Oil spills can be dramatic and devastating, but they are not the biggest contributor to ocean oil pollution – not by far.
A report released Wednesday makes this distinction between fossil fuel runoff from highways, parking lots and other land-based infrastructure, mostly related to transportation. According to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine report, “Oil in the Sea”, these sources are by far the largest and fastest growing contributor to ocean oil pollution. . At around 1.2 million metric tons per year – a very rough estimate, given the large data gaps – the amount of oil that is transferred from land to sea is at least an order of magnitude greater than the amount from any other source.
“When you look at this ‘consumption’ figure, it dwarfs all the others,” Victoria Broje, senior emergency management specialist for Shell and one of the report’s authors, told reporters at a media event on Wednesday. . The report was co-sponsored by the American Petroleum Institute, a fossil fuel industry trade group, in addition to federal agencies in the United States and Canada.
The report builds on decades of previous research from the National Academies — a federally chartered research organization — that highlights the growing risk of oil pollution in the world’s oceans. Since the previous edition of Oil in the Sea was published in 2002, the organization says land-based sources of oil pollution have increased up to 20 times, in part due to population growth and the use increase in motor vehicles.
The increased use of petroleum-based chemical fertilizers, de-icing compounds and waste products containing petroleum products like printer ink also contribute to ocean oil pollution, the National Academies said. (Plastics, which are made from fossil fuels, were not considered in the report despite being a major contributor to ocean pollution.) In most cases, oil is transported by water – it mixes with stormwater drainage systems, streams, rivers, lakes. , and underground water reservoirs and eventually washed out to sea. Once in the ocean, even low concentrations of oil can jeopardize marine ecosystems over time, impairing the ability of animals to move , breathe, grow and eat. Higher exposure rates can lead to “mass mortalities” among species.
According to the National Academies, the second largest contributor to ocean oil pollution is “natural seeps,” or places like faults in the seabed where crude oil can gush from offshore reservoirs without human influence. Researchers estimate that these seeps add some 100,000 tonnes of oil to the oceans each year, a number far greater than the estimated contribution from oil spills and other releases from the fossil fuel industry. Aside from the anomalous, albeit devastating, Deepwater Horizon oil spill — which in 2010 contaminated the Gulf of Mexico with more than 200 million gallons of oil — national academies say spills since 2010 have only contributed to a relatively “minor” amount of oil pollution. the oceans.
Ed Levine, former science support coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and vice-chairman of the committee that wrote the report, said oil spills still pose significant risks to marine ecosystems because the oil they release is so much more concentrated than oil. from terrestrial sources. “As with everything,” he told Grist, “the dose and the concentration is what will kill you or not.” He also pointed to the risks of future spills from the country’s extensive and aging fossil fuel infrastructure, especially in the face of more frequent and intense natural disasters.
To prevent oil pollution of the oceans from getting worse, Levine said policymakers should focus on reducing runoff from land-based sources such as cars and roads, in addition to protecting coastal infrastructure from combustibles. fossil fuels against hurricanes and rising sea levels. His broader demand, however, is that governments invest more in research — and not just after high-profile oil spills. He said he saw a “boom and bust” cycle in which research intensifies right after an event like the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989, only to wane over time.
The National Academies have long called for more research, but with disappointing results. The group’s previous report outlined 17 ways federal agencies could support better research to answer unanswered questions about ocean oil pollution — including where it comes from, how it behaves in the environment, and what it does to the people and ecosystems exposed to it. . But national academies say only three of those recommendations have been met; the others were ignored or only “partially processed”. No progress has been made in quantifying the amount of fuel spilled by planes, for example, and agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the US Geological Survey have failed to establish partnerships with the state and local authorities to determine the extent of oil pollution in major rivers and ports.
Levine said he could likely identify “hundreds” of additional areas where more research is needed, including on the human health impacts of ocean oil pollution. Although the National Academies have made significant progress since the 2002 report, he added, “we believe we are still only scratching the surface of what we can do.”
