Offshore drilling rigs: adding pollution to our oceans; updated article
Wednesday,
Mar 14
Mar 14
After the recent disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, oil drilling pollution is a hot topic. The pollution caused by offshore drilling is on the conscience of more and more people. First of all, this is because all marine life in the area is affected by the oil drilling process, which causes various pollutants to be released in the water. Oil spills are also a source of serious damage, which harm not only marine life, but land plants and animals as well. Offshore drilling rigs also interfere with fishing activities all around. However, it is not just offshore drilling that causes pollution, because once the oil is recovered, it needs to be stored, transported, refined, etc. This leads to further risks of accidents and severe damage to the environment.
Oil spills is another big problem causing pollution from offshore drilling. Every year there are 200-500 oil spills around the world, the vast majority if which never make the news. Oil spills severely contaminate both the sea and the land around it. The ecosystem around the oil spill may be permanently destroyed and it will never recover. Only about 5-15 percent of any oil spill can be successfully cleaned up. Furthermore, about 97 percent of oil spills are less than 1,000 barrels, which means it is not legally required from them to be reported, as their size is considered “small”. However, even small spills may have catastrophic effects, and this fact alone should not allow any more building of drilling rigs.
The drilling itself has discharges, which pollutes the area and can be just as environmentally damaging as an oil spill. The drilling process involves using a special fluid to lubricate the drill bit, so that it can easier get through the hard rock layer. When this fluid starts blending with mud, rock, and natural radioactive materials, it forms a toxic soup. This can spread for at least a kilometre radius around the rigs.
Waste is another problem with oil drilling being polluting. For every drilled well about 8,000 square feet around it can be covered by drilling waste as much as a meter thick, which can stick around for at least 2 years. If there was a strong wind or a hurricane
scattering the toxic mud, the waste could last for up to 40 years. All this evidence is sufficient to demonstrate that building more oil rigs would be nothing but disastrous.
For more information on offshore drilling, go to:
en.wikipedia.org
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Lots of scare mongering going on about the potential effects of the oil spill in the Gulf. But maybe there is actually some truth to it? A number of respected scientists have reported that the effects of the oil spill really could be catastrophic. As yet no one knows quite how catastrophic, and lets hope that things turn out much better than the current worse case scenario!
October 27th, 2010 at 3:08 pmThe BP spill is much worse than we thought. A recent report suggests that a large number of independent scientists agree that the leak is releasing way more than the 5,000 barrels per day that is being reported. They say that it could well be releasing over 25,000 barrels a day – this is more than 1 million gallons a day!
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August 17th, 2010 at 6:51 amTalking about the stock exchange is always interesting and enlightening. I’ll wait for the next posting. Thank you.
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August 16th, 2010 at 11:10 pmWhere do you get information that natural gas drilling pollutes fish? Show the studies, are they at epa or are they your own studies? Searching for the truth, do you have the truth to backup what you state or are your statements stacked for a business venture?
Thanks
December 11th, 2009 at 10:37 amThere are many many reasons why this world is dooming itself but building oil rigs is not one of them….
April 5th, 2009 at 9:27 pmWhile offshore drilling helps us find nature’s gold, we really need to start paying attention to how what we do affects our environment. If we are not careful about our wildlife, we could be dooming ourselves.
January 19th, 2009 at 8:43 pm