Believe it or not, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill was even worse than previously thought. After the Deepwater Horizon explosion in the spring of 2010, oil poured into the Gulf of Mexico for nearly three months straight, resulting in the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history. More than 200 million gallons of light crude flowed into the sea, devastating marine life and fisheries. Ten years later, scientists are still uncovering new facets of the disaster and its aftermath. A study published Wednesday from researchers at the University of Miami found that fisheries closed by federal and state agencies after the spill only accounted for about 70 percent of the actual extent of the toxicity that emanated from the drilling platform. The closures were based on satellite images of so-called surface slick — the visible oil on the surface of the water.
This metric was ultimately not sensitive enough to capture lower concentrations of oil that nevertheless were still harmful to animals. Deepwater Horizon disaster altered building blocks of ocean life. This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster may have had a lasting impact upon even the smallest organisms in the Gulf of Mexico, scientists have found — amid warnings that the oceans around America are also under fresh assault as a result of environmental policies under Donald Trump.
Lingering oil residues have altered the basic building blocks of life in the ocean by reducing biodiversity in sites closest to the spill, which occurred when a BP drilling rig exploded in April 2010, killing 11 workers and spewing about 4 million barrels of oil into the Gulf. Researchers took sediment samples in 2014 from shipwrecks scattered up to 150 km (93 miles) from the spill site to study how microbial communities on the wrecks have changed. “We rely heavily on the ocean and we could be looking at potential effects to the food supply down the road,” she said. Suspend Oil Drilling After Another Massive Spill. Target: U.S.
President Barack Obama Goal: Halt all oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico after yet another spill pumped 90,000 gallons of oil into the water. A Shell oil facility just leaked nearly 90,000 gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico’s waters just a few years after the massive BP oil spill that’s still having negative effects on the environment, marine species, and local economies. The United States Coast Guard claims the that two-mile by 13-mile spill has been contained, but that won’t stop it from poisoning the ecosystem and having lasting effects on fish and other animals in the gulf. Oil spills are devastating on marine environments. Our dependence on oil is already being replaced by cleaner methods of energy production, so it’s beyond time to end oil extraction. Dear President Obama, As you should be aware, yet another oil spill has occurred in the Gulf of Mexico. It’s become clear that oil corporations can’t be trusted to prevent oil spills like this from happening.
New Oceana Report Highlights Long-Term Impacts of Deepwater Horizon Oil Disaster | Oceana. WASHINGTON – Today, Oceana released a new report titled “Time for Action: Six Years After Deepwater Horizon” that highlights the long-term impacts of the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history, which began six years ago next week. In the report, Oceana reviews the most recently published research that documents the damage from the oil spill to the Gulf of Mexico’s marine wildlife, habitats and communities. While scientists are still working to understand the scale of the devastation to wildlife, fisheries and human health, Oceana marine scientist Dr. Ingrid Biedron says that we are already starting to see the long-term impacts of the spill. “The significant die-off of whales and dolphins that began in 2010 continues today,” said Biedron. “Increased mortality rates and diminished reproductive success can have long-term effects on marine mammal populations impacted by the spill.
The report’s key findings include: Live Stream - The Rising. For us to use this in the film, we need you to tell us your name and email in the video. See disclaimer below. Disclaimer: I understand that Conception Media is producing a videotape program and that my name, likeness, image, voice, appearance and performance is being recorded and made a part of that production (“Product”). I grant Conception Media and its designees the right to use my name, likeness, image, voice, appearance and performance as embodied in the Product whether recorded on or transferred to videotape, film, slides, photographs, audiotapes or other media, now known or later developed. This grant includes without limitation the right to edit, mix or duplicate, and to use or re-use the Product in whole or in part as Conception Media may elect. Conception Media or its designee shall have complete ownership of the Product in which I appear, including copyright interest, and I acknowledge that I have no interest or ownership in the Product or its copyright.
Take a stand for dolphins and Gulf communities. Photo credit: Gregory "Slobirdr" Smith, CC by 2.0 It’s been five years since the BP oil spill disaster first devastated wetlands, beaches, and wildlife habitats in the Gulf, and the impacts are still far from over. A recent study found that the highest number of bottlenose dolphin strandings between 2010 and early 2013 took place in areas most impacted by the 2010 BP oil spill. Earlier this year, a Louisiana federal judge ruled that BP face a potential fine of $13.7 billion for the devastation caused by their oil disaster in the Gulf.
