another oil spill? we need to change our lives

Crews are working to clean up over 88,000 gallons of oil that spilled into the Gulf of Mexico as a result of a leak in a flow line connecting four wells owned and operated by Shell. The leak was discovered on May 13, when a two by thirteen mile sheen on the water was spotted by helicopter; since then has been contained, and drilling stopped at the site. By the 15th, the Coast Guard reported that over 50,000 gallons had been recovered, and that the spill has not injured Wildlife.

While a spokesperson for Shell stated that “no release is acceptable,” the data on oil spills says otherwise.  Since 2012, there have been 147 spills, and over 500,000 gallons of oil “released” into the Gulf of Mexico. And that’s only the Gulf of Mexico. The term “release” is interesting, suggesting as it does some benign action, some neutral letting-go of a living entity into a welcoming habitat. We are encouraged, perhaps, to think of this as a natural occurrence, part of the existing flow of natural elements in the environment.

And one can see why it would be imagined thus. Since the 1970s, we have had, globally, 450 large oil spills. A large oil spill means anything over 700 tonnes (approximately 250,600 gallons). The number of medium sized oil spills is far greater. The ITOPF estimate is that between 1970 and 2012, approximately 5.75 million tonnes of oil were spilled simply as a result of tanker accidents. That’s 2,058,500,000 gallons, and that’s only what a fraction, possibly as low as 5%, of the oil that is spilled into our oceans. Take a look at this archive from a 1995 Smithsonian exhibition, for estimates on oil loss causes and quantities.

From Our World in Data: “According to the ITOPF dataset, the largest oil spill caused by a tanker was caused by the SS Atlantic Empresswhich sank close to Trinidad and Tobago in 1979. Wikipedia lists five oil spills which were not caused by tankers and were larger than this. The biggest oil spill in history was the Lakeview Gusher (1910-11 in California), the second was the Gulf War oil spill (1991), the 3rd biggest was the Deepwater Horizon (2010), 4th was Ixtoc I oil spill in Mexico (1979-1980) and 5th was a long-lasting spill in the Niger Delta between 1976 and 1996. (The source is Wikipedia here)” (Max Roser (2016) – ‘Oil Spills’. Published online atOurWorldInData.org. Retrieved from: https://ourworldindata.org/oil-spills/ [Online Resource])

The good news is that, since the 1970s, spills have become significantly less frequent. After the Deepwater Horizon disaster, efforts to prevent and contain spills in the Gulf have increased. But the problem is that, as the term “release” suggests, oil spills are simply a part of the system. To accept the system is to accept the spills.

Our dependency on oil thus means, not only problematic political situations that foment violence and human rights abuse, but also complicity in ecological degradation. According to the Fish and Wildlife Service, “Oil causes harm to wildlife through physical contact, ingestion, inhalation and absorption. Floating oil can contaminate plankton, which includes algae, fish eggs, and the larvae of various invertebrates. Fish feeding on these organisms can subsequently become contaminated through ingestion of contaminated prey or by direct toxic effects of oil. Larger animals in the food chain, including humans, can consume contaminated organisms as they feed on these fish.” And the impact on the environment may be long term: “Oil has the potential to persist in the environment long after a spill event and has been detected in sediment 30 years after a spill. On sandy beaches, oil can sink deep into the sediments. In tidal flats and salt marshes, oil may seep into the muddy bottoms. Effects of oil in these systems have the potential to have long-term impacts on fish and wildlife populations.”

The following information about the effects of the Deepwater Horizon explosion is from the National Wildlife Federation:

Dolphins and Whales

• Nearly all of the 21 species of dolphins and whales that live in the northern Gulf have demonstrable, quantifiable injuries.
• The number of bottlenose dolphins in Barataria Bay and the Mississippi Sound – two places particularly affected by oil – are projected to decline by half. Multiple studies have determined that the injuries to bottlenose dolphins were caused by oil from the disaster.
• It is estimated that it will take approximately one hundred years for the spinner dolphin population to recover.
• There are only a few dozen Bryde’s whales in the Gulf. Nearly half this population was exposed to oil, and nearly a quarter of these whales were likely killed. The long-term survival of this population is in doubt.

Sea Turtles

• Scientists estimate that as many as 167,000 sea turtles of all ages were killed during the disaster.
• In 2010, the once-remarkable recovery of the endangered Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle halted abruptly. Scientists remain concerned about this species of sea turtle, which is known to congregate and feed in areas that were oiled off the Louisiana coast.
• Heavy oil affected nearly a quarter of the Sargassum – a type of floating seaweed – in the northern Gulf. Sargassum is an important habitat for juvenile sea turtles.

