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Here are some petro factoids that might offer some perspective - at least to non-dogmatic Environmentalists.
‘’Natural seepage of crude oil from the sea floor into the marine environment of North America exceed 47 million gallons and 180 million gallons globally.
“Activities associated with extraction and production introduce an average of 880 thousand gallons in North American waters and 11 million gallons worldwide.”
Source, “Oil in the Sea III” Committee on Oil in the Sea - National Research Council.
“Natural seeps from the earth’s undersea strata introduce about 1700 barrels of oil a day in U.S. marine waters, which is approximately 150 times the amount from offshore oil and gas activities.”
Source, “National Academy of Sciences 2003-2004.
“Natural seepage introduces 160 kilotons into North American Waters annually. Total from exploration, extraction, transportation and refining is approximately 12 kilotons.”
Source, “U.S. Dept. of the Interior - Minerals Management Service 2004.
“Activities associated with exploration and production account for 3 - 5% of all releases due to anthropogenic activity.”
Source, “Committee on Oil in the Sea: Inputs and Effects - National Research Council - National Academy of Science 2003”
Here are some more fun factoids.
1. More oil was spilled into the sea from shipping losses every 6 weeks of W.W.II than in the entire 65 years since the war’s end. The oceans survived.
2. The “hopane marker” of petro -chemical pollution in the sea reached it’s maximum in 1946 and has been in decline ever since.
3. In 1792-6, George Vancouver, Captain Cooke’s famous navigator made notes in his log regarding numerous, vast oil slicks off the Pacific Coast of North America. Around the middle of the 16th century Juan Cabrillo sailed through oil slicks that stretched for many miles along the California coast. Mountains of tar glistened along the shore line.
4. Over the past 20,000 years sea levels have risen more than 300 feet and the erosion caused by rising levels has increased “natural seepage.”
5.University of Ca. Santa Barbara researchers (Hardly a neo-con group) find that off shore drilling reduces natural seepage of crude oil by more than 50%.
6. 20-30 tons of oil leak from southern California fissures every day!.
7. More than 70% of anthropogenic petro/chem pollution in the sea comes from storm drains - urban run off from; parking lots, roads, asphalt roofs and millions of miles of emulsifying asphalt roads around the world.
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