However, there is no guarantee those fines will go toward the restoration of habitats for species like the bottlenose dolphin. It's up to people like you to make sure the BP’s fines from the Gulf oil disaster go toward real environmental and community restoration, not corporate development in fragile areas. How Oil Is Breaking Tuna's Heart. The effects of the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico are still being felt, and two animal populations are really feeling the pain: tuna and dolphins. Fish and marine mammals, it turns out, are highly sensitive to the chemicals found in petroleum products, and it’s an especially big problem for longer-lived species.
Recent research has examined what happened to both dolphins and tuna after the Deepwater Horizon spill, and the image is grim — especially for tuna, who almost literally experienced broken hearts as a result of the uncontrolled release of nearly five million barrels of oil into the Gulf. In the case of tuna, exposure to compounds found in crude oil can cause heart abnormalities and arrhythmias, causing cardiac arrest in extreme cases. These chemicals effectively slow individual heart cells, which is not desirable in the body’s hardest working and most active organ — especially for athletic organisms like tuna.
Tell EPA: End the Use of Toxic Dispersants. Lawsuit Dismissed: Oil Companies Not Liable for Louisiana's Coastal Damage. Are oil and gas companies responsible for coastal damage in Louisiana? Well according to a recent ruling, not in the least. In fact, they stand to get away with billions of dollars worth of damages. It happened last week when federal judge Nanette Jolivette Brown dismissed a case that would have held nearly 100 oil and gas companies accountable for coastal erosion in Louisiana. The suit was filed by the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority – East (SLFPA-E). The case was brought against these companies in June of 2013 and made its way slowly from state to federal court.
The destruction of Louisiana’s coast has also been noted by the USGS, who state that 75 square kilometers of land is being destroyed annually, and if this rate continues, “Louisiana will have lost this crucial habitat in about 200 years”. The Judge’s ruling was based on a number of aspects of Louisiana and Federal law, which did not ‘permit’ for the oil companies to be held accountable for their actions. Are Dolphins Still Dying Because of the BP Oil Spill? It has been five years since the fateful Deepwater Horizon/BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Over the course of the spill between 100-300 million gallons of oil were released from the faulty rig. Within the four months following, over 7,000 marine animals were reported dead or debilitated. During the clean up process, around one to three million gallons of chemical dispersants were dumped into the oil-slicked waters, yet a recent study found that at least one-third of the oil has been mixed with sediment and remains in the bottom of the Gulf.
Direct contact with oil can be an immediate death sentence for marine mammals, especially dolphins who can breathe in oil at the surface, as well as other toxic compounds released in the air, directly through their blowholes. While the impact on animals in the Gulf was quite evident in the days and months following the spill, many scientists were left to ponder what the long-term effects of this event would be. Unusual Mortality Events in the Gulf. Mining the moon is a thing that could actually happen | Grist. Dispatch from our dystopian future: We did it, everyone. All the precious minerals on Earth are gone. There is now officially no earth left on Earth. To be fair, we warned you this could happen! A handful of big-thinkers (and big spenders) think the answer to Earth’s limited resources lies in space, according to a report in Physics World. From rare earth metals — soon to be renamed “abundant moon metals” — to plenty of ice for outer space rocket fuel, the Earth’s most charismatic satellite has it all.
Here are a few of the above-and-beyond schemes to pillage a second celestial body, once we’ve fully looted our own: 1. Our robot overlords (aka iPhones) require certain elements which only occur very rarely on Earth, like ytterbium. As for mining the rare-earth elements on the Moon, China is making the most noticeable headway. 2. It’s also possible to loot the moon without bringing any payload back to Earth. 3. Where Did the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Go? | The Blog Aquatic.
You may remember images like this one following the BP Deepwater Horizon oil disaster—oil smeared across Gulf Coast beaches like a dirty bathtub ring. New research released this week suggests that a similar oily bathtub ring is lying on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. Scientists determined that an oily patch created by the BP oil disaster remains on the Gulf seafloor, stretching across roughly 1,250 square miles.
They came to these conclusions using data collected as part of the Natural Resources Damage Assessment at over 500 sampling locations in the Gulf. The source of the oil is most likely the subsea oil plumes that moved underwater—oil that spewed from the Macondo wellhead but never made it to the surface. As oiled particles fell out of the plume and settled on the Gulf seafloor, they created what the researchers are calling a “patchwork mosaic” of contaminated sites. The U.S. government estimates the Macondo well’s total discharge was 210 million gallons. Tell BP to Pay Up - Ocean Conservancy.
