By: Matthew Shuman 7A

The BP oil spill happened because a rig under the ocean exploded and wasn’t capped properly. BP was responsible for the spill. The oil spill was flooding out in the ocean at up to 5000 barrels per day. We don’t know why this rig exploded under the ocean. Many living things were affected in a bad way because of this accident.

BP tried sending a very big 78 ton cap made of steel and concrete to seal the spill but that did not work because ice crystals clogged the domes. They tried multiple times to stop or slow the oil from spilling but many times it failed. Then they tried to pour cement into the pipes and that was mostly successful to stop the oil from flowing into the gulf of Mexico. People still believe that the oil is still spilling but I think it has stopped and hopefully will never leak again. This cost BP 15 billion dollars to clean up the stop the mess in the gulf of Mexico.

Many people helped to clean the oil spill. Not just the oil that we cleaned, we cleaned all fish and birds that were damaged physically from the oil. They were washed and were returned back to there homes. BP had to pay 5 billion dollars just to clean the mess. What they did is: they hired the people that were previously unemployed to help the oil spill reliefs. They put pipes nearly top of the ocean where all the oil was and it sucked the oil into it. They couldn’t keep up to the amount of barrels in the ocean a day. Eventually it stopped and now the oil is mostly gone. This was a bad time to have the oil spill because the US economy was down and they didn't have enough money as it is but at that time they didn't have the money to help clean the spill.

The impacts are huge on everyone and everything. This oil spill changed many people and animals lives. The most sea creatures and birds were affected the most. Fish couldn’t swim near the top of the ocean because of the oil. Birds couldn’t fly because oil got in their wings. Plenty of money was spent to clean and seal the mess. There was some positive things that happened too. When we cleaned the mess, many people came together and saved lives. Whether it was a fish, bird, human or anything else, we came together in order to clean up. This was a major event and impacted many peoples lives. The day when it happened changed the way BP and all oil companies think because now they have to be extra careful and safe because now they know what could happen if they aren't doing things properly and safe.

I think it relates to the AOI (health and social education because this oil spill affected many peoples health or animals health. Some people died and many animals were soaked in oil and either died or were saved by people.