4 Dec 12 Oil Spills by [5th Grade Student] Let’s go to Imagination Land. You are a whale, you need to swim up to the water surface to breathe and you can’t see anything other than a big thick layer of oil. What will you do? What do you think? Later, as you move around, you see all the oil spread far across the ocean and see numerous dead sea creatures. Oil spills are one of the biggest man­made disasters that can happen. They can affect animals and destroy the environment they spill into. Oil spills in water are especially devastating as they can spread for hundreds of miles. However, oil spills on land can also be quite dangerous and deadly as they can destroy forests and rivers. It is our duty to look after our natural environment and to ensure animals are not becoming extinct. Once an animal specie is lost it is gone for good and cannot be replaced. What a sad world it will be if we end up with less animals and varieties of plants. Our bio­diversity will suffer. Oil companies need to respect the environment! There are many solutions to these dreadful disasters. There most common ones are: Put a boom (floating balloon­like fence) around the spill so it doesn’t spread any further; use chemicals to break up the oil spill such as dispersants to break up the oil; or use super absorbent materials to soak the oil. If we are to reduce the number of damaging oil spills in the world, we need to ensure that oil companies take greater care when extracting oil and that they run environmental protection programmes. So let’s take action now! Work Cited "Oil Spill." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 12 Mar. 2012. Web. 04 Dec. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_spill>. "Oil Spills." Oil Spills. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Dec. 2012. <http://oceanworld.tamu.edu/resources/oceanography­book/oilspills.htm> "Oil Spills." ThinkQuest. Oracle Foundation, n.d. Web. 04 Dec. 2012. <http://library.thinkquest.org/CR0215471/oil_spills.htm> "How Do You Clean up an Oil Spill?" How Do You Clean up an Oil Spill? N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Dec. 2012. <http://www.ceoe.udel.edu/oilspill/cleanup.html>. "A Complete Solution for Oil­Spill Cleanup." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 03 Oct. 2012. Web. 04 Dec. 2012. <http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121003150906.htm>.