Student: Renewable Energy Should Replace Oil.

To the Editor:

Imagine a world where our clean waters no longer exist, where the beaches and marine life are gone. Unless we solve marine oil spills with alternative energy, this will happen sooner than you think. Oil spills affect all marine life, but by using alternative energy we can prevent this from happening.

Oil spills affect every marine habitat and marine animal. If people don’t take action, sharks, marine birdlife and fish/shellfish, plus all marine habitats, will be gone. Hopefully we prevent enough oil spills to make sure they don’t destroy more biomes.  

Oil spills don’t affect a specific species of marine animals, they affect all marine life. Oil can kill animals that don’t even come in contact with it. For example, oil gets on kelp, a fish eats the kelp and gets sick and/or dies and then a predator eats the fish and dies. Oil spills also destroy living habitats and their inhabitants. Seaweed and kelp are common living habitats for fish and if they get covered in oil, the fish’s offspring (eggs) die. This is only what an oil spill does to marine wildlife, oil spills also affect people.

People think that oil spills cannot affect them, but that is not true. Oil can pollute the water we drink. If oil gets into our drinking water, it could make millions of people sick. When a marine oil spill occurs, the tourism business can be destroyed. Without the nice clean waters and sandy beaches that make up a coastal economy, people could be facing hard economic times. Since oil kills and makes fish sick, it can harshly disturb the fishing industry. Due to the lack of a species of fish from the affected area the prices for them will go up. This higher price of fish, and people not taking a chance on contaminated fish, result in a disturbed fishing industry. Though this is a huge problem, there is a way to stop oil spills.  

This horrific problem can be solved with alternative energy. Alternative energy sources, unlike oil, never run out. In the world, there is only so much oil and eventually it will run out, but these alternative energy sources will last forever.  

Two common alternative energy sources are solar and wind energy. These are clean energy sources that don’t release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. These two energy sources are also affordable. While oil goes up in price almost every week, these two sources do not. If we use solar and wind energy more, the demand for oil will be less resulting, in no oil spills. In the end, there is a way to get rid of this horrible problem.

Oil spills affect everyone and everything, unless we solve the with alternative energy. This problem kills the ocean life that we love, and has to be recognized as an environmental problem that affects all things. Oil spills affect you, and never forget that even if you’re not in contact with the oil it can still affect your life. Spills can affect the economy, ocean life and yours, mine, and everyone’s lives. Oil spills need to be stopped no matter how you look at it, we just need to recognize solar and wind energy as a solution.

Sincerely,

Ben Wachtel

Sixth Grade

Hillside Intermediate School