A large issue America is facing is the aftermath of the Gulf oil spill and its effect on the environment. The beginning of this crisis took place on April 20, 2010 and has yet to come to an end concerning the devastation to wildlife and the Gulf’s inlands. To recap the event, an oil rig located in the Gulf of Mexico exploded, catching the rig on fire and causing thousands of gallons of oil to leak from the ocean bottom. Eleven workers were killed and seventeen injured due to the explosion. To contain the oil, a temporary cap was placed on top of the well in mid-July. Once the leak was stabilized, the cap was removed. In total, more than 200 million gallons of gas gushed into the Gulf of Mexico.
The BP oil spill is an incident that has largely affected the lives of many Americans, and moreover greatly impacted the conditions of the environment. As a whole, Americans seem to be very upset with BP as the cause of the tragedy, and even more displeased for placing blame on others and taking only a fraction of the responsibility for what happened. Coastal businesses and residents were severely damaged by the oil spill; businesses, especially restaurants and eateries, had limited access to seafood, fishermen were out of work, and locals had to prevent the oil from devastating their homes and health. This does not even begin to breach the toll the oil took on wildlife. The oil has killed and harmed birds, dolphins, seals, fish, turtles, and other marine animals.
The environment is a vital source for survival. Therefore, I believe this should be a topic to be researched and discussed among Americans. How badly has the oil spill affected wildlife? Is America really concerned? What has already been done and what more can we do to recover and preserve our environment?
Personally, I am extremely concerned about the aftermath of the oil spill. As you mentioned, the detrimental effects to coastal ecosystems and wildlife are incomprehensible. Not only will those waters be inhospitable and dangerous to animals for years to come, but the economies of those regions have also taken an extremely harmful hit. Many are left unemployed after they can no longer hold jobs as fishermen (like you said) and even tourism has significantly decreased. Your comments on BP also hold true to my personal beliefs. The amount of blame that BP took for the damages they caused was unfair and I feel as though they should have taken much more responsibility.
ReplyDeleteI really liked your post. I like how you left us with questions at the end to get us thinking about the aftermath of the oil spill and how it is affecting us. I have definitely become more concerned about the environment after this oil spill. It is going to take years for the Gulf to recover from this. Economies all around the Gulf are hurting from this and not to mention the awful impact the spill has put on all the wildlife that had habitats in the Gulf. It has disrupted so many natural activities in the Gulf. For one, it has affected the food chain by many animals dying off and leaving others with nothing to eat. I also believe that BP should have taken complete responsibility for what happened. BP knew about the problems the well in the Gulf could have caused a year before it blew. They did nothing about it. It was not all BP's fault but at this point, it is wrong to be blaming other people for the disaster. They need to not focus on whose fault it is, but on how we can work to fix what has happened as best we can. This is definitely the worst natural disaster that has happened in our history and it will take a long time for us to recover.
ReplyDeleteI like your synopsis of the events of the Gulf Oil Spill. It was extremely disastrous to many different areas of the Gulf. The fishing industry, the Gulf’s economy, and the Gulf’s wildlife were severely damaged by the oil spill. It seemed like we kept hearing aout the spill in the news, but that no one ever cared that there would be major repercussions for the disaster. BP used every trick in the book to try and stop the oil, but in most cases, I believe they made it worse. Due to the dispersant they applied to the leaking oil, scientists are hard-pressed to find out what the real effect of the oil spill are. BP uses the dispersant and the fact that people can’t find a large plume of oil as an excuse to say the problem has faded, but there will continue to be issues associated with the oil spill for many years. The top kill program wasn’t very good either. Hopefully, BP will fulfill its multi-billion dollar promise to repair damages from the spill, but more importantly, the federal government should hold BP responsible for any following repercussions from the oil spill. Here is a funny video about BP’s reaction to the oil spill: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AAa0gd7ClM.
ReplyDeleteThank you to each of you for taking the time to read and provide great comments!
ReplyDeleteI am glad to read that you are all in agreement on this issue! The oil spill has indeed caused devastation to our ecosystems, wildlife, economy, and people in close proximity to the Gulf. I too believe that BP should have taken more responsibility. Beachgirl5892, thank you for pointing out that it has affected the food chain; also, great job to Me for discussing the effects of the dispersant and for the funny video! (more to come about these topics in later posts!).