The Prestige Oil Spill

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In 2002, The Prestige oil tanker sank off the Galician Coast dumping tons of oil into the Atlantic Ocean. The Prestige Oil Spill was the largest environmental disaster in Europe’s history, but it went unknown to many people around the world. The reason for this was because during that same week, in 2002, The United States officially declared War with Iraq. However, the tragic event that occurred because of The Prestige, should be a known fact so that people can help out Spain and France continue the clean up. Even though the spill happened 7 years ago, they are still trying to fix what happened. Wildlife, Coral, and the Fishing Industry have suffered severely from this incident, and still there is no answer for who is to blame. The disaster that happened to Spain and France, on November 19th of 2002, was over shadowed by the United States and Iraqi war. The Prestige Oil Tanker spilled over 4 thousand tons of fuel, and covered over 200 kilometers of coastline (WWF). One would think that such a catastrophic event would be broadcasted in the United States, but not until recently have people heard about this incident. Since the United States went to the war at the same time, we decided to focus all of our attention on that. However, if the U.S. had paid just a little bit of attention to this situation, it might not be as bad as it is. The citizens of our country didn’t choose to not know about this story, the government decided to filter it out so we could focus all of our awareness on the war. People may argue that the United States doesn’t need to get involved with other countries problems, but that isn’t a very good way to look at things. In 2002, The U.S. had plenty of money to help out with the Prestige disaster. I do agree that U.S. citizens should be well aware of what is going on in our country, but we should also know about other countries. Another argument

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