Gulf Oil Spill

As news of the gulf oil spill continues, I continue to think about everything this catastrophe affects. On a variety of different levels, it’s affecting economies, jobs, wildlife, tourism… even politics. I’m very interested in history so this got me thinking about past oil spills and how they impacted their local environments.

Earlier this week I came across an article about the Exxon Valdez oil spill. In 1989, the Exxon Valdez oil tanker ran aground in Prince William Sound near the town of Valdez pouring some 11 million gallons of oil that would pollute the water and damage prized Alaskan shoreline.

This article discusses how the oil spill affected local Alaskan communities over the years. One fact I discovered is that people flooded the area hoping Exxon would hire them to help with the clean up. Unfortunately, many were not hired and they were not the best people to join the community. Criminal activities like violence and drug abuse increased in the area.

Fishing is a big industry in the area, much like the Gulf of Mexico, but many fishing families in Alaska still haven’t recovered. Some fish species in the area were completely destroyed as a result of the spill and have never returned. The saddest part. These families were promised compensation. They are still waiting for it.

Staying on the topic of wildlife… photographs from the Exxon Valdez spill and the Gulf spill show how these disasters negatively affect the environment and its inhabitants. In Alaska, birds and sea otters were found dead, covered in oil. We see pictures now of birds covered in oil. In fact, today I saw a sad story about endangered turtle species burning alive during BP’s controlled oil burns in the Gulf of Mexico. Reports say BP is not allowing people to interfere with the burns to save the turtles and they are not doing anything to protect them.

We are not even close to seeing the end of this sad situation. As of today, the government estimates somewhere between 39 and 112 gallons of oil have spilled into the Gulf. The Exxon Valdez spill was only 11 million. It’s safe to say, we will be feeling and seeing the affects of this disaster for a very long time.