Oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico consequences. Seven years ago, a man-made disaster occurred in the Gulf of Mexico. Oil leaking from cracks in the seabed
After this Catastrophe on a planetary scale, almost 2 years have passed!
But nothing ended in the Gulf of Mexico.Vice versa! Everything is just beginning there!
Through the efforts of reckless figures from the “world government”, a catastrophe of a magnitude that we cannot even imagine has been caused ...
The consequences of the oil spill are becoming more devastating.
Every day, 800 thousand liters of oil are poured into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. This is the worst thing that has happened to mankind in the history of oil production. But the media, of course, as always, are silent about this and lie, and will continue to lie ...
What caused such a terrible accident?
The so-called "accidental explosion" in the Gulf of Mexico is an attack "Transocean", Halliburton, "British Petroleum" and "Goldman Sachs"- the next in a series of monstrous war crimes committed by the bankers of the Anglo-American Rothschild Union.
Think about the “investment bankers” who manage the stock markets, who don’t give a damn how many biological species will die out as a result, including you and me. "If you want to know what God thinks about money, just look at the people he gives it to."
Today, in addition to generating profits, as shown below, the Rothschild alliance, which has dominated the world economy for centuries, includes us, the peoples, in its manipulation of the consciousness of the masses, population reduction and environmental destruction. After all, whatever one may say, we, like a sleeping giant, are gradually awakening. And our "slapping" threatens their plan for total global control...
The news and network "programming" is brainwashing propaganda issued by the "partners" of the Rothschild Banking Alliance, including "Goldman Sachs", "JP Morgan" and "UBS", managing "British Petruleum", "Transocean", Halliburton, liquidation capitalists, Corexit suppliers and even caravans used by oil spill response groups through co-investors actively represented in the Partnership for New York City (PFNYC) founded by David Rockefeller and established by the Royal Family of England. Together, these "partners" wield the most economic power in world history.
"The truth always becomes known, no matter how cunningly it is hidden. So the" catastrophe "in the Gulf of Mexico received a very real explanation. It became clear why the unsinkable platform drowned, and why everything was poisoned with Corexit ..." Only the blind will not understand, WHAT'S the matter...
Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill... Oil Rig Explosion April 2010
For those familiar with the English language - a series of Deepwater Says Plague videos ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFjuuWoPvbc&feature=related)? and an interview with former BP lawyer Kindra Arnesen - in 6 parts - "Disappearing America" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hyf09Uwx6SM).
Here is a flow chart. What follows from it? And it follows from it that oil can be pulled all over the Atlantic! Pay attention to the red "loop". This is the subtropical circulation of the Gulf Stream. That is, oil that has not floated to the top will be dragged along the arrows. And along the way, she will float, float, float ....
The process is underway.
No one wants to take a dip in the petro-corexite cocktail?
Model of oil slick propagation from the Gulf of Mexico, 4 months after the disaster.
And now, after 5 months, oil is discovered on a beach in the UK ... On January 6, 2011, about 40,000 dead crabs were found on the British coast ... On January 15, the death of seals (adults and calves), starlings, barn owls, unidentified birds and fish. On January 25, there were reports of hundreds of herring carcasses on two British beaches.
Oil rain with the toxic chemical Corexit-9500.
Now there is a break in the continuous current that was before - as a result of the oil spill, the current in the bay has closed into a ring, and heats itself, and less warm water than it should be getting into the main Gulf stim in the Atlantic. Everything is clearly visible on the maps. (PDF Format): Toxic Rain Across the Eastern United States.
July 10: Rain water content toxic substances of deadly Corexit is equal to 150 lethal doses for fish! From which it follows that in small reservoirs where it will rain all.
Vladimir Khomutko
Reading time: 5 minutes
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How did the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico happen and how was it cleaned up?
In 2010, on April 22, in the Gulf of Mexico, a drilling platform owned by British Petroleum (BP) called Deepwater Horizon sank, with the help of which BP was engaged in offshore oil production. The result of this disaster was the death of eleven people and an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in the amount of several hundred thousand tons.
The company suffered huge losses, which forced it to start selling part of its assets in many countries around the world. In total, as a result of this monstrous accident, almost five million barrels of crude oil fell into the sea, according to experts.
