Gulf oil spill cleanup begins with us

We have seen the pictures of the oil-slicked birds and the sludge that has been washed up on the Gulf’s coastlines. This weekend, we saw local news reports on the effects the BP oil spill had on Fourth of July plans and Gulf resort areas that have in the past drawn many people during the holiday weekend. Businesses are losing money, kids are trying to avoid oil sludge while they build sand castles on the beach, and travel plans are made to avoid places that have been affected by the BP oil spill. While we are saddened over the images of those oil-slicked birds, how long will that last for people? Once we have washed off all the oil we can see, will we still be thinking about the oil we can’t see and the long-term effects of it?

The National Oceanic Atmosphere Administration recently discovered a large deepwater rising oil column in the Gulf — a side effect from the BP spill — that spans 30 miles long, seven miles wide and hundreds of feet thick. How does underwater oil affect us? Well, how doesn’t it? Undersea oil accumulation can potentially destroy fish and sharks, but it’s the small stuff that really hurts our marine ecosystem — the zooplankton, the worms, the crabs, the shrimp and the corals. This destruction has devastating effects on our marine ecosystem and our underwater food chain. If the big fish don’t have little fish to feed off of, the big fish die.

With the already everyday pollution we pump into our oceans, this certainly hasn’t helped. According to Green America’s website, if any good has come out of this catastrophe, it’s the increased awareness on the argument between renewable energy sources and fossil fuels.

The EPA has a huge amount of information on the long-term effects of oil spilling into the environment. The oil kills shore life by washing up and drowning small, shore-dwelling creatures. Other areas affected from the oil that moves from the slick into other aquatic areas near the initially impacted area, such as lakes, streams, rivers and marshlands. These areas have more stagnation and suffer more damage from accumulated oil than oceans just because they don’t have the strength of current going for them. The harm that occurs to these areas and their sensitive animal and plant life can have long-term deadly effects on the animals that rely on that food source, once again disrupting the natural food chain that we humans rely on.

In open waters, whales and larger aquatic life can swim away from oil slicks, but closer to shore where seals, dolphins and turtles live it is harder to avoid the spilled oil, and many of these animals can suffer devastating effects from oil contamination.

The cleanup alone can harm sensitive plant environments in these areas. The coral reefs that have been affected by the underwater oil are similar to the idea of newborns in a maternity ward after a bomb goes off.

The birds that have been smothered with oil are in danger of either freezing to death since oil accumulation has matted their feathers down so severely they have lost the ability to insulate themselves, or they are starving to death because they can’t fly to a food source, if, that is, they can find fish that aren’t infected with oil pollution.

The men and women who are cleaning up the oil spilled in the Gulf area are also at risk. In 1989, when Exxon Valdez spilled oil in Prince William Sound in Alaska and had a tanker unleash approximately 10 million gallons of oil, scientists recorded effects on humans who were involved in the cleanup efforts. Immediately, many workers cleaning up spilled oil were experiencing breathing problems, dizziness and severe headaches according to the information from Green America. Cleanup workers were tested a year later, and 3-4 percent experienced and were treated for depression, post-traumatic stress disorders and anxiety disorders. These effects were also found to be present in local residents as well.

Here is the long and short of it: the Exxon Valdez oil spill changed the environment irreparably, the BP oil spill — 21 years later — will irreparably change the environment. In 21 years, we have learned essentially nothing. While we may have better protection for the workers cleaning the spill, the aquatic life does not. If we have not learned a better way to protect our environment by utilizing renewable energy sources in 21 years, can we ever?

It starts with us, not the corporations. It starts with the awareness of the immediate and long-term effects that fossil fuels can have on the environment. Not just when they are spilled into an area that is approximately the same size as the Vatican City, but when they are used every day. What will you do to make a change?