Because of the devastation of hurricane Katrina many of the United States oil refineries were damaged, causing a decrease in gas supply. The damage to the oil refineries cause them to be shut down. With many of the United States oil refineries shut down, the supply of crude oil was effect and that is what caused an increase in gas prices. Hurricane Katrina resulted in an immediate loss of nearly 1.5 million barrels a day of crude oil from the
One con is that there will be many jobs at the mine, but just not nearly as many jobs that Bristol Bay employs in the salmon industry. Another, and possibly the biggest, disadvantage of building the Pebble Mine is the negative effect on the environment in Bristol Bay. Although the company managing this says that there will be a bad affect on the environment, history tells us otherwise. We can look at the Mount Polley gold mine disaster. In this environmental disaster, 10 cubic meters of water and 4.5 million cubic meters of potentially toxic slurry were spilled into virtually untouched forest, lakes and rivers.
These emissions can become acid rain and if it can damage a tree, it can and does damage coral. According to the Coral Reef Alliance; the world’s oceans have had “approximately 525 billion tons of carbon dioxide” dumped by human activity within their waters. [ (Coral Reef Alliance, 2012) ]. The site also goes on to state that the destruction of Mangroves,(which have been harvested for lumber) and the loss filtering saltwater swamps due to farming have caused quite a bit of stress on coral reefs. Then there are the odd ways we humans go about “enjoying the ocean”.
Oil spills in this area would be extremely damaging because toxins from the oil remain in cold water for a longer period of time. The oil would also concentrate in the locations that provide breathing holes and congregations spots for these mammals. The toxins from an oil spill would stay in these marine mammals and have harmful effects on the related food chain when they are preyed and scavenged upon. The noise and disruption that would result from drilling would disrupt the navigation patterns and social interactions of these mammals. Out of all the marine mammals that would be affected, the bowhead whale would feel the worst affects of drilling.
This area is one of the densest concentrations of sea birds anywhere in the whole world. Even a small amount of oil can cause death in many of these animals because they can die from ingesting the toxic material, and lose their insulation when they are contaminated with oil. In 2004, two mechanical failures led to the loss
Environmentally, whaling has caused the endangerment of certain species of whales. The main environmental concern of whaling is that it would harm the balance of the ecosystem through the extinction
This devastation affects a majority of the U.S. being one of our largest sources of fresh water, and will only continue to deplete, as companies carelessly dump their waste into the lake. Consumption of fish from this lake will soon be obsolete if immediate action is not taken. These are all things that need to be considered by industrial businesses, families, merchants, fishermen, and environmentalists. As long as the waters are polluted the economy will experience great loss, and may even see jobs created by the Great Lake, eventually
When we refine or even dig up oil sands we produce harmful chemicals. Since Alberta oil sands are located near major rivers some of those chemicals end up in the rivers. The most famous case is with the Athabasca River, where the water is contaminated by many harmful chemicals. The Athabasca water ecosystem is slowly being poisoned and so are the people that use the water for their water supply. The oil sands maybe a large part of our social and economic structure, but they are slowly ruining our environment.
It would interfere with millions of migratory birds that feed on its tundra plains. It would kill plants and animals that are native to the Beaufort Sea area and the environment would take two decades to recover. If there were a major oil spill, it would decades for the ecosystem to recover, since so many organisms would be contaminated and eventually die. Remember the 1989 catastrophe when the Exxon Valdez spilled 35 million gallons into Prince William Sound? The
The Arctic as most know is known for its fisherman and whalers, whom in the past overfished and whaling for the uses of oil, but cause a major downfall in the number of Arctic marine life. AS mentioned before with the climate change there will a larger number of fishing and whaling vessels due to the decrease of sea ice and the opening of Arctic waters that have never been accessible. Looking at the Arctic portal I found a list of restrictions that would be major to the fishing industry; 1. Restrictions on catch and effort, for instance by setting the total allowable catch (TAC) and allocating the TAC by means of national quotas. 2.