Exxon Valdez Supertanker

Approximately eleven years ago, an area of Alaska's southern coast known as Prince William Sound was a disaster area. A nauseating scent of rotting carcasses and oil filtered through the air. Sea birds screamed in anguish as they fought to survive with oil drenched feathers. Under the surface billions of organisms ceased to live due to the toxicity of the inescapable wrath of the blackened water. Prince William Sound had once been a place of beauty and grace, now it was home to an environmental deathbed. The media broadcast pictures of this nearly unbearable scene throughout the world. Most people, including myself, wondered if the ecological war zone would ever recover

The first reason is the pollution. Any major mining excavation creates a huge amount of waste. This waste is toxic to the environment, and the method for containing it is not 100% guaranteed. They store this waste in large man made holes called tailing dams. There have been many reports of these storage structures breaking and spilling the waste all over the land. This waste would pollute the land and make it uninhabitable. The most affected would be the salmon. Salmon fishing is huge part of the Alaskan life and if the salmon were affected by the mining, a lot of people would lose their jobs.

Hurricane Harvey was a major natural disaster , that many are still overcoming . Harvey did not just destroyed homes and business but also oil refineries. It had impacted the Gulf Coast refineries in Texa. many of their refineries are partially shut down and trying to recover. About 2.4 million barrels of daily refining capacity in Texa is offline. That is about 13 percentage of the US oil usage. Because of the refineries still recovering, there is a shortage in oil. The prices of fuel has gone up everywhere in the country. Because of the higher prices, more people are demanding less.

The purpose of this research paper was to investigate the news media’s depiction of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. The coverage provided by the newspapers was compared to that of scientific journals to access their validity and insight. The reactions the coverage evoked on the public were also studied. The paper specifically addressed the media’s portrayal of the oil company versus that of environmental groups. It was found that the news media did not include the benefits the oil company had had on the people and economy of Alaska. It was also found that up until 1989, many Alaskans were opposed to environmental groups. Next, the paper followed the role the media played on the public’s emotions and subsequent government

National parks and monuments that depended on the government were closed. Millions of dollars were lost because tourists were unable to explore the attractions which halted money that could have been spent at the parks and surrounding businesses as well. Hotels and

When the storm hit, it destroyed multiple oil refineries off of the Gulf of Mexico as well as shut down many more within the area. It was reported that 95 percent of oil production in the Gulf shut down just one day after the hurricane hit and that the effects this had beyond the area that was hit were just as bad (Galea, 2). For instance, the nation saw record high spikes in gas prices simply due to the short term decline in refining ability and gasoline shortages. This shortage of gasoline and increase in gas prices had an even larger effect on the U.S. economy then was anticipated because it took more money out of consumer’s wallets, stalling or slowing the economy overall. In addition, Hurricane Katrina had such a massive effect on the oil industry because America’s main source of oil and gas is in fact the Gulf of Mexico, right where the storm hit (McQuaid and Schleifstein, 2). Thus, had the hurricane hit an area that was less important to the nation’s oil and gas resources, the economic effects would have been much less severe and wide

On April 20th 2010 an explosion on an oil ridge of the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, was the cause of the greatest environmental disaster in history of the United States. This explosion took the lives of eleven men who were working on the ridge, and also ruptured an oil line, which dumped more than 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. This oil spill significantly affected the wildlife of the gulf coast, killing hundreds of fishes, birds, and reptile that call the gulf coast home. The spill also affected global supply chain for major industries.

shutdown. Congress could not agree upon a reasonable budget for the government at the time which led the government to “shutdown all non essential services,” according to ABC News (Goldman). Many people lacked the income needed and vital resources became barren. This majorly affected America’s economy; leaving us in about “$4 billion in tax refunds” (Burwell). The shutdown also had the opportunity to impact import and export licenses which heavily affected trade (Burwell). The Alaskan King Crab market imparticularly took a deep plunge during this time, for Autumn was their main season for fishing but now their fundings were being taken away. Due to the chance of lacking a license for Alaskan Crab, exporting could have a major impact on the Japanese holiday market, being right around the corner (Johnson).

system which in return affected output and food prices. The disaster contributed to rising crude

After Hurricane Katrina, ten months later, jobs plummeted to an average loss of 95,000. “During the month of November 2005, employment had dropped to 105,300 below the previous year’s figure.” (Dolfman pg. 7) Furthermore, Hurricane Karina in doubt did cause more damage to the economy than expected. The hurricane “affected 19% of U.S. oil production.” (Dolfman pg. 7) Hurricane Katrina completely destroyed 113 offshore oil and gas platforms, occurs damages to457 oil and gas pipelines, and spilled as much oil compared to the Exxon Valdez oil disaster. This devastating event “caused oil prices to increase $3 a barrel,” and gas prices sky-rocketed to $5 a gallon. (Dolfman pg. 7) Lastly, Hurricane Katrina’s impact struck Louisiana’s sugar industry, totaling an estimate of $500 million in “annual crop value.” (Amadeo)

With the huge impact of the oil spill on marine life and coastal regions, fishing and tourism industries of the places affected in the Gulf Coast severely declined. In the fishing industry, the incident led to an approximate $2.5 billion loss, while tourist industries experienced a loss of a predicted $23 billion (Jarvis, 2010). In addition, the moratorium placed on deep water drilling left 58,000 workers unemployed (ibid).

The effect of oil spill is usually calculated in terms of damage on the environment, aftermath on marine species, and effect on the tourism and fishery industries. The impact on human health is less known relatively. The financial costs associated with oil spills are also a factor. Arguably, it is a less serious consequence of an Oil Spill, however the financial costs have the potential to bankrupt an organization. BP suffered major financial loss as a result of the Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico. They have paid up to $1.5 billion in an effort to settle various claims and compensation. (BP, n.d)

During the economic crash in 2008 the gas prices were around five Dollars a gallon when two dollars per gallon would’ve been a normal price. How did everyday lives of people change because of this? Well, many people made permanent changes in their lives because of this. A lot of people sold their cars and switched to fuel efficient cars and gave up their happiness and satisfaction of driving big engine SUVs and sports cars.

A disaster can hurt the economy in two ways. It can reduce supply, that is, it

Over 8000 animals were reported dead 6 months after the spill, including many that were on the endangered species list (7). Subsequently, seafood prices increased affecting restaurants and supermarkets. People abstained from going to beaches covered in oil, water sports and other aquatic attractions which meant that all organisations involved in tourism such as hotels, tour operators, restaurants and boat rental companies were affected (1). Furthermore, the method of cleaning up the oil by “in-situ burning” (burning oil in a contained area on the surface of the water), had adverse effects on the environment as the burning off of the oil led to mutations and increased mortality due to pollution.