Effects Of Pollution On Wildlife

Claim: Pollution could affect wildlife like fish, birds, and others by hurting or killing them due to trash or litter stuck in weeds or floating above the water in the air.

Professors John Wiens and David Page spent many years studying theses effects of the oil spill and they presented their findings at the International Oil Spill Conference in Seattle, March 8-11, 1999. Their findings contain the most recent results of the ongoing studies in Prince William Sound. Through extensive work with three different groups of animals affected by the spill, they have exhibited a remarkable recovery by the ecosystem of Prince William Sound (Wiens, Page et al.).

Pipelines and oil-drilling platforms will harm caribou, polar bears, and millions of migrating birds (Come on in.: 38). Whenever some country drills for oil it is more likely than not for that country to have an oil spill. Oil spills are deadly to animals, hard to clean up, and it takes the land thousands of years to recover. The United States has already had one major oil spill off the coast of Alaska in Prince William Sound. If another large oil spill occurred on the water it would have a substantial effect on whales and other marine wildlife (Experts say Alaska Oil Drilling Hurts Wildlife: 43). There are over 130 bird species that find breeding, nesting, or resting places on the coastal plain (Defenders of Wildlife).

On April 20, 2010, one of BP’s drilling wells below the Gulf of Mexico exploded and caused a disastrous oil spill. Thousands of barrels of crude oil flowed into the gulf every day, causing widespread pollution in the Gulf of Mexico (Law Brain, n.d). The habitats of many bird species are threatened by this oil spill.

Imagine 2,500 to 68,000 square miles covered in 4.9 million barrels of oil. No, imagine being covered in 4.9 million barrels of oil. Picture yourself gasping for air in an ocean filled with oil. That is exactly what birds, sea turtles, dolphins, and other animals had to do after the most catastrophic oil spill of all time occurred on April 20, 2010.

Oil spills suffocate marine life to death, and is extremely bad for the environment. “Wherever oil is consumed, such as in manufacturing or when loading a ship with fuel, there are opportunities for oil spills (Noaa).” Oil spills are extremely harmful to marine birds and mammals as well as fish and shellfish. Oil spills also contribute to habitat loss as it also can ruin and eventually destroy ocean habitats, causing wildlife to lose their homes. “But such publicized events account for only a small part of the total amount of oil pollution in the oceans—and many of the other sources, such as automobile oil, go largely unnoticed, scientists say.

Oil spills from offshore drilling or shipping are huge threats to the sea otter population. In 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska’s Prince William Sound killed several thousand sea otters. Sea otters are still threatened by events like

These teams are looking to see how the remaining oil left in the Prince William Sound can affect the local wildlife. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the United States, or the NOAA, says that “spilled oil can harm living things because its chemical constituents are Poisonous. This can affect organisms both from internal exposure to oil through ingestion or inhalation and from external exposure through skin and eye irritation. Oil can also smother some small species of fish or invertebrates and coat feathers and fur, reducing birds' and mammals' ability to maintain their body temperatures” (NOAA, N.d). The spill from the crashed ship resulted in millions of animals to die after they ingested a massive Dose of the oil, and that has created a massive Environmental Hazard. Unfortunately, it wasn’t until years later that researchers found out the extent of the Exxon Valdez’s damage and just how large the Concentration of the oil was. According to Sara Graham of Scientific American, “the Exxon Valdez spilled 42 million liters of crude oil and contaminated 1,990 kilometers of shoreline. Some 2,000 sea otters, 302 harbor seals and about 250,000 seabirds died in the days immediately following the spill” (Graham, 2003). But that wasn’t the end of it. The oil has shown incredible Persistence and almost thirty years after the Exxon Valdez disaster occurred, we still feel the many Sublethal Effects that the spill had on the Alaskan

