Almost 12,000 barrels of crude got missed into the ocean following a mishap at La Pampilla oil refinery on 15 January. This got prompted by the eruption of Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha’apai volcano in the Southern Pacific.
While the impact is still being calculated, certain reports suggest this to have expanded across more than 445 acres of coastline, 1,762 acres of ocean and impacted the lives of uncountable marine animals.
A significant number of birds, fishes and other surface marine animals have already died and been washed ashore.
This happens in addition to the disruption caused to human lives and livelihoods, especially the coastal communities depending on fishing and allied practices.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Peru has claimed this oil spill as “the worst ecological disaster that has occurred around Lima in recent times”.
The environmental emergency has been proclaimed, dubbing ‘Repsol’ as the one to blame and hence four of its executives have been banned to travel for next 18-month.
In another blow, there is a news of 50,000 liters (13,209 gallons) of oil leak from the pipeline operated by the Star Petroleum Refining Public Company Limited (SPRC) that took into its ambit 20 km or 12 miles, starting from the country’s highly industrialized eastern boundary.
Being declared a disaster, its cleaning operation has been undertaken by 150 SPRC workers as well as 200 navy personnel.
An Admiral explains to reporters present: “We and the company are still working at sea to reduce the amount of oil by cornering the spill and sucking up the oil and spraying dispersant”.
But how does it affect us and the world? Increasing oil spills with a warming world
Apart from these two instances, Hurricane Ida too, unfortunately, left a trail of mis-happenings as it gave birth to another threat, called oil spills.
But oil spills do normally follow any natural disaster that causes a catastrophe on the oil extracting and storage units. Storms, tsunamis etc., are usually followed by oil spills.
But as climate change has engulfed the world, increasing the sea levels and world temperatures leading to more moisture, these storms will no longer be a rarity and so will be the oil spills.
Therefore, all crucial human infrastructure will require grave protection.
“Whether the water is coming from the ocean up onto the land or from the sky, when it comes in contact with any type of industrial or other infrastructure, that infrastructure needs a higher level of preparedness, a higher level of readiness to deal with the future”.
In this regard, the Gulf of Mexico will be “particularly vulnerable” with the prevalence of storms, sea-level rise, low-lying land along with the existence of oil facilities.
“You’ve just got a lot of infrastructure there, and a lot of oil in a lot of different sort of forms. That can lead to spills from platforms, from rigs, from production facilities — you name it.”
An expert explains: “It seems pretty clear now that we can expect an increase in the frequency and intensity of storms. We’re seeing that happening … and it’s only going to continue to get worse.”
What does an oil spill do?
An oil spill causes many visible and invisible threats to natural environment, causing irreversible ecological damages.
Poisoning, organ damage due to oil ingestion, suffocation for marine beings like whales, dolphins and turtles, inability to regulate body temperatures because of drenched furs and feathers, burns, irritation or neurological issues etc., are some of the direct damages.
While indirectly, oil can degrade the quality and availability of marine food. Those organisms which may survive this scarcity, may not be able to breed and reproduce, wiping out the entire next generation.
Corals, already endangered have apparently been losing their existence from the oil spills.
But Scientists have stated that the impact of this oil spill is far long lasting than one can expect, affecting ocean shelf and sedimentation for a period of 8-10 years.
How can one curb this unfortunate future?
Every doubt has been waned off about an impending climate crisis. Post the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report (AR6), there can be no denial of what lies in future.
According to it, our oceans have risen persistently by 2-8 times since 1970s, will continue to kill marine souls and leave “no pathways” to control the accelerating degradation anymore.
For better or for worse, we are still left with a few options to make things better at our disposal.
Although there is a need for mitigation of such spills, better management of Oil spill Response (OSR), creating resilient local communities and ecosystems can strengthen the operation of oil industry.
The first and the best in our case can be a smart transition to the cleaner fuels, so that there is lesser dependence on dirty fuels, lesser and better protected processing units and even lesser emissions to drive the climate crisis.
Secondly, we can work in better ways with nature-based solutions to restore our planet, utilizing the opportunities in this UN decade of Ecosystem Restoration.