Gordon Bin Zhao: The Seven Impacts of the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill

On April 20th, 2010, an explosion happened at an offshore oil rig. The explosion caused the death of eleven people and massive oil leaking. That was the well known the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill or BP Deep Water Oil Spill.

The source of the oil spill was located in Gulf of Mexico, about 40 miles off the Louisiana coast. From April 20 to July 15, millions of gallons of crude oil had been leaked into ocean. It seems to me that oil leaking touched every American’s nerve.

This slide shows a satellite view of oil spill. As you can see, oil spill spread and covered a large area. On May 1st, that was 10 days after the explosion, the size of the slick was estimated to cover more than 3000 square miles, which is about half size of New Jersey. Just imagine what situation would be if half land of New Jersey were covered by oil. And that was May 1st figure.

Here is a closer look of the slick.

This oil leaking happened at a deep water oil rig. What is Deep water Oil Rig? Deep water Oil Rig is platform used for drilling oil from deep ocean bed.

The explosion caused the subsea oil well blowout. The massive amount of crude oil had been leaked into ocean. What is crude oil? The crude oil is a mixture of a large number of different hydrocarbons. Hydrocarbons are chemicals that are mainly consisted of carbon and hydrogen. Small parts of crude oil are heavier than water or dissolve in water; but most parts of crude oil are lighter than water and float on the surface of water.

What are the consequences of this Oil Spill?

The first and the most obvious consequence is the loss of oil and natural gas. It is not correct to think the oil spilled belongs to BP. The natural resources like oil and natural gas actually belong to all human beings. No one should have the privilege to squander or waste them. It is estimated that about 200 million gallons of crude oil was leaked. And a large amount of natural gas evaporated too. But loss of oil was only a very small part of the negative impact of this oil spill.

The second negative impact of oil spill is the damage to wild life. Crude oil is toxic to many species including fish, shrimps, craps, sea birds, turtle, whales, dolphin and marine plants such as algae. It is hard or impossible to estimate how much it worth the damage done to wildlife.

Impact three is the damage to environment. Here shows the oil spread into Mouth of Mississippi River. It will take months or years to clean up the visible pollution of oil on Wet land, River, Coasts and reefs.

Impact four is the damage to fishing industry. Fish, shrimp and craps that ingest crude oil are not only toxic to themselves but toxic to people who eat them. That is why fishing is banned in the area influenced by oil spill. Ban of fishing causes lose of job for many fishermen and increase of price of see food.

Impact five is the damage to tourism. Coasts are leading place for tourism. But no one likes to go to coasts where water and beaches are contaminated by oil. It is reported that Florida tourism industry has lost millions of dollars as a result of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, even though no confirmed oil contamination happens there.

Impact six is the potential damage to “special” relationship between US and UK. It is understandable or natural that American People felt frustration and anger about the oil spill. And the criticism of BP and making BP pay for the damage it has caused should not be considered to be attack on Britain. But BP is important to the UK economy. And BP’s interest is connected with British interest.

And impact seven is a positive impact. This oil spill can sever as a painful reminder and powerful impetus for accelerating developing renewable energy and popularizing electricity cars. After all, oil is a finite resource. And the US consume more than 20 percent of the world's oil, but have less than 2 percent of the world's oil reserves. American’s addiction to foreign oil has to be dealt with.

Without any doubt, the Gulf of Mexico oil spill has made history. It was a catastrophe. But isn’t it a powerful reminder for American government and American people that now is the time to embrace a clean energy future?