The Impact of Oil spills on our Eco-system Essay

The Impact of Oil spills on our Eco-system - Essay Example The blowout preventer which was expected to alert and prevent the release of oil into the natural environment, failed to activate thus causing disastrous environmental consequences (BBC News, 2012). Furthermore, according to reports, the miss management at BP and its inability to control or prevent the damage is held accountable as one of the key reasons of this huge environmental disaster. The report presented by the Oil Spill commission, stated BP had relatively little knowledge regarding the geology of the site in question, which is perhaps the main underlying cause of the disaster. Apart from that there were several other factors such as oversight and the inability of the management to ensure effective implementation of proper safeguards to prevent such an event from happening. The report also stated that over and above the failure to predict the unfortunate event, BP also failed to implement adequate safety and control measures to prevent the damage (Oil Spill Commission Report, 2011). 2. Describe the risk factors associated with this incident/accident. Apart from the loss of lives of the workers and employees working on the rig, the oil spill has lead to several ecological, social, financial as well as environmental consequences. ... oard), BP was aware of the significant safety issues, well before the explosion occurred but still implemented cost cuts of about 25 per cent during the years 1998 and 2000. This measure on the part of the management led to a significant negative impact on the maintenance and infrastructure expenditures at the refinery (Regester and Larkin, 2008). Also the design of the cement used to seal the bottom of the well was flawed and ought to have been repaired promptly to avoid the dangerous consequences. The management failed to analyze the problem with the seal, and incorrectly validated the test result by approving it, despite the apparent fault. The workers hired on site, failed to foresee the looming disaster, and alert the concerned management regarding the same, which resulted in the blowout (BBC, 2011). 5. What were the short-term effects of this incident/accident on the surrounding environment? Any disaster of this magnitude and scale is likely to result in threatening consequence s which reach beyond the routine issues faced by organizations in their day to day operations. The short term effects of the BP Oil spill are listed below: Source: BBC News (2011) - Impact on the marine life: The oil spill underwater affects the marine environment causing damage to the aquatic life. The site of the oil spill is home to a wide variety of rich and diverse marine life including cold-water corals, fish, etc. Furthermore it is also reported that the endangered sperm whales frequent this water bed in search of giant squid and other prey. The oil spill destroyed the natural habitat of these species and affected their life cycles in the process. Since the marine species are highly interdependent, the food web is completely destroyed. - The environment: As many as 60,000 sea birds