Offshore Drilling Effects

For hundreds of years offshore drilling has been a vital component to the economy, sadly, offshore drilling is commonly associated with contamination of the food chain, contributing to air pollution and and causing many catastrophic oil spills. Considering this has been a problem for so long it is urgent that something is done sooner to save the environment. Oil spills create a hazardous environment for people and wildlife to live in, food contamination, air pollution and oil spills which are all effects of offshore drilling that ultimately disturb and alter our food chain, the air that we breath and our wildlife, reefs and coastlines.

Offshore drilling contaminates the food chain which causes people to get sick. The contamination of the food

Air pollution supports global warming which is a dangerous problem that is getting worse. Besides the effects that offshore drilling has on wildlife it also immensely affects global warming and the gases that are released from the rigs goes into the air that we breathe. Lombardo states, “No matter what personal stance on global warming may be, there is no denying that an offshore drilling rig produces an enormous amount of air pollution that can affect the shorelines” (n. pag.). Not only does do offshore drilling rigs pollute the air but they also pollute the oceans and create a deadly environment for marine life and reefs. This shows how one small mistake made by oil drilling companies is extremely dangerous to the environment and could even wipe out populations of marine life which can create dead zones. Majority of pollution comes from storing toxic oils that are dangerous to the oceans. The amount of air pollutants is not that much compared to other contributors of air pollution but they all add up and will slowly destroy our

Some of the earliest oil spills date back to 1900s and the most recent occurring in January of 2017. Oil has a great affect on marine life, even birds are affected by oil spills. Jordan states, “about 15 million gallons of oil are spilled in the ocean per year from offshore drilling”(n. pag.). 15 million gallons is large quantity of oil to be put in the ocean every year, this number does not include pollution from drains and runoff, and many other contributors. If offshore drilling continues the oceans will only become more dangerous polluted and have a negative effect on marine life. Frost states, “‘There were some immediate impacts to the animals of the gulf of mexico that could be seen with the naked eye! Pelicans black with oil. Fish belly-up in brown sludge, smothered turtles washed up on beaches. But not much time has passed since the spill, and it will take many more years of monitoring and research to understand what happened”’ (n. pag.). The effects of oil spills on marine life is slowly killing certain species and marine life is and oceans are essential to human life. This issue does not just affect the oceans but the whole earth. Oil spills can take many years to clean up and most of the oil is never completely removed. Frost notes, “removing oil from the ocean in an extremely difficult task” (n. pag.). Because oil spills are so hard to clean up it continues to sit on top of the water and