Until now, when the offshore oil rig Deepwater Horizon exploded in 2010 and dumped 4.9 million barrels of oil into Louisiana salt marshes, scientists had no idea which kinds of animals were most affected and what impact it had on the food chain. However, with a new study from a Coastal Waters Consortium team of researchers led by Rutgers University postdoctoral researcher, Michael McCann, has found out what animals and insects affected by the Deepwater Horizon explosion that should be given the top priority for conservation, protection and research. The researchers found that terns, gulls and wading birds were both sensitive to the oil and so deeply connected to other animals in the food chain as predator and prey that losing them would impact

Pollution is also a problem with the impact of the ecosystem. People also can cause pollution which impacts the ecosystem. When people put DDT on their grass it gets into the Great Lakes ecosystem. The runoff carries the DDT into the Great Lakes water then it gets into the Phytoplankton,

Only five years ago thousands of birds, dolphins, and sea turtles were washing up on the beaches of the Gulf of Mexico slicked and smothered by oil. The explosion of British Petroleum's Macondo oil rig off the coast on Louisiana was the largest environmental disaster to have occurred in the United States. This well leaked over 130 million gallons of light crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico, destroying habitats and killing massive amounts of wildlife. Over eighty-seven days the oil spread through the water in a 21 mile plume, creating oil slicks on the surface of the water. Oil within the Gulf caused alarming short-term effects to wildlife in the initial days of the spill, but as these short term effects begin to disappear, BP was quick to claim

In this century, there are nothing new about human corruption of the earth. However, in this article said that today, scientists has investigated the effects of Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989 on Alaskan communities and ecosystems for embryonic salmon and herring. Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska shows that the spill may had much greater impacts on spawning fish than previously recognized because of crude oil can develop hidden heart defects that adjustment for their later survival.

When an environmental researcher from the University of Washington reviewed the literature on the effect of air pollution on birds, she discovered there were limited materials. Olivia Sanderfoot was surprised by the dearth of materials because winged creatures breathe more efficiently than mammals and are likely more susceptible to the negative effects of air pollution.

Nutrient pollution threatens wildlife, humans, and the environment. In Massachusetts, nutrient polluted water has been an issue for quite some time. Popular swimming spots, like Monponsett Ponds, have been closed off to the public because of health hazards caused by nutrient pollution, specifically an excess of nitrates. For over a decade, algal blooms have been closing beaches and killing aquatic life in Massachusetts. Not only is nutrient pollution harmful to the health of wildlife and humans, it also has an effect on the economy. In 2005, red tide events cost the shellfish industry an estimated twenty-one million dollars in Massachusetts In 2004, the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission estimated the cost of a deep-hole aeration system upwards to $411,772 and in 2008, the state spent over $100,000 for artificial circulation (U.S Environmental Protection Agency,). Many programs have been founded and supported by the public to try and help communities to fund these expensive systems. Programs like, the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA), as well as, several government funded programs.

At present, the number of construction waste has accounted for 30% to 40% of the total municipal solid waste. The vast majority of construction waste without any treatment, it was using open dumps or landfill processing manner, causing serious environmental pollution. According to Wang (2014) mixed waste Concrete as the most important part of the construction waste, by estimating the amount of waste in 2003, China has reached 180 million tons of concrete. It has caused a great negative environment impact. At the same time, concrete production requires a lot of sand and gravel aggregate, as natural Gravel continuous exploitation of natural aggregate resources will also become exhausted, in addition, the exploitation cost astonishing transportation fees and power , it will also cause ecological environment experienced a serious damage. However, Make full use of recycled aggregate concrete, not only can effectively reduce the amount of construction waste, but also reducing the damage of construction waste pollution to the natural environment, while taking advantage of waste aggregate manufacturing recycled aggregate concrete can reduce the exploitation of natural aggregate, reaching the aim of sustainable environment development. However, due to there are some technical limitation, the implementation of using recycled concrete cannot be popularized into the civil engineering. For example, on the performance of durability, frost-resistance, and water absorption existed