Oil Spills.

Essay by holologUniversity, Bachelor'sA+, February 2004

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Up the Creek without a Paddle Covered in Oil

The societies of this world need to wake up, and not only listen to, but understand that it is time to find better ways of dealing with wastes, rather than nonchalantly dumping it into our oceans. For decades people in societies worldwide have taken advantage of the Earth's oceans simply by dumping whatever they do not want into them. Apparently our time of easy disposal has run out, the oceans and the life within are showing distinct signs of poor health. The continuous illegal dumping (or traditional dumping) and accidental spilling of oil into the oceans is beginning to show definite signs of pollution caused stress. The National Research Council recently published information stating that human intervention has begun to take its toll on the marine environment (Minerals). The ecological balance of oceans worldwide is at a dangerously unstable state. Contamination of the oceans by oil spillage is not a rare occurrence.

It is happening all over the world every day, fouling coastlines, killing animals and destroying fisheries. The effects of oil pollution introduced into the waters and seas are having severe consequences upon the marine life living there. Even more importantly, is the reality that environmental action must be taken now to reduce the oceans growing plight.

The introduction of oil into our oceans occurs in three major ways; by tanker accidents, oil well blowouts or faulty underwater pipelines (Minerals).

Tanker accidents:

The most publicized of the oil spills are those caused by tanker accidents. There have been hundreds of accidents involving the spilling of million of tons of oil. Big oil spills, no matter what way they occur, reflect on the oil industry badly. The clean up cost alone is enormous, and the amount of financial damages can be...