Fish

• Studies have determined that oil is particularly toxic for many species of larval fish, causing deformation and death. The federal study estimates that the disaster directly killed between two and five million larval fish.
• At this time, the data does not indicate that the oil spill caused significant decreases in populations of commercially harvested fish species.
• However, a number of species of fish have documented oil spill injuries. For example in 2011, some red snapper and other fish caught in oiled areas had unusual lesions, rotting fins, or oil in their livers. Oil spill impacts have been documented in fish species such as southern flounder, redfish, and killfish.

Birds

• At least 93 species of bird were exposed to oil. The resulting loss of birds is expected to have meaningful effects on food webs of the northern Gulf of Mexico.
• Species particularly affected include brown and white pelicans, laughing gulls, Audubon’s shearwaters, northern gannets, clapper rails, black skimmers, white ibis, double-crested cormorants, common loons, and several species of tern.

The Gulf Floor

• Scientists estimate the habitats on the bottom of the Gulf could take anywhere from multiple decades to hundreds of years to fully recover.
• A significant portion of the Gulf floor was affected by oil. The federal study confirmed that at least 770 square miles around the wellhead were affected, while a separate analysis determined that at least 1,200 square miles were affected. Both studies suggested that a significant amount of oil was likely deposited on the ocean floor outside the areas of known damage.
• Coral colonies in five separate locations in the Gulf – three in deep sea and two in shallower waters – show signs of oil damage.

Coastal Habitats

• In Louisiana, erosion rates approximately doubled along roughly 100 miles of shoreline. The effect lasted for at least three years. Louisiana already had one of the highest rates of wetlands erosion, even before the disaster.
• Oil and response efforts killed as many as 8.3 billion oysters. These losses have put the sustainability of oysters in the Gulf of Mexico at risk.

(For more information go to http://www.nwf.org/What-We-Do/Protect-Habitat/Gulf-Restoration/Oil-Spill.aspx)

While climate change deniers are still busily denying, oil spills, and their disastrous effect on the environment, cannot be denied. Even if one is not interested in animal rights, the scientific reality is that everything is interconnected; damaging one species leads to a ripple effect that may not hinder you from your pleasures now, but may come back to haunt you, or your children, or your children’s children.

And this is just one way we harm the environment. This isn’t touching on air pollution, chemical spills, fracking, the degradation of our valuable topsoil, the proliferation of landfills stinking with the same junk we spent millions to purchase in our mindless rush to consume. It isn’t touching on the moonscapes left by mountain top removal, and ground water contamination from mining. The image of an oil slick spreading for miles over an ocean surface is only one picture of how our waters are being poisoned; look also at the huge islands of floating plastic debris, at the death of the coral reefs, of our over-fishing for the sake of quick cheap meals. Consider the effects of nuclear disasters and radiation contamination: Chernobyl will be deadly for a thousand years.

“But don’t you like your electricity? Don’t you like your luxuries?” you may ask.

“This is just the way the world works,” you may say.

Well, yes, I do like my electricity. I like using it right now. I have lived without it, so I really do enjoy having it, and know what giving it up entails, but it’s not really about what we “like”, is it?

Thinking with moral responsibility means asking hard questions about the way our present lifestyles affect future generations. We need to change the way we live, on a personal level, but unless the system changes this won’t be enough. We need to question the entire structure of a society that is geared only for instant gratification, and which is satisfied with violence as long as we don’t have to see it. We need to withdraw support from corporations that are interested only in satisfying shareholders instead of producing new, innovative energy sources. We need to refuse to be part of a system that depends on using more than we can replace, spoiling more than can be repaired. The fact that spills have become less frequent may demonstrate that changes can be made, but the phenomenon of spillage is so intricately linked to petroleum dependence, such changes are not enough.

If we don’t succeed in blowing everything up, our descendants who survive our greed and hedonism will look back at the past from atop a heap of junk at a an oily sea filled with plastic, and wonder, perhaps, how we called ourselves pro-life, when our daily pursuit of luxury and commodity evidences a blind disregard for all but the convenience of the moment.

Image credit: File:Defense.gov photo essay 100506-N-6070S-819.jpg  This image is a work of a U.S. military or Department of Defense employee, taken or made as part of that person’s official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain.