| Oil Accidents |
| Oil spills are one of the most dangerous accidents that can occur in Earth's waters. It not only affects the people, but it can also infect the animals in the water or on land. Many animals die by this substance becuase it induces many side effects that can happen to them. For instance, it can quickly coat a duck's feathers and make them too heavy to escape into the sky. It can also remove the animal's job to maintain homeostasis and eventually kill them. An extremely harmful environmental accident that happened in history is the Exxon Valdez incident. It was the worst recorded oil spill disaster in North American history. This incident occured just south of Alaska where there is major oil refineries and traffic. Otters have been known to scratch out their own eyes to rid themselves of this crippling substance. The oil spill eventually traveled outwards 1,200 miles along the Alaskan coast, which is equivalent of the distance between Minneapolis to New York. This accident was the worst so far in United States waters but only the 29th worst oil-related disaster in the world. Oil spills and accidents have been on the increase steadily as more supertankers arrive over the horizon. |
| In Curitiba, Brazil, over one million gallons of crude oil leaked into the Barigue River, in the year 2000. It became Brazil's worst oil spill disaster in the last 25 years. The oil leaked from the poorly matained refinery owned and operated by the state-owned comapny, Petrobras. |
| This year, on March 24, an oil refinery explosion occured near Houston, Texas. This refinery, owned by British Petroleum, was the third-largest in the country, producing over 460,000 gallons of crude oil a day. The explosion killed 14 poeple and 70 more were critically injured. The explosion was felt miles away as cities shook under the force of the blow while fires raged, taking over two hours to be extinguished. |
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