Oil Spills and How They Effect The Environment

Authors Avatar

Oil Spills and How They  Effect The Environment

        Oil spills, no matter how small or large, effect the worlds environment by their destroying and poisoning any habitat they come in contact with, mainly the water though.  These spills can be devastating because they disrupt what we know as the food chain.  The food chain starts with producers who are ate by small animals which are ate by larger and larger animals until the top predator is reached, humans.  Oddly enough, humans are the main reason the food chain is being destroyed.  In our fight to reach economic prosperity we rarely take in consideration the environment, which is partially what life is based on.  If one part in this chain fails they all fail.

        Only environmentalists and earth protectors know that oil affects anything.  This is surely not the case at all.  Oil spills can affect any living thing.  It can kill animals and plants.  Mainly seagulls, otters, seals, and whales are affect, but not in all cases.  In the Exxon Valdez oil spill of 1989 hundreds of bald eagles, which are endangered in the US, were found dead, along with seals, and the usual seagulls.  Oil pollutes the water by putting chemicals into it that affect animals.

Join now!

        There are hundreds of ships that run aground, which is the term meaning hitting the bottom of a river, ocean, seabed, etc.  One of the most horrific and devastating spills happened in 1978, when the US tanker, named the Amoco Cadiz, ran aground spilling over sixty-five million gallons of oil into the water.  Much of the oil sank to the ocean bed causing sedimentation, which is when the oil mixes with clay and other minerals on the seabed and causes a hard mixture that kills animals and organisms.

        Ships are not the only cause for oil spills though, oil plants ...

This is a preview of the whole essay