Off-Shore Oil Drilling Effects

Off-shore oil drilling is a controversial practice that, economically, is beneficial to our country, but has numerous negative effects on our oceans, and our planet’s environment. Some of these negative effects include pollution of seawater, harm to living organisms, and further contribution towards climate change, and global warming. Many of these oil-drilling companies claim that their drilling operations are clean, safe, and don’t negatively affect the environment, but in reality, these oil rigs sitting in the Ocean are hurting our environment, and many of us don’t even know the extent of it. I’ll be using three examples of how off-shore oil drilling harms our environment, I’ll be discussing the effects on ocean waters, marine life, and

These researchers claimed that releasing these metals into the ocean will result in levels of magnesium and calcium being over the recommended 10 mg/l threshold in ocean waters. While calcium and magnesium can be healthy for the environment at safe levels, increasing levels can be damaging to marine life and biodiversity. These off-shore oil drilling operations have an impact on the wild animals and marine life, but they can also have an effect on humans, as well. The high-levels of iron can actually be nutritional for living organisms, but the amount being emitted at these drilling sites exceeds the standards set by the World Health Organization and the USEPA. This will affect drinking water, irrigation, and fisheries, according to researchers from AJOL. High amounts of lead were also being deposited at one of the sites, well above the recommended amount. This will lead to lead being built up where the waste is disposed, and that isn’t good for drinking water, or marine organisms. They also found that cadmium was being released into the water, which can be toxic to fish, and carcinogenic to people. High levels of potassium were also found, which can be dangerous if too much is present in drinking water.

Various metals were recorded well above the recommended standards set out by the World Health Organization, and this could have a lasting effect on the composition of the river’s water, as well as the nearby ocean water in which the river runs into. This is a big problem, and people should care, because it doesn’t only affect wild animals, these substances can have an impact on human civilization as well. Even for those of us who don’t care about the environment, this problem could affect your clean drinking water, which is why it needs to change, or stop. If these off-shore drilling operations can’t comply with the standards set by the WHO, they will have a lasting effect on the Niger-Delta’s environment. All this, for the sake of what? Extracting more oil? Making more money? Is extracting oil really worth it, considering the consequences we are unfairly throwing on our environment? These are questions we should ask ourselves, and questions that should be posed to off-shore drilling sites such as these that pose a threat to our environment. It’s not fair to put our environment under so much stress, because we can’t sustain ourselves without a healthy environment. This is an issue that should be put at the forefront of media, word should be spread, so these drilling operations are forced to