The Pros And Cons Of Oil Drilling
Oil has been a vital part of everyday life for decades. It is our main source of fuel in automobiles and other machinery. Oil has its benefits, but people seem to ignore the process of acquiring oil. Oil drilling is a dangerous and risky process. It runs the risk of contaminating the surrounding water and harming the organisms that live in it. The process also emits large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, better known as the BP oil spill, was a prime example of how oil drilling is an extremely harmful process. An explosion on the rig caused it to spill 60,000 barrels of oil per day into the Gulf of Mexico. It also cost millions of dollars to clean up the oil spill. The BP oil spill is a clear example
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The process of drilling for oil alone poses so many cons, that the pros don’t seem to compensate well enough. The carbon emissions ruin all surrounding atmosphere and the frequent leaks ruin surrounding water. Additionally, oil spills as large as the BP oil spill, cause permanent or long-lasting environmental damage, directly, affecting the lives of people in nearby cities. Both the environmental and economic damage makes drilling for oil seem like a futile cause, as it will always have extremely negative impacts no matter how hard we try. Oil drilling causes a significant amount of problems that we cannot ignore. Oil drilling is never praised and is frequently in the news for major catastrophes it …show more content…
The BP rig was wasting and dumping thousands of barrels of crude oil into the ocean, making it a filthy and disrupted ecosystem. The oil spill first had its direct impact on the surrounding wildlife. The oil served in coating the wings of many birds, therefore, leading to them losing their buoyancy. In the six-month period right after the spill, 7,000 birds were collected and roughly 3,000 of them showed indication of oiling on the feathers, additionally, out of the 7,000 collected, over 5,000 of the birds were found dead (Oil Spill Impact on Birds). Oil can also be harmful to other animals such as marine mammals. The build of oil on their skin can cause chemical burns, and if the oil is ingested, it can induce internal bleeding. In the period of direct impact, roughly 100 dolphins and whales were found dead on the surrounding coasts (Oil Spill Impact on Mammals). Another organism that took a strong direct hit was the sea turtle. The data indicated a “five-fold increase in sea turtle strandings in the aftermath of the Gulf oil disaster” (Oil Spill Impact on Sea Turtles). Between the years 1986 and 2007, about a 100 turtles were found stranded every year, however, in the years following the oil spill, about 500 were found annually. In the six months following the spill, 1,066 sea turtles were collected out of the contaminated zone and over 500 of them were found dead. These statistics are a
The process of drilling for oil alone poses so many cons, that the pros don’t seem to compensate well enough. The carbon emissions ruin all surrounding atmosphere and the frequent leaks ruin surrounding water. Additionally, oil spills as large as the BP oil spill, cause permanent or long-lasting environmental damage, directly, affecting the lives of people in nearby cities. Both the environmental and economic damage makes drilling for oil seem like a futile cause, as it will always have extremely negative impacts no matter how hard we try. Oil drilling causes a significant amount of problems that we cannot ignore. Oil drilling is never praised and is frequently in the news for major catastrophes it …show more content…
The BP rig was wasting and dumping thousands of barrels of crude oil into the ocean, making it a filthy and disrupted ecosystem. The oil spill first had its direct impact on the surrounding wildlife. The oil served in coating the wings of many birds, therefore, leading to them losing their buoyancy. In the six-month period right after the spill, 7,000 birds were collected and roughly 3,000 of them showed indication of oiling on the feathers, additionally, out of the 7,000 collected, over 5,000 of the birds were found dead (Oil Spill Impact on Birds). Oil can also be harmful to other animals such as marine mammals. The build of oil on their skin can cause chemical burns, and if the oil is ingested, it can induce internal bleeding. In the period of direct impact, roughly 100 dolphins and whales were found dead on the surrounding coasts (Oil Spill Impact on Mammals). Another organism that took a strong direct hit was the sea turtle. The data indicated a “five-fold increase in sea turtle strandings in the aftermath of the Gulf oil disaster” (Oil Spill Impact on Sea Turtles). Between the years 1986 and 2007, about a 100 turtles were found stranded every year, however, in the years following the oil spill, about 500 were found annually. In the six months following the spill, 1,066 sea turtles were collected out of the contaminated zone and over 500 of them were found dead. These statistics are a