Oil Spills Effects On The Environment

A form of pollution where there is a sudden release of liquid petroleum hydrocarbon into the environment is called an oil spill. Mostly, oil spills are due to releases of crude oil from tankers, offshore platforms, as well as drilling rigs. Moreover, oil spills could result in devastating consequences economically, environmentally, and socially. As a result, oil spills brings forth political uproar, concerns of government responses, and ideas to clean and prevent oil spills (Broekema). Environmentally speaking, oil spills are extremely harmful to the environment. In general, oil spills affect animals and plants in two ways: directly from the oil or the clean up process. Oil often penetrates plumage of birds and furs of animals (“Lingering...spill”).

When precious oil is lost, it affects the supply of gas available for use. This causes the price of the oil we use to increase. Not only that, the cleaning up process also requires a great deal of money and time. During the cleanup process, workers who were brought up face a great deal of health problems. The medical treatment of these workers has to be paid for and becomes the responsibility of the government. Another major business that is affected by these oil spills is the fishing industry. With all the oil in the water, fisherman cannot catch the fish without spending more money on better equipment. An example of the negative effects of oil spills on fisherman is the BP oil spill. Thousands of Vietnamese refugees working as fishermen have not been able to catch even a quarter of the fish they used to before the spill. The wives of most of these fishermen work at the local seafood stores where their hours are being cut down because of the poor inflow of money. Since both earning members of the families are not making enough money to sustain their families, they need to find alternative methods to make

Since they are not always the same, there isn’t a fixed method to clean them up. One of the main ways to clean them is leaving it the way it is to let nature get rid of the oil through the currents, sunlight and winds. This usually happens if the spill is away from the coast and is not interfering with any human life. If the spill is closer to land, a chemical is added to increase the pace of nature’s removal of the oil. The oil floats on top of the water creating a layer, a few millimeters thick, and therefore can be separated by skimmer equipment. Skimmers move through the oil while scooping or sucking it into containers in nearby