Deepwater Horizon platform designed for ultra-deep drilling commissioned by R&B Falcon Transocean Ltd. built by the South Korean shipbuilding company Hyundai Industries. This large floating structure was launched into the water in 2001, and after some time it was leased by the British oil and gas concern British Petroleum (BP). In the future, the lease was extended several times, and the last signed agreement allowed BP to operate Deepwater Horizon until the beginning of 2013.
In February 2010, a British company began developing a deepwater field called Macondo, located on the shelf of the Gulf of Mexico. The depth of the drilled well was one and a half kilometers.
Brief description of the accident
The platform described above was located eighty kilometers from the coast of Louisiana (United States of America). On April 20, 2010, a fire broke out at the Deepwater Horizon, which subsequently provoked its explosion.
The platform burned for over thirty-five hours. A whole flotilla of fire-fighting ships that arrived at the scene of the accident was engaged in extinguishing the fire, but to no avail. The platform disappeared into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico on April 22nd.
As a result of this disaster, eleven people went missing (many consider them dead, since their bodies were searched until April 24, but they were never found). 115 service personnel were evacuated from the burning platform, seventeen of them had injuries of varying severity. After some time, world news agencies reported that in the process of eliminating the consequences of this grandiose disaster, two more people died.
Works to eliminate the consequences of the accident on the Deepwater Horizon platform
The liquidation of the consequences of this ecological catastrophe began on April 20 and continued until September 19, 2010. According to information received from some experts, during this period of time, about five thousand barrels of crude oil were poured into the sea every day. Other competent sources claimed that the daily volume of oil entering the sea was up to 100,000 barrels.
Fighting a fire on the Deepwater Horizon oil platform
It was on this figure that the Secretary of the Interior of the United States of America insisted in May 2010.
The consequences of the accident were horrendous. At the end of April, the oil slick reached the mouth of the American Mississippi River, and in July of the same year, crude oil was found on the beaches of Texas. The underwater oil plume sank to a depth of more than a kilometer and stretched for thirty-five kilometers in length.
For 152 days, while liquidation work was being carried out, almost five million barrels of black gold got into the Gulf of Mexico through a damaged wellbore, and the total area of the pollution spot reached seventy-five thousand square kilometers.
After the Deepwater Horizon flooding, attempts immediately began to seal the oil well in order to stop oil from entering the aquatic environment and begin to localize and eliminate the raw materials that had already entered the sea. Almost immediately after the disaster, specialists installed plugs on the damaged tubing string.
Then work began on the installation and subsequent installation of a steel dome, the task of which was to cover the sunken platform in order to prevent further oil spills. However, the first attempt to install the dome failed. On May 13, it was decided to reduce its diameter and try again.
The oil leak was completely eliminated only on August 4, when drilling fluid with cement was pumped into the damaged well. In order to achieve complete tightness of the well, the liquidators of the accident were forced to drill two additional wells for unloading purposes, which were subsequently also cemented. The fact that the sealing of the well is fully completed was officially announced on September 19, 2010.
Numerous ships of various purposes took part in the liquidation of the consequences of the disaster - rescue boats, barges. Tugs and even BP-owned submarines. To help them, the United States has allocated ships and aircraft of its Navy and Air Force, as well as many pieces of special military equipment. As for the human resource, more than a thousand people took part in this grandiose work, to which almost six thousand soldiers of the American National Guard were attached to help.
In order to limit the area of oil pollution as much as possible, sprayed dispersants (active substances that contribute to the deposition of oil slicks) were used. In addition, many kilometers of booms were installed, which localized the area of the emergency spill.
Oil was collected mechanically, both using special oil skimmer ships, and manually, with the help of numerous volunteers who helped clean up the polluted coast. In addition, a thermal method was used to eliminate pollution, which consists in the controlled burning of oil from the water surface.
An internal investigation by BP's internal security team concluded that platform design flaws, a number of technical failures and errors made by operating personnel were the causes of this heinous accident.
The prepared report detailed that the employees who serviced the floating drilling rig, when checking the tightness of the drilled well, misinterpreted the readings of the instruments that measured the pressure.
