Through out the first class in my final term at GCE we have spoken largely about the oceans. The class "Frontiers" is all about the exploration of the unknown which in our "modern" society is limited to our Earths bodies of water, and the vast space above. Going forward in this class we have referenced several ideas like how tectonic plates work, the famous diver Cousteau, and mapping of the land underwater. In this AP we were asked to come up with a research question about how the future of our oceans will look.
I have chosen to once again look into oil, and how we have destroyed much of the ocean due to our own negligence. Oil spills have been a problem since the industrialization and modernization has grow in scale as it has become an extremely valuable resource. I said "once again" because I decided to look into the effects of oil spills in the 6th grade and wish to look back and see my lack of understanding.
My research question is "What are the consequences of oil spills and what options are available for its clean up?" From this question we want to first look at what an oil spill is. Oil spills happen quite often apparently as every time we use it we are prone to it happening, as such we do it quite often as we use it quite often. We mainly know or think about the large scale spills that get put on the news like the Exxon Valdes or Deep Water Horizon which were two of the biggest spills in history both killed enormous amounts of wildlife both on land and in the sea as fish are intoxicated by the oil and likewise humans are as well. Things like birds or water dependent mammals suffer more as the oil may envelop them, weakening their thick under layers of feathers or fur that keep them warm. Though the extreme cases are indeed extremely detrimental, we need to realize that more happens than what you may see online or in the news. Much oil is spilled everyday but just happens to be not as much as an oil platform exploding or a tanker running aground so no one thinks anything of it but the effects follow no matter the scale.
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| "World's Biggest Oil Spill chart" CNN, 2022 |
Currently there are many ways to combat the spread of oil in our water systems firstly there are natural processes. Natural processes refer to how the Earths is able to filter and remove oil by itself. Oil will be easier or harder to get rid of depending on its type (mainly how heavy it is). It is removed by being broken down in three main ways evaporation, oxidation, and biodegradation. Most of our own methods stem from the use of these processes. To explain, evaporation is when the liquid parts of the oil evaporate into our atmosphere which is not ideal as the gas it creates is quite toxic. Oxidation is when the oil reacts with oxygen, breaking down the components of the oil. And finally, biodegradation is when nearby bacteria in the land and water eat away at the oil. Our methods tend to be about moving around and controlling the oil while promoting these processes. When oil washes onto beaches, it is usually hosed down and raked toward one area on the shoreline to be disposed of. Out at sea, the main options are creating "booms" which are floating objects that block oil on the surface of the water from moving any more, skimmers which are self propelled machines that recover oil from the water, and absorbents which take in large amounts of the stuff. In my 6th grade project, I found that one of the main absorbent materials used can be found in baby diapers as it is a powdery substance that holds 5x its weight in liquids. Once contained dispersal agents or biological agents are applied. Dispersal agents thin the oil to be more susceptible to natural processes. Biological agents add things like "nutrients, enzymes, or microorganisms" to increase the rate at which biodegradation takes place.
One thing I was asked to do in my research is to add something to this knowledge but as I am not a scientist and most of what this research covers are ways to address oil spills rather than preventing them outright I suggest an industry wide notion that the use of oil and gas is coming to an end as it leads in large part to the destruction of the earth. Or at least that is what I would love to have happen but with both the greed of those profiting from oil and gas and the extreme reliance on them by society, that can’t happen probably for the next few decades at least. For a stop gap solution in support of cleaning oil from water I suggest a new idea. Because of the property difference in water from oil we can send large thin sheets of some water resistant material under the oil, let it float to the point of being the physical divider of water and oil before covering the oil with another large sheet that has an absorbent solution on the underside; the idea is a sandwich technique. In my research I haven't heard of something like this exactly but even if my idea came to fruition I would suggest it be reusable as that much material would be expensive.
I would like to give large credit to my sources as they furthered my own knowledge on this topic and reintroduced me to the importance realizing the unseen detriments we have in our society:
Several of these sources are the most up-to-date pages from government websites while the last one is the top suggestion from google. I did also have a very brief email exchange with a representative from "Cabeno environmental services" with questions on their work with cleaning oil but after a few emails they never got back to me.
Overall this class has been stressful. Not really because of the class itself but because I've got alot of other work happening outside of class that has taken up my time giving me little time to work outside of class. On my topic itself I knew exactly what it was going to be about because of my previous experience. It was a good refresher and I am still traumatized by the "Deep Water Horizon" movie. I definitely look forward to the next class as it will be on the ideas of aerospace engineering.
-CDH
Written by Charlotte Edmond, Senior Writer. “This Is How Oil Spills Damage Our Environment.” World Economic Forum, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/10/oil-spill-environment-ocean/#:~:text=The%20effects%20will%20be%20long,malnourished%20or%20poisoned%20over%20time.
“How to Manage the Damage from Oil Spills.” UNEP, https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/how-manage-damage-oil-spills.
“Large Oil Spills Active.” Large Oil Spills | U.S. Geological Survey, https://www.usgs.gov/mission-areas/water-resources/science/large-oil-spills.
“Oil Spills.” Oil Spills | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, https://www.noaa.gov/education/resource-collections/ocean-coasts/oil-spills.
United States Environmental Protection Agency. Understanding Oil Spills And Oil Spill Response, 2018, https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2018-01/documents/ospguide99.pdf.
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