Oil Spill Modeling Lessons Learned over Four Decades of Catastrophic Spills

ABSTRACT Oil spill modeling developed tremendously over the past four decades, from simple floating particle trajectories of the 1979 Ixtoc spill to four-dimensional oil trajectory and fate models coupled with biological exposure, toxicity, and population models begun in the late 1980s to early 1990s, spurred by the Exxon Valdez, other major spills at that time and the Oil Pollution Oct of 1990. While many of the basic concepts and algorithms were developed in the 1990s, advances in computer hardware/software, as well as modeling techniques, have allowed for much better resolution of the needed model inputs, computations and outputs. Data availability and assimilation has greatly improved the performance of meteorological, hydrodynamic and ice (metocean) models, which are critical inputs to oil spill modeling. While large oil spills are traumatic events adversely impacting the environment and socioeconomic interests, they provide opportunities for process studies, model development and validation due to resources supporting the efforts and collections of needed data. Among other lessons, the Ixtoc spill modeling demonstrated the need for comprehensive, time-varying winds and currents from metocean models as input. In modeling the Exxon Valdez, spatially and temporally (hourly) varying winds driven by mountainous terrain, as well as coastal currents, were highly influential to the trajectory and fate of the oil. Measurement data was needed to drive modeling as the existing metocean models were not sufficiently accurate to account for observed oil movements. Other large spills in 1989 were in estuaries and coastal areas where oil movements were primarily driven by river and tidal currents, for which hydrodynamic models were reliable. The 1996 North Cape oil spill was the first for which water column exposure and effects modeling could be verified with field data. The Erika and Prestige spill trajectories were largely driven by the ships' movements while releasing oil and the winds. In modeling the Deepwater Horizon spill, metocean models were able to predict observed surface oil movements for several days and in terms of general overall direction. However, the modeled deepwater plume moved in various directions depending upon the hydrodynamic model used as input, highlighting the need for more accuracy in ocean models below surface waters. Recent developments in instrumentation, remote sensing, and data assimilation should improve both deepwater and surface trajectories. This combined with advancements in toxicity modeling and supporting data will facilitate confidence in biological effects modeling results. Described research and monitoring needs are based on modeling lessons learned.

Considering Cumulative Social Effects of Technological Hazards and Disasters

This article describes research designs utilized to study cumulative sociocultural and psychosocial effects of technological hazards and disasters. We apply these designs to two cases: (a) the Exxon Valdez disaster with a focus on Cordova, Alaska, and (b) the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline project with a focus on the Gitga’at First Nation in Hartley Bay, British Columbia, Canada. The Exxon Valdez oil spill began in 1989 with the grounding of the supertanker on Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound, Alaska. Fisheries collapsed, key species failed to recover, and litigation languished for 19 years, creating an accumulation of impacts from the initial event. The Gitga’at First Nation serves as a case for examining cumulative effects of energy development, specifically the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline project proposed in 2010. Hartley Bay’s sociocultural and psychosocial well-being are under threat from these and other ongoing development activities; they have also endured centuries of government-led subjugation. In studying each of these communities, we used mixed methods approaches that combined document review, observations, interviews, and surveys. Based on our experiences, we contend that the most effective way to examine cumulative social impacts is to employ concepts and theories drawn from existing research to support guidelines, frameworks, and methods.

Desastre Ambiental do Exxon Valdez: temática de planejamento didático no ensino de Biologia

O relato descreve a construção, desenvolvimento e aplicação de uma aula realizada com uma turma de 2º ano do Ensino Médio noturno de uma escola pública Estadual do município de Cerro Largo/RS, a atividade constituiu a elaboração de um plano de aula sobre o derrame de petróleo do navio Exxon Valdez, desenvolvido através do Projeto Interdisciplinar, sendo proposto pela disciplina de Prática de Ensino em Ciências e Biologia III -Metodologia e Didática no Ensino de Ciências e Biologia, a disciplina tem como finalidade integrar os alunos em formação inicial à realidade da sala de aula, buscando associar a teoria e prática.

Aldo Leopold’s Land Ethics in Paul Seed’s Dead Ahead: The Exxon Valdez Disaster

“The Land Ethics” is taken from a part from A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold. It articulates a philosophy that reveres nature and grants it moral status as a part of the community. Leopold argued that humans should conceive their relationships with nature differently. On seeing this fact, ethics focused on humans and property, he urged us to enlarge the community to “include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the land.” The land, then should be preserved and protected. Doing so is right. Not doing so is wrong. “Aldo Leopold says, a land ethic, then, reflects the existence of an ecological conscience, and this in turn reflects a conviction of individual responsibility for the health of the land” (Leopold). Aldo Leopold work brought forth the idea of ecology and revolutionized natural resources management. He passionately introduced a land ethic, a way of seeing our actions on the landscape through a moral lens. Using this ethic, he helped drive consideration of human actions in a more complete and thoughtful manner that effectively valued ecological function rather than simply justifying all action based on human desires. Paul Seed’s Dead Ahead: The Exxon Valdez Disaster is based on real life incident. This movie was released on December 12, 1992 in USA, directed by Paul Seed, produced by John Smithson and David M. Thompson, and distributed by HBO channel. Exxon Valdez oil spilt, the tanker left Alaska on March 23, 1989, at 9:12 p.m. carrying more than 53 million gallons of oil. Just three hours later, after the ship ran into a reef, thousands of gallons of oil spilt in the sea. The sum of oil spilled was sufficient to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool (see. fig. 1). It is the worst environmental disaster in history. “As a result,

Ética Empresarial y Pedagogía Jesuítica. Una reflexión crítica

Desde finales de los años 1970, la Ética Empresarial ha ido ganando terreno como disciplina académica tanto en los Estados Unidos como en Europa, alimentada por tragedias de medio ambiente y escándalos empresariales como, por ejemplo, la Exxon Valdez en 1989 o, recientemente, los fraudes estratégicos de Volkswagen. El presente artículo tiene como objetivo profundizar en el origen y estado actual de la Ética Empresarial con particular atención sobre las contribuciones y posicionamientos de la pedagogía jesuítica al respecto. El análisis llavado a cabo se divide en tres pasos: (A) Las líneas generales del desarrollo de la Ética Empresarial en el ámbito jesuítico español. Aquí se estudian las contribuciones más destacadas para una ética deontológica por parte de autores jesuitas desde los anos sesenta y sus influencias más importantes hasta la actualidad, incluyendo aspectos del debate sobre una ética práctica que sigue la tradición kantiana. (B) Algunas de las aportaciones más recientes a la Ética Empresarial en el ámbito jesuítico de los Estados Unidos. Se profundiza en las propuestas desarrolladas para redefinir lo distintivo de la Ética de Negocios en el ámbito de la enseñanza jesuita que ofrecen un acercamiento y posible diálogo con una ética discursiva de corte moderna. Finalmente, (C) un resumen y una reflexión crítica del perfil jesuítico de la Ética Empresarial.