Oil spills can be dramatic and devastating, but they are not the biggest contributor to ocean oil pollution – not by far.
A report released Wednesday makes this distinction between fossil fuel runoff from highways, parking lots and other land-based infrastructure, mostly related to transportation. According to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine report, “Oil in the Sea”, these sources are by far the largest and fastest growing contributor to ocean oil pollution. . At around 1.2 million metric tons per year – a very rough estimate, given the large data gaps – the amount of oil that is transferred from land to sea is at least an order of magnitude greater than the amount from any other source.
“When you look at this ‘consumption’ figure, it dwarfs all the others,” Victoria Broje, senior emergency management specialist for Shell and one of the report’s authors, told reporters at a media event on Wednesday. . The report was co-sponsored by the American Petroleum Institute, a fossil fuel industry trade group, in addition to federal agencies in the United States and Canada.
The report builds on decades of previous research from the National Academies — a federally chartered research organization — that highlights the growing risk of oil pollution in the world’s oceans. Since the previous edition of Oil in the Sea was published in 2002, the organization says land-based sources of oil pollution have increased up to 20 times, in part due to population growth and the use increase in motor vehicles.
The increased use of petroleum-based chemical fertilizers, de-icing compounds and waste products containing petroleum products like printer ink also contribute to ocean oil pollution, the National Academies said. (Plastics, which are made from fossil fuels, were not considered in the report despite being a major contributor to ocean pollution.) In most cases, oil is transported by water – it mixes with stormwater drainage systems, streams, rivers, lakes. , and underground water reservoirs and eventually washed out to sea. Once in the ocean, even low concentrations of oil can jeopardize marine ecosystems over time, impairing the ability of animals to move , breathe, grow and eat. Higher exposure rates can lead to “mass mortalities” among species.
According to the National Academies, the second largest contributor to ocean oil pollution is “natural seeps,” or places like faults in the seabed where crude oil can gush from offshore reservoirs without human influence. Researchers estimate that these seeps add some 100,000 tonnes of oil to the oceans each year, a number far greater than the estimated contribution from oil spills and other releases from the fossil fuel industry. Aside from the anomalous, albeit devastating, Deepwater Horizon oil spill — which in 2010 contaminated the Gulf of Mexico with more than 200 million gallons of oil — national academies say spills since 2010 have only contributed to a relatively “minor” amount of oil pollution. the oceans.
Ed Levine, former science support coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and vice-chairman of the committee that wrote the report, said oil spills still pose significant risks to marine ecosystems because the oil they release is so much more concentrated than oil. from terrestrial sources. “As with everything,” he told Grist, “the dose and the concentration is what will kill you or not.” He also pointed to the risks of future spills from the country’s extensive and aging fossil fuel infrastructure, especially in the face of more frequent and intense natural disasters.
To prevent oil pollution of the oceans from getting worse, Levine said policymakers should focus on reducing runoff from land-based sources such as cars and roads, in addition to protecting coastal infrastructure from combustibles. fossil fuels against hurricanes and rising sea levels. His broader demand, however, is that governments invest more in research — and not just after high-profile oil spills. He said he saw a “boom and bust” cycle in which research intensifies right after an event like the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989, only to wane over time.
The National Academies have long called for more research, but with disappointing results. The group’s previous report outlined 17 ways federal agencies could support better research to answer unanswered questions about ocean oil pollution — including where it comes from, how it behaves in the environment, and what it does to the people and ecosystems exposed to it. . But national academies say only three of those recommendations have been met; the others were ignored or only “partially processed”. No progress has been made in quantifying the amount of fuel spilled by planes, for example, and agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the US Geological Survey have failed to establish partnerships with the state and local authorities to determine the extent of oil pollution in major rivers and ports.
Levine said he could likely identify “hundreds” of additional areas where more research is needed, including on the human health impacts of ocean oil pollution. Although the National Academies have made significant progress since the 2002 report, he added, “we believe we are still only scratching the surface of what we can do.”