by Harry Burlington

Created on: June 04, 2010   Last Updated: June 05, 2010

Historically the massive environmental effects of oil spills have been ignored due to the intense demand the world has for oil.  The populations of countries show immediate concern for environmental impacts, but over time this concern fades because oil is the lifeline for the day-to-day functioning of life.  We need oil to be refined for gasoline so we can drive to and from our destinations, we need jet fuel to travel great distances across the world in short periods of time, we need oil to heat our homes in the dead of winter so we do not perish from the elements, and oil is needed to develop hundreds of thousands in consumer electronics and products we have come to rely heavily on for the functions of our society.

Now we face a great matter of environmental devastation from the explosion and collapse of the Deepwater Horizon British Petroleum oil rig, nearly fifteen miles off the Louisiana-Mississippi delta.  The collapse of the oil rig set off a large eruption of crude oil and natural gas, over a mile below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, which has now been spewing crude oil for 46 days straight. 

The plumes of crude oil being released daily are more than the Exxon Valdez tanker spill per day, while the total environmental impact of this has been downplayed due to the depth of the leak. 

British Petroleum has done a few things right, but so many things wrong to stop the massive amounts of oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico.  The issues of whether or not the Deepwater Horizon oil rig was withing safety regulations or some safety failures were overlooked, so federal government officials would accept "kick-backs" to not report those faults, are far beyond the immediate issues at hand. 

Stopping the massive amounts of gushing oil, after now 46 consecutive days is the most important task right now, while being possibly the largest and most devastating event to occur during any of the American presidents in office, environmentally.

We have no scope of the environmental damage already done to the already fragile ecosystem of the Gulf of Mexico region and waters.  The amount of oil is estimated and no real idea of just how much has spewed into the Gulf of Mexico or the length of time it will take to stop the flow. 

BP has been fast to provide answers to this major issue, but not the right ones by any means.  The residents of the gulf coast who depend on those waters for their livelihood are not able to fish or shrimp due to the waters being off-limits.  Some reports recently are stating many of these "rough-neck" fishermen are getting sick from the constant exposure to oil saturation in the air and cannot even get the strength to man their fishing vessels to fish what areas are left open.

The future looks very grim for the Gulf Coast and eventually the Eastern seaboard, while the fragile Coral Reefs off of Key West, Florida are threatened by the Gulf of Mexico currents taking the oil out to the Atlantic.  The life we once knew is over and the clean up will be our children's, children's mess as we now do not have any answers to the mess BP created.

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