The result of this error was the filling of the ventilation system of the drilling platform with a flow of hydrocarbons rising from the bottomhole, and a fire started. After the explosion, due to technical flaws in the design of the platform, the anti-blow-out fuse did not operate, the task of which was to automatically give a signal to plug the wellbore.
In turn, the Bureau of Ocean Resources Management, Protection and Regulation, as well as the United States Coast Guard, were involved in the investigation. The result of this investigation was a report published in mid-September 2010. It outlined thirty-five reasons that led to the disaster, twenty-one of which blamed BP entirely.
In more detail, for example, the main cause of the accident in this report was called a disregard for industrial safety standards in order to save money spent on the development of the field. In addition, the drilling rig personnel did not have exhaustive and complete information about the work on the well, and this ignorance of them, superimposed on the mistakes made, led to catastrophic consequences.
Among other causes of the accident, the report cited the poor design of the well itself, which did not provide for a sufficient number of barriers to prevent the rise of oil and gas from the bottom, insufficient cementing of the casing reinforcing strings, as well as changes made to the well development project at the very last moment.
Some of the blame was placed on Deepwater Horizon's owners, Transocean Ltd, and Halliburton, which was the subsea cementing contractor for the well.
Litigation and awards
The litigation, which considered the case of the oil spill in the Mexico spill, in which the British corporation BP acted as the defendant, was launched on February 25, 2013. The venue was New Orleans (USA). In addition to lawsuits filed by the country's federal authorities, the British company was also charged with individual lawsuits by American states and municipalities affected by the consequences of the disaster.
The result of consideration by the Federal Court in New Orleans, US was the approval of the amount of the fine that BP must pay to plaintiffs affected by the consequences of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.
The total amount of the fine amounted to four billion five hundred million US dollars. BP was given a period of five years to pay this amount.
About two billion four hundred million dollars should be transferred to the accounts of the US National Wildlife and Fisheries Fund, 350 million dollars - to the accounts of the US National Academy of Sciences. In addition, $525 million is to be paid over three years in compensation for claims brought against BP by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.
BP filed several appeals, but on December 25, 2013, the US Court of Appeals ruled that the British corporation should continue to pay the payments ordered by the Federal Court, despite the fact that in the case there are facts of lack of evidence that some plaintiffs suffered losses caused by an oil spill in Gulf of Mexico. From the very beginning, BP admitted its guilt in the accident only partially, placing part of the responsibility on the owner of the Deepwater Horizon platform, Transocean and the contracting organization Halliburton.
In turn, the company Transocean Ltd at the end of 2012 agreed to pay the US authorities the amount of one billion four hundred million dollars, but does not recognize any responsibility for what happened in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, insisting on full guilt in this British BP disaster.
Environmental consequences of the disaster
As a result of this accident, one third of the Gulf of Mexico was closed to fishing with a complete ban on fishing in the area.
The length of the coast from Louisiana to Florida, contaminated as a result of an accidental oil spill, was one thousand one hundred miles. Many marine life and birds perished. Nearly six hundred dead sea turtles, more than a hundred dolphins, more than six thousand different sea birds, as well as a large number of dead mammals of other species were found on the shore.
The result of this oil spill in the years since the accident has been an increase in mortality among marine life such as dolphins and whales. According to preliminary estimates of ecologists, the mortality rate, for example, of bottlenose dolphins has increased fiftyfold.
Enormous damage was caused to tropical coral reefs located in the waters of this bay.
Moreover, the oil spilled as a result of the disaster even seeped into the waters and swamps of the nature reserves located on the coast, which play a very significant role in maintaining the normal natural life of the local animal fauna and migratory birds arriving here for the winter. Recent environmental studies indicate that at present the water area of the Gulf of Mexico has almost completely coped with the damage caused in 2010.
US oceanologists, who have been carefully monitoring the growth of tropical reef-forming corals all this time, which simply cannot live in oil-polluted water, have come to the conclusion that the reproduction of these marine living organisms has resumed, and growth has returned to its previous level. As for biologists, they noted a slight increase in the value of the average water temperature in this marine area.
