AURA

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NOAA website retrieved 1/29/2019: “Crude oil and natural gas naturally enter the ocean at areas known as 'seeps'. These hydrocarbons leak out of the ground through fractures and sediments, in the same way freshwater springs bring water to the surface. The waters off southern California are one area in particular which host hundreds of known, naturally occurring oil and gas seeps. These seeps contribute about 5 million gallons of oil to the ocean annually, with wide year to year variation. They likely have been leaking for thousands of years.”

So obviously nature has a way of dealing with such matters.

It’s just that humanity’s lust for energy has made such matters more consequential. 29 million gallons of petroleum enter North American ocean waters each year from land-based runoff, polluted rivers, airplanes, boats, jet skis, whatever. Less than 8 percent comes from tanker or pipeline spills according to stats provided by the Marine Technology Society and Water Encyclopedia.

Birds that can’t flap their wings thanks to an oil spill make the headlines, but what doesn’t is that it takes ten to twenty years for things to get back to normal after a spill according to bio­geochemist John Farrington, dean of graduate studies at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

And every minute of every day the remains of oil we use adds to the problem, and that’s what should strike wonder into the soul of every hotrodder and sedate sedan driver alike. What are we doing?

I'll be glad when they run out of gas.  (lyrics)