What if the gulf spill never happened

But the technology to bring a blown well under control has not greatly advanced since the Ixtoc accident, which remains the world's largest. President Obama, on his third visit to Louisiana since the BP accident, said today, "It is way too early to be optimistic.

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Obama appointed Donald Boesch, a professor of marine science at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, in to serve as a member of the commission to investigate the root cause of BP's Deepwater horizon oil spill. In a page report , the commission found that systemic failings throughout the oil and gas industry contributed to the disaster and that existing systems of government oversight were inadequate.

In response, the Obama administration crafted new regulations for offshore drilling aimed at avoiding the types of mechanical failures that led to the Deepwater Horizon spill. The commission also issued a series of recommendations to Congress to improve safety and reduce the risk of future spills, but Boesch said lawmakers largely failed to act on the report's guidance.

And in recent years, Boesch has watched as Obama-era rules have been dismantled. The Trump administration's revisions did not entirely eliminate the safety regulations, but the rules were relaxed. They didn't destroy the improvements that were made, but the message it sends out is that safety may be less important.

Yet, one small positive consequence of the accident was that it resulted in the largest environmental damage settlement in U. Some of the money that has already been allocated has helped scientists better understand biodiversity in the Gulf and how the many creatures that populate the region have been affected by the oil.

Still, experts caution that without sweeping changes, accidents like the Deepwater Horizon spill are just waiting to happen. And given the role that the oil and gas industry plays in accelerating global warming, those changes should ultimately be a shift away from fossil fuels, according to Boesch.

The report says data collected by independent scientists in showed no differences in survival of six bird species, including seaside sparrows, between oiled and unoiled areas.

But officials representing the Gulf states and the U. As with virtually everything connected to the accident, scientists say it's simply too early to tell about the long-term damage. It was a slow-moving disaster unlike any other. The nighttime explosion on Deepwater Horizon killed 11 workers and injured many others. BP spent 87 days trying to cap the leaking wellhead before finally halting the oil's flow.

By then, more than million gallons had escaped. Squiggly ribbons of red-brown goo coated the Gulf. Hahn , then director of coastal zone management for Louisiana's Plaquemines Parish. We'd dive in it and see oil from horizon to horizon. It was overwhelming. It was heartbreaking. Chocolate-colored glop coated hermit crabs, fiddler crabs, pelicans, and terns and formed thick, oily mats that carried sea turtles. Some turtles died; BP suggests many weren't killed by oil.

Crude darkened white sand beaches, coated mangroves, and washed ashore carrying dead dolphins and fish. Shrimp and oyster harvesting was temporarily scuttled. Lesions appeared on the skin of red snappers. Roughly 6, birds were found dead that first year, mostly laughing gulls, pelicans, and northern gannets. BP contends that most bird carcasses were found, but the U. Fish and Wildlife Service suspects that number is a fraction of actual spill-related bird deaths.

Oily tar is rarely seen in the marsh; most of it was consumed by oil-eating microbes. Fish lesions are no longer common. Commercial fish landings are up. But published research suggests the BP spill hurt wildlife in countless ways, contributing to a mass die-off of dolphins , potentially harming the hearts of baby tuna , and damaging killifish DNA.

BP is critical of these studies, arguing, in part, that dolphin die-offs are common and that their deaths may seem more frequent because more people are paying attention. The company, in a statement, also said fish research "provides no evidence to suggest a population-level impact on tuna or other fish species in the Gulf of Mexico.

But some research suggests spill-related problems will keep echoing and ultimately could harm animal immune systems , reproduction and species' range. Other studies are still ongoing or tied up in court proceedings that will determine how much BP will pay for environmental damage.

And because the spill hit marine and estuarine systems already facing pollution and erosion, it is difficult to document changes and isolate causes. To understand just how complex that is, consider the efforts to track sparrows and their food.

This substance, which makes up the oil slick, is known as crude oil. Besides providing us with fuel for our cars and other methods of transportation, this oil is also processed for other uses, including: running electrical power plants, lubricating squeaky doors or wheels, and in the production of healthcare products, medicines, plastics and many other everyday products we use around the house and at school.

Among the products made in part with oil:. Ask your students for another show of hands to see if they think they use oil products on a daily basis. Based on this list of products, do they think it would be easy to cut oil consumption out of their lives altogether? And yet there's only so much oil in the world. The earth has a limited supply, which is why oil companies continue to seek new places to drill for oil—including in the deep seas, where drilling is risky and technologically challenging.

Have your students to watch two ABC news clips. Note that this early report vastly understates the amount of oil being leaked.