Environmental Consequences for the Increasing Demand of Raw Materials Oil.
What the Syllabus Says. Discuss the environmental consequences of increasing international demand for one raw material. We will look at oil.
There are two videos in the playlist below. Please make notes in the comment box about one of the Videos.
key concepts:
ReplyDelete- oil is a finite resource
- there is an increase demand in oil
- pushing to places where it is difficult to get oil (may not have a proper environmental framework or it is politically unstable
- Even in countries like the US, they are pushing the frontier of their technology-expose the oil industry into a greater risk of environmental problems. The magnitude might be greater (deep sea oil exploration)
- Blue crab keystone species- eaten by other organisms
- Poorly understood complex ecosystem
- Animals absorbing the oil-risk of ecosystem collapsing
- concept is leaning towards nations like the USA with large reserves of money to deal with the money
Delete- Invite the the examiner to think about how it would work in a politically unstable country
• Sink the problem + disperse the oil – dispersant agent – looks like it is gone but it is still there (cheaper) – 140 million gallons – some say it has made it worse (will bubble up again)
Delete• Tiny droplets on the sea bed (difficult to go all the way down)
• Fish migrate on a daily basis from sea bed to surface – bring oil along with them and predatory fish eat them = bioaccumulation
• Spill was over a large area and was a large quantity
• Complex government structures and departments – no proper co-ordination, problem pushed around in order to avoid responsibility
• Some species vary – vulnerable especially top of food chain
• Dead dolphins and mammals (mega flora and fauna)
• Ecology of system has been altered – oil corals, oil crabs, oiled animals, sea floor void of life (years or decades to recover)
• Red snapper – liver damage
• Cancers in fish
• Genetic Discolouration
• Untested technology deep in the sea
• Privatized profits, social risks
Context of USA (Advanced democratic politically accountable economy with large reserves of money to deal with the situation):
ReplyDelete- Blue crab larvae keystone = key to oil spills
- Poorly understood complex ecosystems because it is deep sea
- Orange bubbles inside animals indicate oil spills (animals absorbing the oil)
- Impact in gulf = food chains mean impact will spread through whole ecosystem. Risk of ecosystem collapsing – but we do not know for sure.
How different would the situation be if this was in a politically unstable, undeveloped country?
disperse the oil
Deletecomplex government agencies, it takes so much time and coordination to plan an oil cleanup
media keeping it quiet
BP keeping quiet - corruption
the entire ecology of the gulf of Mexico has been altered
fish damage, genetic deformations
140 million gallons of oil being deposited into the sea - lots of oil collected in the first place in order to be profitable
no one knew how to solve this problem
trying to solve the problem in the cheapest way possible, not the most effective way
oil is being absorbed by microflora, which then passes up the food chain
oil becomes deposited on the sea bed - we don’t know much about deep sea beds
we have very little research of the impact the oil has had on non-commercial species (e.g. fish that we don’t eat)
Blue Crab Key Stone Species – eaten by other organism. Orange droplets have be found in blue crab species found near the oil spill site. This shows that the oil has been physically absorbed by the crab larvae, and as our understanding of the underwater eco-system is poorly understood because it is complex and has many linkages (i.e. red fish eat crab larvae), this shows the impact can be extensive, spreading through the eco-system through bioaccumulation.
ReplyDelete2nd video:
Delete- Beaches along the gulf coast is clean now
- VP sunk the boat and dispersed the oil rather than actually cleaning it up
- complex government structures and departments
- Some species are very vulnerable especially those at the top of the food chain
- Red snapper liver damage cancers in fish, genetic deformations
- deep sea oil deposit on seabed
- BP oil disaster spilled 140 million gallons because of untested technology, they have to be on a very large scale to make profit
- dispersants break up the oil into smaller droplets
- The oil over such a vast area so it was cheaper to spray dispersants.
