For many years oil spills have been extremely common. These have received countless hours of media coverage, but the public’s concern seems to be dwindling in the recent years. Although there seems to be a rising awareness on our impact in the environment, many natural crimes go unnoticed. Within this past month, an offense on our oceans has been committed, and no one has even paid attention.
One of the biggest and most well-known gas and oil companies, Shell has spilled a total of 111,000 gallons in the surrounding coasts of the US. Just recently, Shell released a statement saying, “No release [of oil] is acceptable.” Is this true with the seemingly uncaring attitude to the atrocities that they’ve committed? Why haven’t we heard anything about these important and dangerous crimes?
Earlier this May, 90,000 gallons of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico. The location might sound like a broken record to you, but this has occurred again. Only 97 miles off the coast of Louisiana, a spill has changed a once beautiful habitat for many animals. This has become a quite hushed topic, with little to no large media coverage. For almost two weeks the public has no idea of the occurrences that have occurred on Shell’s behalf. The coast guard stated there is little to no environmental impact, but many of you probably remember the 2010 oil spill that caused months of media coverage. Not only covered on news, but many commercials were based around this disaster. Many months were spent cleaning up the local ecosystem plus the wildlife. It was a problem that required extensive help to clean up.
Now, another spill has occurred in the California coast near San Joaquin County. 21,000 gallons of oil have been leaked into the ocean, and the media still hasn’t said much about it. The California spill is said to cover about 10,000 square feet. Searching through the past of Shell, you will see that this exact pipeline has faulted recently, only eight months ago.
Shell has started a clean-up plan for the spill in the Gulf, but little has been stated on Shell’s website about the California spill. Shell has only started to clean up this horrible mess, but they aren’t moving quickly. On the 16th of May they released a statement about what they are doing to fix this mistake, but they are not doing their best. Mobilizing about 150 people, the majority of them are largely concerned on saving the oil. They’ve gathered quite a few barrels of a water oil mixture. Only one vessel is staying around to assess the environmental impact that these spills will have on the ecosystem.
These horrible crimes committed on nature are extremely important, and it is the media’s duty and responsibility to let these be heard. Why is there no coverage on this? There have been two accidents close to highly populated areas, and the public is still in the dark. After each update, Shell still includes the sentence: “No release is acceptable, and we remain focused on safe operations.” How could this be true if they are ignoring and skirting around these very important topics of their mistake? Will the media continue to allow Shell to get away with this? This will affect us, and the actions of Shell can change this earth and the way we view these type of events forever.
