Over the last few decades, the issue of climate change has continued to become an increasingly hot topic, not only in the political field, but in the environmental field as well. The effects of climate change can be seen in many different ways, including global ice cap melting, warming temperatures, and greater health risks. The causes are mainly due to the increase of carbon emissions by big companies, and the lack of change that companies either can not do yet or just refuse to do. Due to this, there has been an increased need for more accessible ways for renewable energy, but that does not solve the main issue of big companies not taking control of their actions. The most famous example of this in the past two decades would be the 2010 BP oil spill.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the BP oil spill on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig off the coast of Louisiana leaked 134 million gallons of oil into the then known Gulf of Mexico and lasted over three months. This enormous event has caused damages in the billions to the natural ecosystems of the Gulf of Mexico. To be specific, the total amount, as of a 2017 study by Virginia Tech, is $17.2 billion dollars. This means that this event cost the lives of many native plants and animals in the Gulf and even 13 people died on the rig, with many more injuries, leading to impacted ecosystems, and many nationally protected species to be exposed to oil due to this, as said by the NOAA, and emotional damage to the mass amount of injuries. The total damage may even be higher since it could have increased over the past eight years, potentially due to damage that may have surfaced after this study. Overall, this catastrophic event cost BP about $65 billion dollars as of 2018, according to Reuters.
The point here is that events like Deepwater Horizon have caused increased emphasis on making sure events like this do not happen, and more discussion on the dangers of climate output. As an overall effect of these events, there has been an increase in climate events like hurricanes, heatwaves, and droughts. This is due to the mass amount of greenhouse gases that we as humans put into the atmosphere. The National Centers for Environmental Information, a subdivision of the NOAA, found that the water closest to the surface of the Gulf of America had effectively doubled in temperature when compared to the global ocean from 1970 to 2020. This means that the Gulf of America basically multiplied in temperature when compared to other major oceans, like the Pacific or Atlantic. Furthermore, this can lead to hurricanes that rapidly intensify, or get stronger quickly. For example, hurricanes like Hurricane Charley (2004), Hurricane Ian (2022), and Hurricane Milton (2024), the latter hurricane, tying for the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic at 180mph. The main cause of these rapidly intensifying storms was the mass temperature increase that has been seen in the Gulf since all of these storms intensified there.
Ultimately, we as humans need to be more eco-friendly in our day to day lives, as well as these big companies that can contribute billions of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere on a yearly basis (Our World in Data). If you need a few tips, our resident Renewable Energy Program teacher Mr. Johnson has some tips. These tips are recycling goods, increasing your home efficiency using solar energy like solar panels, and using less energy, as well as using your car less for other options like biking or walking, which is also healthy.
