Lisa Morrison
Exxon Valdez Oil Spill
This semester I am in a marine biology class and last Friday we watched a movie about the Exxon Valdez oil spill and how it affected marine life. I vaguely remember learning about this particular oil spill a long time ago but, it never really occurred to me just how bad it was.
On March 24, 1989, the Exxon Valdez, which is an oil tanker ran aground in Alaska. It spilled 250,000 barrels of oil all over the shore and in the water. It took three whole years for a clean-up crew of more than 11,000 Alaskan residents to completely clean up the spill. Much of the marine life in the area was killed off including otters, birds, and sea turtles. Birds and otters use their feathers and fur to keep warm. When the oil is mixed with water, it creates a type of mousse that sticks to feathers and fur and ruins their ability to get insulation and stay warm. This caused hypothermia in many of these marine animals. The spill also poisoned many animals. Another longer impact of this spill on marine life was the effect it had on their reproduction. "Oil can also cause disruption of reproductive hormones and behavioral changes that lead to reduced reproduction rates or affect the care of young." (Kennedy)
If this was the only spill that ExxonMobil ever had, we could chalk this up to a horrible tragedy that was obviously an accident. Unfortunately, this is not the only spill they have had. In 2011, a ExxonMobil pipe in Laurel, Montana exploded and caused an oil spill in the Yellowstone River. I am in no way saying that this wasn't an accident. I am simply stating that this company needs to have some new safety precautions to prevent accidents like this from happening. Accidents involving oil spills are incredibly serious and need to be stopped. Hopefully ExxonMobil will start finding ways to ensure these spills will never happen again.
I had heard about these cases but never took a second look but hearing about all the damage that they caused made me want to learn more. I like how you gave all the specifics about this and found it to be very informative and agree with you they need to fix that we can’t afford another disaster to come and destroy the habitat around that. I saw how in your argument you pointed out how you think Exxon should find ways to make the spills not happen and I agree with you. However I think you should have put more into your argument and give your opinion on what they can do to stop these leaks. Either way overall your topic was good the Blog was great it did make me go and look up the whole ordeal and agree with you.
ReplyDelete