Oil in the Water: Drilling for Oil

So, who woulda thought that oil would naturally seep into the ocean?  Not me.  Ever.  For some reason I always thought that oil was deep underground and very hard to get at.  Turns out that oil really does seep into the oceans naturally.  And, by humans drilling for off shore oil we actually prevent much of that oil from entering the water.

But at what volumes does oil enter into our oceans?  Let’s look:

The most obvious method by which oil is put into the oceans is by extraction and exploring.  That is, human activity either looking for or extracting oil.  And how much do we drop in?

THAT is a lot of oil; nearly 900,000 gallons of oil are dumped into the North American Oceans every year.  Certainly nothing to ignore.

But, are there other methods by which oil enters our oceans?  Why, funny you should ask.  The answer is yes.

Two other methods of oil entering are:

1.  Transportation

2.  Consumption

Let’s see how much makes its way into our oceans:

Holy Oil Spill Batman!  While the act of extracting oil produces huge amounts of oil spillage, it’s nothing compared to the transportation of oil.  And THAT is nothing compared to the amount of oil deposited in our oceans as a result of the USE of oil; nearly 25 million gallons of oil per year!  Man is destroying our world’s oceans.  And how!

But.  Speaking of our natural resources.  Does oil seep?  Yes.  And to what extent?  Let’s look:

Jeepers.  Just in North American oceans nature spills 470 million gallons of oil into the oceans EACH YEAR.  Human activity combined only contributes 286 million gallons.  Just about 55% of what nature does.

Look, the BP oil spill is horrible.  The damage is obvious.  But be real.  And put this into context.

Hat Tip:  Carpe Diem

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