Disaster statistics

The amounts of oil that break out at the British Petroleum facility have already exceeded what is considered to this day the great oil disaster, when at an estimate of about 200 cubic meters per month, "Exxon Valdez" remained far behind

After various attempts to stop the flow of oil have failed, they turn to the last resort, parallel drilling that will pump out the oil that breaks out. Many weeks will pass until the drilling is started, weeks in which the damage to the environment continues and increases. Since the best solution is the parallel drilling that will only start in August, then in a simple calculation the amounts of oil that will spread in the gulf should be tripled.

The amounts of oil that break out at the British Petroleum facility have already passed what is considered to this day the great oil disaster, when estimated at about 200 cubic meters per month, "Exxon Valdez" remained far behind, the reddish oil floods sandy beaches, covers swamps, penetrates river mouths and poisons wells . In a careful calculation, until the pollution stops, an amount that fills three huge tankers, or an amount that can raise the level of the Dead Sea by about a meter, will flow into the sea.

The bay is a source of income for fishermen, a place for recreation and tourism, one of the famous "attractions" is fishing for swordfish (serrated), fish whose uniqueness has promoted them to one of the symbols of Louisiana, fish that the oil slick has wiped out.
A small population of whales (prime whales) is losing individuals to... oil. Coral reefs that were a center of attraction for tourists...are covered in red grease, the fishermen are on strike, the tourists will not come, the direct and immediate economic damage.... Billions. The future economic damage and the environmental damage.... will not be approved.

In an attempt to minimize the damage, British Petroleum workers poured about 4,000 cubic meters of surface substances (similar to soap). The effect of surfaces on oil is known, breaking down into tiny droplets, turning the stain into a spray (which reduces the oil's buoyancy), the result... the emulsion floats on all water levels and sinks to the bottom, which will prevent it from (immediately) reaching the beaches. However, leaving the emulsion in deep, cold water will prolong the oil's decomposition time, the emulsion is a poison, it is clear that in the next step the emulsion will be absorbed by phytoplankton and thus penetrate the natural system, a poison whose concentration will increase as it goes up the food chain.

So what will be the effect of the emulsion on the deep marine environment? Since the explosion, streams of oil have been detected in the depths of the gulf that spread over hundreds of kilometers. One of the currents advances towards the coast of Alabama, an area rich in fish and a variety of sea animals. The oil remains at depth under the influence of the solvents that British Petroleum poured into the explosion area, substances that flatten the oil and disperse it into tiny fragments. Oil fragments and the surface materials are poison, therefore their effect on the marine environment is fatal.

The Gulf of Mexico covers an area of ​​about one and a half million square kilometers. Around the edge of the bay are low islands, shallow bays, marshes and alluvial fans of huge rivers. The water depth in the bay reaches 4,000 meters. The wide variety of water depths and accessibility to land areas, marshes and river estuaries creates a large variety of habitats in which there is a huge variety of birds, fish, mammals, arthropods, shells and of course diverse terrestrial and marine vegetation.

The depths of the water affect the local climate and drive circular currents inside the bay, where a current forms at its eastern entrance that reaches the coast of Florida. According to reports, the oil is already reaching Florida and continuing into the Atlantic Ocean.

The fishermen in the Gulf... are out of business and according to the forecasts they will be sitting for many years, since the period when the oil burst is the time when many species are engaged in "pro and robo", whales and dolphins gather for "love games", turtles mate and come ashore to lay eggs, crabs reproduce, fish lay corals Sperm and eggs are distributed and oysters develop.

The oil stopped all the blessed activity and also created a barrier that destroys plankton, when the base of the pyramid in the food chain is destroyed... there is no chance for its top. Fish, shells, crabs, turtles and marine mammals, all depend on the base... which is destroyed. All the animals around the bay and especially birds, support and are supported in the marine environment, birds that nest on the edge of the bay live from marine creatures, as in water so also on land, this is the season of laying and raising offspring.

When the animals in the bay die, when there is no food in the water, a new generation (of birds) will not develop and in the next step the parents will also die of hunger or... oil. In addition to tens of thousands of herons, cormorants, egrets, egrets, and many others that nest around the bay, this is the period when flocks of migratory birds pass through and park on the beaches on their way north, for the migrants the wetlands and islands serve as a "refueling station".

The nomads eat and increase the "energy reserves", a "fuel" that allows the nomads to continue on their way... The oil destroyed the "fuel" reserves and thus harmed tens of thousands of migratory birds that would lack the energy to reach the nesting areas, meaning that not only the "residents" of the bay are harmed but also everyone who passes through it.

A nesting colony of thousands of brown pelicans...is facing extinction, the brown pelican was a symbol of the success of conservation activities, after it almost disappeared from the continent's landscapes in the 60s, the birds returned and established healthy colonies/populations. Now, the chicken that this year was removed from the list of endangered species ... is facing extinction.

In the depths of the gulf there is a wealth of life, most of which is unknown, from the known and the well-known: giant jellyfish, whales, octopuses, deep-sea fish and especially plankton, every night there is a vertical migration, the animals of the deep come up to shallow water to eat and be eaten, the migration that some describe as "the largest in the world" is the source of food for many species of fish, fish that are the main source of livelihood for the human population on the shores of the gulf, and again, we are in a time when many species of fish lay, eggs do not develop in oil.

The oil that penetrates the swamps and river estuaries damages the vegetation, the penetration of the oil into the roots will cause the death of aquatic plants, the plants bind and hold soil and create the wetland system unique to the region. When the plants die, the land will spread and what were swamps around islands will become lakes, islands in swamps are barriers that prevent the infiltration of salty water, when the plants die and the islands disappear, salty lakes will form.

The coastal areas are networked with a system of pipelines that carry gas and oil from the gulf to the land, about 42 thousand km of pipelines and transport systems create a vulnerable and sensitive network, when large areas of the coast become lakes, the infrastructure and transport systems will be damaged, and what is the cost of the future damage?

Even without the damage from the oil spill, Louisina is considered a place where the human impact on beach weathering is one of the highest in the world, the state processes about 100 square kilometers of coastline too much to be destroyed when you add the effect of oil to that... you get a "major disaster".

It turns out that there are "cracks" at the bottom of the gulf through which oil seeps naturally, since there are bacteria in the oil gulf that live off the oil and break it down, the introduction of huge amounts of oil into the marine environment will cause those bacteria to multiply, the culture which will not be significant enough to remove the pollution, but will be harmful added to the environment, since the oil rigs "suck" oxygen from the water, pumping oxygen from the water creates a lifeless environment.

Towards the hurricane season, another problem arises, the Gulf is described as the "hurricane freeway", when there are oil slicks on the path of the storms. It is likely that the storms will drive the oil inland, meaning not only damage to beaches, swamps, waterfowl and fishermen, the oil will reach inland to agricultural areas, fresh water bodies, industrial facilities and residents' homes.

Two final comments,
Considering the fact that the USA is the source of the tireless consumption culture...just for the sake of consumption, mineral fuel consumption as a culture (and not as an actual need), total dependence on the production of continuous pollution without environmental consideration, one can only say that: "He who sleeps with dogs wakes up with fleas" .

It is worth mentioning that in Africa, in Nigeria, at the mouth of the Niger River there existed a rich and diverse natural world (many times more than the Mississippi estuary), it existed in the past because for many years the Niger Delta has been poisoned with effluents from Shell's oil wells, but this is in Africa...