It has even been suggested that the temperature of the Gulf Stream dropped by ten degrees, which led to its division into separate undercurrents. It is worth noting that since this grand emergency oil spill occurred, some weather anomalies have been noted by weather forecasters (take, for example, abnormal winter frosts in European countries).
However, to date, world science has not come to a consensus on the issue of whether this environmental catastrophe was the root cause of the described climate changes or not. There is no agreement in the scientific community about the impact of this accident on the Gulf Stream. In any case, catastrophes of this magnitude do not pass without a trace, and the recurrence of such incidents of a global scale should by no means be allowed.
The tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico showed how a man with his own hands can destroy nature with the help of nature within a few weeks. We offer to recall the 10 largest spills of black gold on the water in the history of mankind.
The tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico showed how a man with his own hands can destroy nature with the help of nature within a few weeks. While BP is urgently looking for money to restore the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, and the US authorities are deciding what to do with offshore drilling, we propose to recall the 10 largest black gold spills on the water in the history of mankind.
1.In 1978 tanker Amoco Cadiz ran aground off the coast of Brittany (France). Due to stormy weather, the rescue operation was not possible. At that time, this accident was the largest environmental disaster in the history of Europe. It is estimated that 20,000 birds died. More than 7 thousand people took part in the rescue work. 223,000 tons of oil spilled into the water, forming a 2,000 square kilometer slick. Oil has also spread to 360 kilometers of the French coast. According to some scientists, the ecological balance in this region has not yet been restored.
2. In 1979 the largest accident in history occurred on the Mexican oil platform Ixtoc I. As a result, up to 460 thousand tons of crude oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico. Elimination of the consequences of the accident took almost a year. Curiously, for the first time in history, special flights were organized to evacuate sea turtles from the disaster zone. The leak was stopped only nine months later, during which time 460,000 tons of oil got into the Gulf of Mexico. The total amount of damage is estimated at $1.5 billion.
3. Also in 1979 the largest oil spill in history caused by a collision of tankers. Then two tankers collided in the Caribbean Sea: Atlantic Empress and Aegean Captain. As a result of the accident, almost 290 thousand tons of oil got into the sea. One of the tankers sank. By a happy coincidence, the disaster occurred on the high seas, and not a single coast (the closest was the island of Trinidad) was not affected.
4. In March 1989 The oil tanker Exxon Valdez of the American company Exxon ran aground in Prince Williams Bay off the coast of Alaska. More than 48,000 tons of oil spilled into the ocean through a hole in the ship. As a result, over 2.5 thousand square kilometers of the sea area was affected, 28 species of animals were endangered. The area of the accident was difficult to access (it can only be reached by sea or by helicopter), which made it impossible for the services and rescuers to quickly respond. As a result of the disaster, about 10.8 million gallons of oil (about 260 thousand barrels or 40.9 million liters) spilled into the sea, forming an oil slick of 28 thousand square kilometers. In total, the tanker was carrying 54.1 million gallons of oil. About 2,000 kilometers of coastline were polluted with oil.
5. In 1990 Iraq took over Kuwait. The troops of the anti-Iraqi coalition, formed by 32 states, defeated the Iraqi army and liberated Kuwait. However, in preparation for the defense, the Iraqis opened the valves at the oil terminals and emptied several oil-laden tankers. This step was taken in order to make landings more difficult. Up to 1.5 million tons of oil (different sources give different data) spilled into the Persian Gulf. Since the fighting was going on, no one fought the consequences of the disaster for some time. Oil covered about 1 thousand square meters. km. surface of the bay and polluted about 600 km. coasts. In order to prevent further oil spills, US aircraft bombed several Kuwaiti oil pipelines.
6 In January 2000 a major oil spill occurred in Brazil. More than 1.3 million liters of oil fell into the waters of the Guanabara Bay, on the shore of which Rio de Janeiro is located, from the pipeline of the Petrobras company, which led to the largest environmental disaster in the history of the metropolis. According to biologists, nature will need almost a quarter of a century to fully restore environmental damage. Brazilian biologists compared the scale of the ecological disaster with the consequences of the war in the Persian Gulf. Fortunately, the oil was stopped. She went downstream four urgently built barrage barriers and "stuck" only on the fifth. Some of the raw materials have already been removed from the surface of the river, some spilled through special diversion channels dug on an emergency basis. The remaining 80 thousand gallons out of a million (4 million liters) that fell into the reservoir, the workers scooped out by hand.
