FAQ's

How Oil Spills can be avoided?

- Environmentalists and various governments have always argued over offshore drilling in the past decade. In the US it is an extremely debated subject especially since recent events have given more proof to why it should be banned. But not all major oil spills are caused by drilling platforms leaking but from tankers grounding or sinking. The need for oil requires such a precious amenity to be transported but if countries look to other energy resources, the purchase of oil across foreign waters would not be necessary and we would not have to run the risk of major leakage of oil in fragile marine ecosystems.

What harm does the release of oil cause to the environment?
- Oil contains many different hydrocarbons and different compounds; this mixture makes oil an extremely dense product. This affects both animals and plants, an example of this is birds. Birds are always the most effected animals except for fish when it comes to oil spills, the oil sticks to their plumage and prevents them from taking off, their instincts tell them to ingest the oil but that leads to devastating effects on their internal organs and is the cause of death for the birds. Under the surface of water lies an entire ecosystem of plants, and they also require photosynthesis but the density of oil prevents any sun from accessing the plants and they die therefore affecting the food source for many fish

How is oil spills cleaned up?
- Various methods are used to clean up oil spills. One of the most preferred methods is using oil booms which absorb the oil, oil booms are comprised of sometimes regular nylon stockings filled with animal fur or hair many organizations are dedicated to gathering hair for oil spill cleanup. They are other methods of getting rid of oil in water, burning is one of them but it cause air pollution and is frowned upon by most environmentalists

How do they occur?
- Major Oil Spills are mostly caused by drilling platforms leaking or tankers grounding on reefs, some oil spills release 100,000 to 1.5 million tons of oil. The main problem is the oil spreading

Are all Oil spills accidental?
- The highly publicized Oil Spills are mostly the big accidental ones but the truth is that those oil spills account for only 5% of Oil Spills. Most oil spills are caused by municipal dumping or by industrial waste such as oil refineries or oil fields. In Ecuador 30,000 inhabitants from the Amazon sued Chevron because all the waste from their Oil Field was polluting their river

Are they any organizations against off shore drilling?
- After Exxon Valdez in 1989 many different charities and organizations sprung up against off shore drilling, and ever since it has been ongoing debate between congress and environmentalist. You can donate to Matters of Trust or different organizations but recently President Obama has created a commission on preventing Oil Spills

What are some major oil spills?
- The biggest amount of oil released by oil spill was in the Persian Gulf during the First Gulf War where it was said that the Iraqi’s released oil in an attempt to prevent the marines from landing, but Exxon Valdez incident in Alaska which does not even place in the top ten for the most amount of oil released had probably had the worst impact on the environment than any other spill



How many animals die from oil spills?
- It varies from spill to spill but one of the worst environmental disasters was the San Francisco Bay spill where 2,519 dead birds were found. It ranges from how dense is the animal population in that area

Are there any immediate methods of avoiding oil spills?
- To make sure that tankers do not ground or hit a reef they have two boats constantly attached to them to tug the boat in case of emergency, there is also a method called double hulling in which they reinforce the hull of a tanker which can prevent ships from getting damaged.

How long does it take to clean up?
- It all depends on the efficiency of the people responsible for cleaning up the spill, the spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 1980’s took over a year to entirely clean up. Most spills take a few months to recover from but even after that areas affected by it continue to have problems an example of this are Alaskan villages in which the oil spill ruined the fishing industry.