{"id":4286,"date":"2018-04-12T20:00:28","date_gmt":"2018-04-12T13:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sosmoitruong.com\/?p=4286"},"modified":"2018-04-10T15:34:09","modified_gmt":"2018-04-10T08:34:09","slug":"oil-spill-kills-more-than-2400-animals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sosenvironment.com\/en\/oil-spill-kills-more-than-2400-animals\/","title":{"rendered":"Oil Spill Kills More Than 2,400 Animals"},"content":{"rendered":"

An unclear amount of oil has leaked into Colombia’s waterways, and environmental activists are saying an oil company is to blame.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

At the beginning of March, an oil well in northern\u00a0Colombia<\/a>\u00a0burst, spewing an unclear amount of oil into the\u00a0Magdalena River<\/a>, a principal waterway that flows about 950 miles northward through the western half of the country. Over the next month, reports say the crude\u00a0killed more than 2,400 animals, including cattle, fish, birds, and reptiles<\/a>, in the department of\u00a0Santander<\/a>.\u00a0More than 1,000 tree species in the area have been damaged<\/a>, and families have been relocated and\u00a0treated for vomiting, headaches, and dizziness<\/a>\u00a0associated with the spill.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I have practically nothing to eat, we have lived through the river all our lives and the contamination has already reached the Magdalena,” one resident\u00a0tells local media<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Conservationists say this environmental disaster is\u00a0the worst the country has seen in decades<\/a>, and the number of barrels spilled is unclear.\u00a0Ecopetrol<\/a>, the state-owned oil company that\u00a0some environmental activists are blaming for the spill<\/a>, says there were\u00a0550 barrels of crude<\/a>\u00a0spilled, but some local outlets are reporting that\u00a0as many as 24,000 barrels were spilled<\/a>. (Read about\u00a0oil spills and their impacts<\/a>.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Although Ecopetrol says nearly\u00a01,250 animals have been rescued<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0the spill is under control<\/a>, the crude continues to flow, locals say. So far, it’s seeped about 15 miles to contaminate the\u00a0Lizama and Sogamoso Rivers<\/a>. An\u00a0investigation of the cause of the leak is ongoing<\/a>, and\u00a0few details have been revealed<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Oil spills often have lasting effects<\/a>, and the country has had other environmental problems. Last week, a report revealed that Colombia’s\u00a0Cauca River<\/a>, which is south-west of the spill site, is unsafe for humans. According to the Cali-based newspaper\u00a0El Pa\u00eds<\/a>,\u00a0carcinogenic heavy metals have been found in fish species<\/a>\u00a0eaten by humans. (Related: “Why the Gulf Oil Spill Isn’t Going Away<\/a>“)<\/span><\/p>\n

Oil spills don’t discriminate geographically. In 2013, a\u00a0train carrying crude catastrophically derailed in Canada<\/a>, killing people, destroying buildings, and, of course, spewing oil. In 2010, the infamous\u00a0Deepwater Horizon oil spill<\/a>\u00a0leaked more than 200 million gallons into the Gulf of Mexico, christening it\u00a0the worst spill in U.S. history<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Colombia oil spill mirrors\u00a0several that happened in Peru in 2016<\/a>, which researcher and National Geographic Explorer\u00a0Rebecca Wolff<\/a>covered as an independent journalist. Some reports say that\u00a0more than 450 local people sought medical attention for health problems related to oil contamination<\/a>, but others likely suffered without treatment.<\/span><\/p>\n

“When oil spills happen, just coming into contact with oil in the short term has incredibly horrible side-effects,” Wolff says.<\/span><\/p>\n

Oil spills not only affect the flora and fauna of the environment, but farmland as well. Contaminated fields prevent locals from cultivating the land, and\u00a0chemically poisoned fish<\/a>\u2014a protein-packed dietary staple\u2014must be taken out of the diet.<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition to the symptoms reported by the Colombian locals,\u00a0people suffering from oil contamination<\/a>\u00a0can experience respiratory issues, skin rashes, fatigue, and seemingly undiagnosed illnesses lasting months or years. Spill-related conditions can also kill children. (Related: “Gulf Oil Spill Helps Explain Air Pollution Mystery<\/a>“)<\/span><\/p>\n

Wolff adds that it can take days for local government to get involved right after a spill, so community members are often left to try to clean up their environment without adequate protection.\u00a0Not enough studies have been done<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0the lasting consequences<\/a>\u00a0of oil spills, she says, since government intervention normally stops 60 days after the initial spill.<\/span><\/p>\n

“There is continual danger for years and years of what\u2019s in the fish and what’s in the water,” Wolff says. “If you ruin the water and the land that people depend on, their livelihood is gone.”<\/span><\/p>\n

HOPE FOR THE FUTURE<\/span><\/h2>\n

Local and international attention can shed light on oil spills and their consequences, ultimately helping communities recover over time.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Usually, people are just really angry or upset for a long time to come,” Wolff says. She adds that cases\u00a0locals brought to court about the Peruvian oil spills<\/a>\u00a0“kind of sent the message to the country that people were not OK with this.”<\/span><\/p>\n

She says long-term medical care and financial support are crucial for helping communities respond to these types of disasters, as are support and recognition from the government.<\/span><\/p>\n

“The world needs to pay better attention and have better response plans,” Wolff says. “[Oil spills happen] all over the world, but I don’t think we’ve come to a [far enough] way to respond and support [the affected community] afterwards.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Source: Nationalgeographic<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An unclear amount of oil has leaked into Colombia’s waterways, and environmental activists are saying an oil company is to blame. At the beginning of March, an oil well in northern\u00a0Colombia\u00a0burst, spewing an unclear amount of oil into the\u00a0Magdalena River, a principal waterway that flows about 950 miles northward through the western half of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":4287,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[460,461,462,463,464,465,466,467,468,454,400,390],"class_list":["post-4286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tin-tuc-en","tag-animal","tag-environmental-disaster","tag-spill","tag-leak","tag-environmental-problems","tag-gulf-of-mexico","tag-contamination","tag-flora","tag-fauna","tag-oil-spill","tag-environment","tag-oil"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sosenvironment.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sosenvironment.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sosenvironment.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sosenvironment.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sosenvironment.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sosenvironment.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sosenvironment.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sosenvironment.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sosenvironment.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sosenvironment.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}