7. In November 2002 off the coast of Spain, the tanker Prestige broke up and sank. 64 thousand tons of fuel oil got into the sea. €2.5 million was spent to eliminate the consequences of the accident. After this incident, the EU closed single-hull tankers access to its waters. The wreck is 26 years old. It was built in Japan and is owned by a company registered in Liberia, which, in turn, is managed by a Greek company registered in the Bahamas and certified by an American organization. The ship was chartered by a Russian company operating in Switzerland, which transports oil from Latvia to Singapore. The Spanish government has filed a $5 billion lawsuit against the US Maritime Bureau for the role it played in the Prestige tanker disaster off the coast of Galicia last November.
8. In August 2006 a tanker in the Philippines crashed. Then 300 km of the coast in two provinces of the country, 500 hectares of mangrove forests and 60 hectares of algae plantations were polluted. The Taklong Marine Reserve was also affected, with 29 coral species and 144 fish species. About 3,000 Filipino families were affected by the oil spill. The Solar 1 tanker of the Sunshine Maritne Development Corporation was hired to carry 1,800 tons of fuel oil from the Philippine state-owned company Petron. Local fishermen, who used to be able to catch up to 40-50 kg of fish in a day, now find it difficult to catch up to 10 kg. To do this, they have to go far from places where pollution spreads. But even this fish cannot be sold. The province, which just dropped out of the list of the 20 poorest regions in the Philippines, looks set to fall back into poverty for years to come.
9. November 11, 2007 2009, a storm in the Kerch Strait caused an unprecedented emergency in the Azov and Black Seas - four ships sank in one day, six more ran aground, and two tankers were damaged. More than 2,000 tons of fuel oil spilled from the broken Volgoneft-139 tanker into the sea, about 7,000 tons of sulfur were on the sunken dry cargo ships. Rosprirodnadzor estimated the environmental damage caused by the crash of several ships in the Kerch Strait at 6.5 billion rubles. The damage only from the death of birds and fish in the Kerch Strait was estimated at about 4 billion rubles.
10. April 20, 2010 At 10:00 pm local time, an explosion occurred on the Deepwater Horizon platform, causing a massive fire. As a result of the explosion, seven people were injured, four of them are in critical condition, 11 people are missing. In total, at the time of the emergency, 126 people worked on the drilling platform, which is larger than two football fields, and about 2.6 million liters of diesel fuel were stored. The platform's capacity was 8,000 barrels per day. It is estimated that up to 5,000 barrels (about 700 tons) of oil per day are poured into the water in the Gulf of Mexico. However, experts do not exclude that in the near future this figure may reach 50,000 barrels per day due to the appearance of additional leaks in the well pipe. In early May 2010, US President Barack Obama called what is happening in the Gulf of Mexico "a potentially unprecedented environmental disaster." Oil slicks were found in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico (one slick 16 km long, 90 meters thick at a depth of up to 1300 meters). Oil will probably flow from the well until August.
In April 2010, an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico killed 11 workers and released 4.9 million barrels of oil into the ocean. An accident at a BP tower endangered wildlife in the Gulf of Mexico and threatened to pollute hundreds of miles of coastline. What are the environmental consequences of one of the largest oil spills in history, and are they as catastrophic as feared a year ago? ..
Consequences of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico
Scientists warn that the time has not yet come for a thoughtful assessment of the impact of the accident in the Gulf of Mexico on nature, since they have not received a complete picture of what is happening over the past year.The oil spill affected such a large area that it would take months and years to collect data.
However, there are still some grounds for optimism, Jane Lubchenko, administrator of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, one of the leading federal agencies involved in the aftermath of the accident, said in an interview with the Associated Press.
According to her, the state of the Gulf of Mexico "much better than feared."
"It's too early to say that everything is fine," she says. "Certain surprises are still being discovered - for example, we find dead dolphins."
Damage assessment
US federal agencies collect data on the effects of oil spills as part of the official "Natural Resource Damage Assessment" (NRDA).But access to the materials of this investigation is severely limited, scientists and environmental activists say.
