Sunday, 6 March 2011

Ill Effects of Oil Spill on Sea Life

By Amelia Sherman
Oil spills are one of the number of prominent environmental issues that have been troubling environmental fanatics across the globe. These oil spills have a disastrous effect on the environment. Nevertheless, it is the sea animals that are the worst hit. Oil spills have numerous ill effects on sea birds and animals. Let us look at a few of the damaging effects they have on marine life.
1 of the most prevalent side effects of an oil spill is hypothermia. This is a illness often endured by marine creatures which have been exposed to it. Once the oil drifts into the water, it creates a sticky substance called the 'mousse'. This mousse gets stuck simply to the fur or feather of sea animals. The fur and feathers that are typically constructed up of air space to aid insulation are unable to do this as a outcome of the oil coat, leading to hypothermia. This illness could also eventually result in death for many marine animals.
Marine creatures have no choice but to consume the diseased water for their survival. Consumption of such oil laden water paves way to a number of health troubles such as damage of internal organs, poisoning and the like. Sometimes the harm may exaggerate to the degree of annihilation of red blood cells, bad immune system, damage of kidney, liver and plenty of more.
The oil vapors are also widely known to be intensely dangerous for the eyes and lungs. The damage is even more exaggerated in case more oil spills to the water and the oil vapor starts to evaporate. Sometimes, these vapors also cause many marine animals to feel unnaturally sleepy or drowsy.
Many sea animals die as a result of ingestion of oil. But, there are a handful of that become prey to predators as a consequence of a weakened method. Trapped in oil, the fur and feathers boost the body weight of marine creatures. This makes it tough for the birds as well as the animals. As a result, they are unable to save themselves and are trapped by predators.
Oil spills may additionally negatively affect the reproductive abilities of marine organisms. This is specifically correct for sea creatures such as fish and sea turtles. Eating water that's laced with oil on a usual basis may interrupt the reproductive hormones of their body. As a consequence, their potential to reproduce is noticeably reduced.
Thus, given the many negative affects that it has on sea life, every care must be taken to stop oil spills from contaminating our water bodies. If it is allowed to continue unchecked, the extinction of all marine biology is simply unavoidable.
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Oil Sorbent Pads - A Low Cost Yet Highly Effective Solution for Cleaning Up Small Oil Spills Fast

By Travis Zdrazil
Oil spills can be really messy. And you have to act fast if you want to prevent the problem from spreading. Fortunately, there's an easy and low-cost solution to cleaning things up fast: oil sorbent pads.
Of course cleaning up oil spills is actually a two-step process, depending on how big of a spill it is. If it's just a small leak, oil sorbent pads can mop it up within minutes.
The key for making this possible is to have them handy right then and there. And that's where pads really shine! They're so cheap and handy that it is possible to have a small stash of them just about anywhere where oil is handled.
This means that it's easy to just grab one of those oil sorbent pads and soak up the errant oil before it can go anywhere. How much easier could that be.
If the spill is a bit bigger, though, you will need something else. That's when the two-step approach to cleaning up oil spill messes comes in: first, a spill must be contained and THEN it needs to be cleaned up.
If you need something to contain a spill, you'll find spill berms are just the ticket. They're handy and, depending on what kind you get, they don't take up too much space.
So if you have areas where bigger oil spills are an issue, just keep some spill berms handy, and arrange them around the spill so that the oil can't go anywhere. Only then it's time to take out the oil sorbent pads or other absorbents and mop away.
All of the above applies to spills in a facility or on land. If the spill is in a body of water, you may need oil booms instead of the spill berms, and, depending on the amount of oil, more oil booms to soak up the oil.
However, if it's a small spill on a body of water, pads can actually take care of that as well -- they're perfect for skimming oil off water.
Here's a bonus: oil sorbent pads can easily be reused. All you need is a hand wringer and you can simply wring them, collect the oil, and put them to use again -- over and over. This means, you can clean up an oil spill with just a few of those pads -- which makes them even more economical than they already are.
Want to know more about oil sorbent pads? Get valuable tips and the latest news about absorbents and other environmental safety products on Travis Zdrazil's Safety Maintenance News blog and get his free newsletter too. Travis is an expert on environmental safety products and has supplied businesses with products to aid in meeting EPA and OSHA requirements for more than 10 years.
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Miami Tourism: Plain Sailing or Troubled Water Since the BP Oil Spill?

By Mike Leverency

Miami beach is one of the most recognisable locations in the world, after the BP Oil Spill will the beach be a white heaven or a black hell? Here's a quick timeline of the oil spill to put some of it into perspective:
20th April: The Oil Rig, Deep Water Horizon reports an explosion and fire, eleven people are missing and 17 injured
22nd April: The Deep water Horizon sinks in 5,000ft of water. There are reports of a five mile ling oil slick
25th April: The underwater well is leaking at 1,000 barrels of oil a day.
28th April: The Coastguard announces that the flow of oil is at 5,000 barrels per day, five times larger than first estimated. Controlled burns begin.
29th April: President Obama gives his first public speech about the spill, pledging that he will spare no resource to stop the spill.
1st May: The coastguard announce that the spill will affect the coast.
13th May: A researcher from Purdue University puts the amount of oil leaking at 70,000 barrels per day.
15th June: President Obama says that the Oil Spill is the worst environmental disaster America has ever faced
19th September: BP finally stops the ruptured well from leaking.
It's been a tragic summer for the Gulf of Mexico, with the President saying that the Oil Spill is the worst environmental disaster in U.S history.
As you can see from the timeline above, the Oil Spill did hit the coast of the US, and our TV screens were filled with reports of tar and oil balls washing up onto the shores. The big question is whether this disaster is going to affect tourism? We know that it affected the fishing trade as the fishing boats were banned from the spill sight. It has also had some lasting environmental damage, with a species of seahorse almost going extinct as a result.
After the spill had stopped the reports of the little black tar balls disappeared from our TV's but the question still remains that whether this disaster will affect tourism to one of America's tourism hotspots.
We have already seen political representative's promoting Florida's and Alabama's beaches. Barrack Obama was photographed swimming with his daughter, and more recently Governor Charlie Crist has been photographed promoting Miami's South Beach.
Tourism figures are looking healthy, but only time will tell. The Tourism board can do nothing apart from parade officials along beaches to try and transmit a positive image. It is hard to tell which way the tourists will swing on this one, keep an eye out because there may be very cheap flights to Miami in the coming months.
But Florida isn't just about the beaches, there are plenty of activities and things to see and do around the Gulf. By all accounts the beach is fine, but, if the beaches aren't fine, will that affect Tourism in a negative way? Or will tourists just avoid the beach?
I'm Mike, I want to educate, help and inspire people to think about travel.

