Environmental effects
Diesel fuel spill on a roadThe presence of oil has significant social and environmental impacts, from accidents and routine activities such as seismic exploration, drilling, and generation of polluting wastes no produced by other alternative energies.
[edit] Extraction
Oil extraction is costly and sometimes environmentally damaging, although Dr. John Hunt of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution pointed out in a 1981 paper that over 70% of the reserves in the world are associated with visible macroseepages, and many oil fields are found due to natural leaks. Offshore exploration and extraction of oil disturbs the surrounding marine environment.[13] But at the same time, offshore oil platforms also form micro-habitats for marine creatures. Extraction may involve dredging, which stirs up the seabed, killing the sea plants that marine creatures need to survive.
[edit] Oil spills
Volunteers cleaning up the aftermath of the Prestige oil spillCrude oil and refined fuel spills from tanker ship accidents have damaged natural ecosystems in Alaska, the Galapagos Islands , and many other places and plural times in Spain (i.e. Ibiza).