The NRDA methodology is designed to assess damage to both the environment and sectors of the economy, such as agriculture and fisheries, and calculate the cost of correcting the damage.
"Both we and many others have tried to get a glimpse of the findings of this group of agencies and researchers, and it's been nearly impossible," says Claude Gascon, head of research at the nonprofit National Fish and Wildlife Fund.
"And the reason is simple: compensation will be the subject of many litigations," adds Gascon.
"If the [damage assessment process] is fully implemented, it will take several years, possibly more, then it will be necessary to develop a plan for damages and file claims with the responsible parties," explains Stan Senner, director of science at the non-profit Ocean Conservancy. (Ocean Conservancy).
A similar procedure was carried out after the oil spill from the tanker Exxon Valdez in 1989. Senner was working for the federal government at the time.
“We started the process and assessed the damage. But two years after the spill, the government and Exxon settled their claims out of court and the NRDA process was not completed,” the environmentalist recalls.
Continue observing
Beaches and birds have suffered, but if not for the actions of the authorities, the damage could have been even greater
In his opinion, this time the collection of data on environmental damage will need to continue, even if BP manages to reach an agreement with the US government.
"This may or may not happen, but I want to emphasize that regardless of the settlement of the claims, the scientific work must continue. This will help us understand how long we will face the consequences of the accident, how long it will take to recover, and so on," Senner says.
He points out that this information will be needed to assess the risks associated with the development of oil and gas fields in the Arctic.
"There is simply much less known about the Arctic region where it is proposed to develop oil fields," he says.
"Besides, in the Gulf of Mexico there are much more opportunities to respond to an oil spill, and there are no opportunities in the Arctic. On the Arctic coast of Alaska, for example, there is not even a port that could serve as a base for a response operation," the scientist warns.
Main Consequences
In three months, during which crude oil flowed from a well at a depth of 1.5 km into the Gulf of Mexico, an oil slick covered thousands of square kilometers. In total, 4.9 million barrels of oil fell into the sea.800 thousand barrels were collected, approximately 265 thousand that rose to the surface were burned.
More than 8 million liters of chemicals were sprayed over the sea.
Coastal pollution
Oil began washing ashore in June 2010, polluting hundreds of miles of state coastline from Florida to Louisiana.In the first few weeks after the spill, the weather did not contribute to the pollution of the shores, and this gave the authorities time to take preventive measures. In particular, 4,000 km of barriers were placed in the sea.
The death of sea turtles
The declining population of sea turtles in the Gulf of Mexico had been of concern to environmentalists even before the accident: they were dying in fishing nets, and their natural habitat was shrinking.After the oil spill, 25,000 turtle eggs were shipped from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic coast of Florida. The operation was seen as a way to prevent an entire generation of sea turtles from dying in polluted waters.
Death of birds
More than 120 bird species were affected by the oil spill. Ornithologists speak of thousands of individuals. More than half of them died due to contamination of feathers. American brown pelicans, which dive into the water for fish, suffered more than others. For migratory birds, it was possible to create a semblance of swamps by flooding agricultural land, which, according to ecologists, saved many birds.swamp pollution
The Gulf of Mexico region contains a number of coastal marshes that play a vital role in supporting the livelihoods of migratory birds.Favorable weather and prompt action by the authorities prevented the worst-case scenario. However, oil has seeped into some swamps and nature reserves.
The death of dolphins
Scientists are concerned about the sharp increase in the death rate of bottlenose dolphins, recorded after the oil spill. Ecologists believe that the real death rate could be 50 times higher than the official figures.In the first breeding season of dolphins after the accident, the number of dead cubs found on the shore increased sharply. The reasons for this phenomenon are not fully understood.
coral death
The Gulf of Mexico hosts tropical coral reefs, but it is difficult at this stage to assess the impact of the oil spill on their fragile ecosystem.Environmentalists say that if the oil completely covers the reef, then the coral is likely to die.
fish breeding
After the accident, fishing in a large part of the Gulf of Mexico was banned. Over the past year, the number of sharks has increased by 400%, shrimps - by 200%.However, scientists point out that a year is too short a time period to judge the impact of an oil spill, and disturbances in the food chain will manifest themselves in the long term.