- The oil is being absorbed into the macro-flora and the micro-flora
- alot of deepsea organism that rise up
We are pushing technology into new areas. When it goes wrong there will be large impacts. An example is that they found that Plankton is physically absorbing the oil
ReplyDeleteReal risk that everything in the ecosystem will collapse
Chloe:
Bio magnification - species at the top of the food chain would be most affected as the concentration of crude oil will accumulate through each trophic level and eventually affecting us.
Video 1 highlights a single environmental impact as a result of the BP deepwater Horizons Oil spill. As a result of increased demand for oil, new technologies have been created to drill oil in new locations, deep sea drilling. This sets up the possiblilty for high magnitude of risk, with serious impacts should failure of this untested technology occur. The video analyzes the impacts on the Blue Crab larve, a keysone speacies of the deep water ecosystem. An complex ecosystem we poorly understand. The crab larve were shown to absorb the oil, then shen when other animals eat the crabs, the oil moves up the food chain.
ReplyDeleteVideo 2 – united states of America, politically accountable, large amounts of money to deal with situation
DeleteSink the problem
Disperse the oil
Complex government
Structures and department
Some species very vulnerable especially top of food chain
Red snapper, cancers in fish, genetic deformations
Deep sea oil deposits on seabed
Gulf oil, you have the environmental protection agency and politically accountable government, but its pushed around from department to department, no proper coordination
Even in a country like the US it is still a problem
Dispersant breaks the oil into smaller droplets, makes it appear that the oil is gone
Cant clean the oil up cause it covers such a vast area
Megaflora, microflora
Dispersant makes the problem worse, gonna bubble up again
Don’t have much information on the non-commercial species
Video 2: illustrates the larger environmental impacts on the Gulf of mexico ecosystems as a result of the BP deep water horizons oil spill. The video suggests that the oil spill was preventable, and that complex government agiences further casued environmental degredation due to lack of co-ordination and failure to act responsively. Although regulation from the EPA were set to ensure proper removal of the oil from the spill, the video highlights the failure of BP to clean up the water. The company sprayed dispersants to break up the oil molecures into smaller droplets, hidoing the problem instead of finding a solution. The video also shows the effect of the oil on comercial fish species, the growth of tumors, cancer and liver dammage as a result of consumption of smaller species that absorb the oil.
DeleteIn ocean ecosystems, oil has been absorbed by Blue crab, a keystone species
ReplyDeletekeystone species: species eaten by other species
The oil in the crabs are passed on to the next consumers - bioaccumulation
- the ocean ecosystem (Deep sea) is a fragile ecosystem that is poorly understood
Ah yes David, I couldn't agree more. However, these crabs are not the sole victim of these oil spills. In the US: Gulf Oil Spill where 140 million gallons of oil were spilt, this caused:
Delete- Sink the problem = disperse the oil. May have even made the problem worse. It has gotten into megaflora and may be in microflora
- Complex government structures and departments. Issue has pushed from department to department.
- Keeping everything secret and accused of not telling the truth – Huge cover-up
- Ecology of system has been altered = oil corals/crabs/animals. Deposits of deep sea oils on seabed. Animals on seabed rise to the top during nighttime, and the fish eat them.
- All animals dying e.g. dolphins/turtles. Most vulnerable = species on top of food chain
- Animals e.g. Red snapper (commercial species) with discolouration/damaged organs. Cancers in fish. Genetic deformation.
Moving through the levels.
ReplyDeleteLevel 5. You would just give an account of the oil spill in the Gulf as a time line, you would explain that oil has been exploited in the Gulf because easier to reach sources have been used up AND there is an increased demand for oil internationally (BP is a UK based MNC).
Level 6. Here you start talking about the untested technology in a harsh environment that presents many technical challenges. The tech is untested so when it did go wrong they had no idea how to stop it. This is in the framework of a democratic MEDC with good environmental protection laws and accountability
As the spill could not be stopped and it was on such a large scale dispersants were used. However the oil is still there and we are unsure about the long term consequences.
Level 7. Here you should be making comparison with e.g. Nigeria and .perhaps Ecuador, these are LEDC with weaker legislation and lower levels of accountability.