Introduction

“Modern technology owes ecology an apology.” States Alan M. Eddison, director of Green Earth’s Affairs. Technology has improved the way of life for people in the 21^st century yet it creates more conflict everywhere else. A great example of this claim would be the Oil rigs that are established worldwide. These rigs are a not an amenity but rather a need. In fact, statistics show that in 1996 the world consumes 71.7 million barrels of oil per day. By 2020 the total amount is supposed to be a groundbreaking 100 million barrels per day. Oil drives both our economy and our way of life. However, ecology does not agree. 0.25% of the oil taken out is released back into the oceans. Out of this total amount 50% comes from oil spills! Though the amounts do not seem to be extraneous one must take into account the effects that oil has on the ecosystem and ecology in general. Land, sea, and air dwelling organisms can be affected by an oil spill. An example would be a bird, when an oil spill occurs the oil covers their feathers and the bird attempts to clean themselves up. However the oil enters their inner body and acts as a poison and furthermore kills this vital part of nature. Another effect of oil spills is on physical features such as beaches and other shorelines. Oil deposits and often ruins a beach making the beach useless. One cannot stop an oil spill from occurring but one can help keep future oil spills clean for the environment and useful for the people. Crude oil is a substance made of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and sulfur. Crude oil can be found in ocean floor and in the floor of freshwater ecosystems. In both these ecosystems bacteria thrive and feed on the crude oil released in oil spills. However, one can question whether salt water compatible bacteria are able to digest crude oil at a greater pace than those bacteria indigenous to freshwater. Due to the abundance of salt water rigs in the oil industry one can hypothesize that the salt water bacteria have a greater efficiency rate in the digestion of crude compared to the freshwater bacteria. The independent variable is the saltwater and freshwater environments whereas the dependent variable is the rate of carbon degradation due to the crude oil loss in the water.

The bibliography for the project is located under References in the Blog Archive.