A year ago, a deep-sea drilling rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico. American ecologist Karl Safina summarizes the consequences of the disaster for the ecosystems of this area. In his opinion, in general, the consequences are not as tragic as panic-minded observers predicted shortly after the event itself. But this relative impunity was more the result of a happy coincidence than a sign of the natural invulnerability of the natural system. Human technology, psychological and professional training has not yet been able to cope with the risks that invariably arise in deep-sea oil drilling. Catastrophes are obligatory and inevitable. Karl Safina is convinced that government investment in deep-water drilling is a short-sighted and dead-end line of the economy. It is necessary to invest as many resources as possible, material and creative, in the development of alternative energy industries.
First of all, Safin recalls the chronology of the catastrophe itself.
However, many adults migrated to the open sea at this time of the year. After the explosion, 500 individuals of these turtles were recorded, but many, apparently, died not from oil contamination, but from damage by fishing gear of local fishers. Many, anticipating the imminent ban on fishing at sea, tried to catch more ahead of time, placing all the available fishing gear. Conservation services tried to make up for the loss of the population of this rare species and transported 70,000 turtle eggs to the Gulf of Mexico coast. However, the result of this rescue operation will be clear only after a decade and a half, since the Atlantic ridley breeds once every 12–20 years.
As for the loss of fish stocks in the waters of the bay, the situation is not at all catastrophic. After the introduction of a ban on fishing, stocks are invariably and very quickly restored. This was the case after the death of fish populations that occurred after the Exxon Valdez disaster - and will, in all likelihood, continue to do so.
At the same time, it is noted that the oil film, which covered the bottom sediments in some parts of the bay, caused the death of benthic infauna and deep sea corals.
That gigantic amount of oil that spilled into the waters of the bay, at a relatively high average annual water temperature, must be very quickly processed by bacterial microflora and converted into carbon dioxide. So bacterial processes should greatly reduce the effects of pollution.
The most serious concern is the fate of the water meadows of the Mississippi River Delta.
The river carries a huge amount of sediment, having formed in 4-5 thousand years the territory of the delta, which protrudes into the sea for tens of kilometers. The channels of the delta change their course, high humidity and soil productivity create favorable conditions for vegetation, the biodiversity in the delta is stunningly high. Therefore, pollution of these territories really threatens with serious losses of biodiversity.
The figures are as follows: as a result of the catastrophe, out of 18,000 km 2 of water meadows, 9 km 2 are covered with oil slicks. Normal vegetation had already resumed in these contaminated areas by the end of summer. 9 km 2 - is it a lot or a little? For comparison, the data of anthropogenic destruction of the territory of the delta are given: during the operation of the delta lands, the areas decreased by 5 thousand km 2; the annual rate of area reduction is estimated at 100–200 km2. So 9 km 2 of oil slicks do not look very impressive against the background of other environmentally aggressive factors.
The main reasons for the reduction of the delta territories are considered to be the regulation of the flow, which disrupts the natural terrigenous drift, which replenishes the washing out of the delta by sea waters, and the subsidence of land fragments due to oil production in these territories.
Therefore, when analyzing the consequences, the question naturally arises: was this catastrophe the “biggest disaster in history”, as US President Barack Obama called it?
This catastrophe, apparently, did not happen. Neutralizing human sluggishness and short-sightedness, circumstances accidentally developed in favor of nature: mass settlements of birds and mammals were far to the north, most of the oil floated to the surface without reaching the benthic fauna, and hungry bacteria processed oil lakes. It could have been much, much worse.
But, as the author of the review notes, the worst thing is that the main lesson from this catastrophe is not about momentary measures to comply with environmental safety, but about the overall policy of energy production. Deep-water drilling, which many fuel companies, and along with them the governments of oil-producing countries, are now placing serious hopes on, is an extremely dangerous undertaking. Human technology, human psychology and training are not yet ready to deal with the risks of deep sea oil production. And it is unlikely that they will succeed in the foreseeable future. It is necessary to reorient the technological search for alternative tasks, creative and raw materials. But Karl Safina has serious and justified fears that statesmen are not distinguished by such far-sightedness.