In the Gulf of Mexico, close to Louisiana, is the Oil Rig Deepwater Horizon. The Deepwater Horizon had a very large explosion on April 21st, 2010. This explosion caused a very large and as yet, ongoing oil spill, too.
There have been attempts so far to fix it, but none of them have been successful. There was one suggestion that was to send down a special kind of robot. This was because no human was going to want to dive nearly a mile down, not that that is even possible. This one sadly failed. A contraption being called a 'top hat' was placed on top of the leak as a possible band-aid, yet not considered a long term fix, but with ice formation hindering its success, the top hat is not longer an option. Another plan was to drop a bunch of junk, including golf balls and tires, down to clog the leak. That didn't go through either.
Because of the oil spreading and killing wild life, there are also workers going and putting up barriers for keeping the oil off of the Louisiana shore. Extenuating effects of this leak impact all the the fisherman making their livelihood in the once fertile Gulf of Mexico, as well as the tourism industry. Whatever health effects that lay ahead for the workers involved in the clean-up effort may be detrimental for them, too. So far, at least for those living on the coast, fumes in the air are merely a nuisance.
Most sources say that the oil has passed these barriers, and will probably get as far as the Virginia coast as the current carries it. It is approaching Florida, and there are recent reports of globs of the stuff coming ashore in the Florida Keys, and even as far north as Miami. So, if you live on the east coast of the United States, then get to the beach when you can! The oil is getting closer and closer day by day.
What we don't want is for the oil to get to the west coast, or even down to the Caribbean. For roughly the past month now, BP and other companies are trying to come up with a way to fix the spill.
No comments:
Post a Comment