Response to Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill of 2010

By Terry Swejkoski

We are now seeing the devastating consequences of drilling for oil in the Gulf. Risk management obviously failed to its job in protecting our natural resources. We continue to see the actual cost of allowing oil companies to tap our nature resources in the Gulf. Drilling for oil in an environment that is conducive to catastrophic failure when something goes wrong is simply too risky to continue.
BP should have had Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) studies in place before the first barrel of oil was pumped from the Gulf. You can bet they knew the risks we far greater working at depths where it is simply impossible to manage mechanical challenges when they arise. Of course, those risks probably were worth the profit margin in the eyes of BP executives. Guaranteed safe guards and proof of those guarantees should have been mandated by our government prior to allowing drilling. Why do we continue to allow big business to set their own standards, and then, allow the fox to watch over the chicken coop?
President Obama sent to Congress last week a legislative package meant to speed up assistance to those affected by the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill.
Here's a brief overview from White House "Fact Sheet" of the topics that legislative package contains:
A ROBUST RESPONSE
Immediate Funding
Food Safety
Monitoring and Improving Off Shore Oil Exploration
Environmental Studies
ASSISTANCE TO AFFECTED INDIVIDUALS AND BUSINESSES
Oil Spill Unemployment Assistance
Nutrition Assistance
Employment Assistance
One-Stop Assistance
HELP FOR COMMUNITIES
Economic Recovery
Fisheries Disaster
SBA Loans
PROTECTING TAXPAYERS AND HOLDING OIL COMPANIES RESPONSIBLE
Ensuring BP is Compensating People Affected by the Spill
Raising the Liability Caps
Increasing the Excise Tax that Funds the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund
Promoting Program Integrity and Ensuring Aid Dollars Are Spent Well
Perhaps now we will finally realize that the risk of drilling in our wetlands is far greater than the benefits or profit margins available to the huge corporations controlling the drilling. It's time to find a better way folks...time for a change in how companies do business at the cost of the general population's burden. The ripple consequences of this catastrophic event will be seen for many years to come...that you can count on.
If we continue to rely strictly on fossil fuels to support our current needs our next generations will continue to suffer the consequences such as those caused by the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. In the short-run it may be more expensive to drill for oil on land, however, in the long-run the total cost to everyone is considerably higher.
Simply follow White House Fact Sheet for a link to the complete press release pertaining to this legislation.

The Reason For the Oil Spill

By M. R. Anderson Platinum Quality Author

We are entering the Age of Aquarius. What is the Age of Aquarius? I believe it is a new beginning. The 6000 year rule of evil, selfishness, hatred, fear, sorrow and especially greed is coming to an end. The elite rulers know this and they will do any and everything possible to prolong their grip on the masses.
These evil people have secret knowledge that most are unaware of. They know how to use the law of attraction to get what they want and they also know the consciousness of water. The oil spill disaster was not an accident.
This world is governed by universal law and divine order. Water has a conscious just like everything else in the universe. The earth is 75% water, so when the collective consciousness of the people slowly shift to vibrations on love, peace and harmony, the water of the earth carries out this consciousness to all living things faster.
Have you ever heard of the Japanese word Hado? Hado is the intrinsic vibrational pattern at the atomic level in all matter, the smallest unit of energy. Its basis is the energy of human consciousness.
Dr. Emoto found out that water has a conscious when he took pure clean water and spoke to the water and showed gratitude to the water. Dr. Emoto observed that when the water was frozen, beautiful crystal patterns appeared. When words and symbols of gratitude were placed on containers holding the water, the beautiful crystal patterns appeared again. Distance did not affect the water also. The opposite was also true. When negative words were spoken or negative symbols were shown to the water, distorted and deformed crystal patterns appeared. Water that was prayed over also formed beautiful patterns. According to Dr. Emoto's work, words and symbols of gratitude formed the most beautiful crystal patterns.
I believe that the earth and the universe is entering an era that will be filled with peace and love. You can see this happening now. People are noticing the negativity on the television and are not interested in watching it any longer. Children do not want to hear the negative music or see negative movies any longer. There are more and more public speakers out there who are getting the word out about how lovely life is. People are walking in the park, having cookouts, and speaking to their neighbors and complete strangers more than ever. People are more concerned about their health. People are also getting away from the warlike and fear based mentality. Physical life is much too short and people are realizing this fact.
The disaster in the gulf with the oil spill is a desperate attempt to change the consciousness of the water and to change the consciousness of the masses. Whatever "they" try to do will not work. "Their" time is coming to an end. The kingdom of heaven is within and the devil is a collection of evil men, deeds and thought currents that are not in harmony with The Great Creator or God. There is no man in the center of the earth with horns on his head. Think good thoughts and thank your water and be thankful for everything that you have. Pray for a solution to the oil spill in the gulf.