane Season=
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/06/01/gulf-of-mexico-oil-spill.html
=Info and Volunteering=
http://emergency.louisiana.gov
(Call me crazy but I am seriously considering going to the U.S. to help the clean up efforts.)
[Image used from http://www.oilism.com/oil/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/oilspill0.jpg]
