Oil and water

                Oil and water do not mix well. It’s nearly impossible to separate them and they don’t blend at all. Oil is not good for the environment; it kills animals, makes them extremely dirty, and can totally wipe out a species. Oil is important to the world and economy though, so major ecosystems are risked to get more oil through deep-sea drilling.

                The BP oil spill is still the major example of this. In 2010, the worst oil spill in history happened off the coast of Louisiana in the Gulf. Oil gushed into the Gulf after a giant explosion of a deep sea oil rig. Read more here (http://ocean.si.edu/gulf-oil-spill). The animals and Louisiana’s oceanic habitat took a major hit from the spill.  Turtles, fish, geese, and other animals that rely on water for their habitats were devastated.  Their water turned into oily grossness and many smaller organisms were killed, completely messing up the food chain. We really don’t hear much about the oil spill anymore; BP mostly covered it all up even though they are extremely less credible now.  Just because we don’t hear about it anymore doesn’t mean everything is better.

                Completely messing up an ecosystem like that changed that area forever. There is still oil in the gulf, although there isn't much anymore, it’s still enough to have an effect on the state of the organisms that call the gulf home. Populations of fish, birds, turtles, and others are at an all-time low due to the spill. Read more here (http://www.nwf.org/what-we-do/protect-habitat/gulf-restoration/oil-spill/effects-on-wildlife.aspx). Generations were killed off causing total chaos in the food pyramid. Eggs were polluted, animals were lost without their prey because population dropped, and some many other consequences occurred and are still occurring 4 years after the spill.  

                Oil runs our modern economy. It’s known as black gold and is becoming far more valuable and important due to a higher demand and a lower supply.  Deep sea oil is prevalent because of how cheap and big the drilling area can be. Land drilling costs more because of the cost to buy land and drill while deep sea drilling is cheaper to get than land, but it is hard to get to. Deep sea drilling isn’t absolutely essential for our modern world. With advancing technology of other energy sources, we might see the dependence on oil become less and less.  That is a good thing because one disaster from these oil rigs can cause the whole environment around it to go black.