Humanity at its finest.

The BP Oil Spill, still in the spotlight, still a controversy

The following is a commontary I have wrtitten concerning the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last April, although like many natural disasters this one has been forgotten and less talked about, there are still many apsects of this serioulsy impactful spill that are up for concern.

“Approximately 70 percent of the earth’s surface is water, and many oil and natural gas reserves are beneath the world’s oceans and seas” according to Energy Tomorrow magazine 2010.

On April 20^th, 2010 the Gulf of Mexico and many surrounding coastlines were affected by Americas worst environmental disaster in history. The BP Oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 was an incident that could have been prevented by the BP oil company, no one else is at fault and because of this company’s many mistakes, there have been many serious health, environmental, and financial issues. It is stated by Energy Tomorrow magazine in an article titled “Offshore” that, About 30 percent of the nation’s total domestic oil production and 13 percent of domestic natural gas production comes from the Gulf of Mexico. That explains the reasoning for BP to have oil rigs and equipment present in the Gulf, but it still begs to question, how was a disaster this big not foreseen, and if it was foreseen, why did no one stop it?

http://izzymom.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/BP-oil-spill-Greenpeace-logo.jpg

This picture is of the rig right after it exploded

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/05/bp-gulf-oil-spill-timeline.php

“BP made a series of cost-saving decisions that increased risk, and in some cases severely.” Also stated but Rep. Edward J. Markey, “BP is happy to slice up blame, as long as they get the smallest piece” (Quoted by Durando).

Over a 40-minute period, the Transocean rig crew failed to recognize and act on the influx of hydrocarbons into the well” which is what lead to immense pressure that then created a route for the mud-gas to leak directly onto the rig instead of over board. The gas then made its way to the engine rooms which created the explosion and fire, and even after this the rigs blowout preventer should have activated automatically to create a seal for the oil but it failed to open which created the oil spill (Durando). There were many things that BP could have done differently during this time to slowdown and perhaps prevent the spill from happing such as, in Bruce Thompson’s article titled, “Gulf Oil Spill Could Have Been Stopped 48 days Earlier, he explains that many  of the mechanics involve with the spill were not correctly assembled and could have been fixed much earlier in the spill.

Along with the environment, the deepwater horizon oil spill caused a lot of serious effects for those living around the effected areas. In an article titled, “One Year Later: The Health Effects of the BP Oil Spill”, Erin Marcus states, “A wide array of health concerns has been reported. The predominant complaint is dermal skin rashes such as eczema and many other symptoms such as headaches, confusion, memory problems and upper and lower respiratory symptoms” (Page 2).  Though these environmental and health problems could be a lot worse, this was an unnecessary accident that could have easily been prevented by a number of parties leading up to the explosion in the Gulf.

Below is a picture of a few people attempting to clean up the oil washed up onto the beach before it does anymore damage.

http://img.ibtimes.com/www/data/images/full/2010/06/12/11475-workers-shovel-oil-from-the-bp-oil-spill-which-made-landfall.jpg

In the future, there are many things that the big oil companies can do to insure that an accident like this never takes place again. The focus needs to be more on renewable energy and not fossil fuels. The only reason gas is so prominent is because it is cheap and accessible, The leaders of America need to shift this focus from the need to drill and retain oil, to putting more effort into creating renewable energy and making it easier for the general public to access it.

Our environment is a fragile place, many times we as Americans take advantage of what we have and in reality, the Gulf, let alone somewhere else on the planet cannot afford another “accident” Like the Deepwater Horizon spill cause by BP and other big oil companies again. This oil spill should act as a wakeup call for those in charge before it is too late.

The BP Oil Spill, still in the spotlight, still a controversy

The following is a commontary I have wrtitten concerning the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last April, although like many natural disasters this one has been forgotten and less talked about, there are still many apsects of this serioulsy impactful spill that are up for concern.

 this is how one person thanks BP for their marvilous work concerning the spill.