Will fracking in the Gulf of Mexico lead to the next Deepwater Horizon? If you read the financial papers, you may be aware that the Gulf of Mexico is looking like a giant, underwater piggybank. New advances in seismic technology, and more powerful equipment developed for fracking operations, have turned oil fields that were thought to be extinct into gold rush territory again. The same dynamic that has led to oil booms in previously quiet regions of the Great Plains and Appalachia is now moving to the less-populated — but at least equally ecologically fragile — offshore drilling zone. The rock formation that the new fracking technology is focused on is known as the Lower Tertiary.
It’s an area that is considered risky to drill in – not because the oil isn’t there but because it’s really expensive and technically complicated to extract from the rock itself. The current estimate is that there’s around $1.5 trillion worth of oil waiting for us there. What the FOIA revealed was even more surprising. In one sense, said Segee, this isn’t a huge surprise. Three Gulf Coast victories scored since the BP spill. You will hear a lot of gloomy reports about the state of the Gulf Coast as we approach the fourth-year commemoration of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster on April 20. And that’s fair.
BP deserves little cheer in the face of widespread health problems across the Gulf, for both humans and marine animals, and the disappearance of entire fishing communities. Despite what BP is telling us, it ain’t all good. But it ain’t all bad, either. Gulf Coast communities from the Florida Panhandle to Texas’s right shoulder had been through a few disaster rodeos before the BP spill. These projects gave Gulf residents the opportunity not only to frame the Gulf recovery narrative, but also to influence government-led recovery plans. 1. 2. 3. Numbers on the board: The Gulf Coast, four years after the BP disaster. How could you relate when you ain’t never been great? And rely on oil money to keep food up on your plates? I might sell a rig on my birthday36 years of doing dirt like it’s Earth Day. You might recognize those lyrics from the song “Numbers on the Board” from the artist Pusha T., though slightly modified.
Those bars are how I imagine someone like BP CEO Robert Dudley might spit them, as he eagerly declares that the Gulf Coast is clear four years after his company’s Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig exploded. The date of that disaster happens to coincide with Earth Week, which means millions of faithful environmentalists are at attention — and they want a full accounting of just how clear the coast actually is. Sources:
Gulf fisherman: “There is no life out there” If it’s true that oysters are aphrodisiacs, then BP has killed the mood. Louisiana’s oyster season opened last week, but thanks to the mess that still lingers after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, there aren’t many oysters around. “We can’t find any production out there yet,” Brad Robin, a commercial fisherman and Louisiana Oyster Task Force member, told Al Jazeera. “There is no life out there.” Many of Louisiana’s oyster harvest areas are “dead or mostly dead,” he says. In Mississippi, fishing boats that used to catch 30 sacks of oysters a day are returning to docks in the evenings with fewer than half a dozen sacks aboard.
It’s not just oysters. “I’ve seen a lot of change since the spill,” [Hernando Beach Seafood co-owner Kathy] Birren told Al Jazeera. Ecosystem recovery is a slow process. Oysters: The Unsung Heroes of the Gulf of Mexico. Wanna know what’s happened to the Gulf Coast since the BP spill? Read this blog, now. Halliburton admits it destroyed Deepwater Horizon evidence. Marée noire : Halliburton plaide coupable de destruction de preuve. BP convicted of gross negligence in Deepwater Horizon spill, really salty about it. Dozens of new oil rigs planned for Gulf of Mexico. Deepwater Horizon blamed for still more oil spills.
Golfe du mexique - La plateforme Deepwater Horizon fuit toujours. Judge says EPA’s lax guidelines on dispersants can stand. In the Gulf, a long history of oil spills and cover-ups. BP Used Sickening Chemicals to Clean Gulf Coast Oil Spill. BP Oil Spill Settlement Announced. BP oil spill cleanup continues, three years after blowout. Secret Oil Spill Has Been Poisoning The Gulf For 7 Years. The worst part about BP’s oil-spill cover-up: It worked. BP claims mission accomplished in Gulf cleanup; Coast Guard begs to differ. How BP turned a whole community into an endangered species. BP won’t pay for Gulf oil spill research.