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Petroleum extraction disrupts the equilibrium of earth's carbon cycle by transporting sequestered geologic carbon into the biosphere. The carbon is used by consumers in various forms and a large fraction is combusted into the atmosphere; thus creating massive amounts of the greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, as a waste product.
The Health consequences of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill are health effects related to the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, 2010. An oil discharge continued for 84 days, resulting in the largest oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry, estimated at 206 million gallons (4.9 ...
Research on the environmental impact of the petroleum industry began in earnest, during the mid to late 20th century, as the oil industry developed and expanded. [5] Large scale transport of crude oil increased as a result of the increasing worldwide demand for oil, subsequently increasing the number of oil spills. [5]
An oiled gannet seabird getting the oil washed off.. Most of the impact was on the marine species. Eight U.S. national parks were threatened [4] and more than 400 species that live in the Gulf islands and marshlands are at risk, including the endangered Kemp's ridley turtle, the green turtle, the loggerhead turtle, the hawksbill turtle, and the leatherback turtle.
Environmental factors such as requirements of reaction, mobility of substances, and physiological needs of organisms will affect the rate and degree that contaminants are degraded. [31] Over time, many of these requirements are overcome. This is when petroleum degrading bacteria and archaea are able to mediate oil spills most efficiently.
An oil spill is the release of a liquid petroleum hydrocarbon into the environment, especially the marine ecosystem, due to human activity, and is a form of pollution.The term is usually given to marine oil spills, where oil is released into the ocean or coastal waters, but spills may also occur on land.
The environmental impacts of Natural gas also vary substantially on their extraction processes, much natural gas is a byproduct of heavily polluting petroleum extraction and newer techniques for hydraulic fracturing have made natural gas reserves that were previously unaccusable available, but with many more negative environmental and health ...
One environmental issue is to prevent noxious materials leaching from spent shale into the water supply. [3] The oil shale processing is accompanied by the formation of process waters and waste waters containing phenols , tar and several other products, heavily separable and toxic to the environment. [ 5 ]