Oil Price - The Deepwater Horizon oil spill is widely considered one of, if not the, worst environmental disasters in history. Around 4.9 million barrels of oil leaked into the Gulf of Mexico, polluting vast swathes of the ocean and local beaches, and proving deadly to much of the marine life in the region. After 3 months the leak was officially halted and clean-up to this day continues, and the Gulf slowly returns to its former self. Researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Universidad Autonoma de Aguascalientes have discovered that the chemical dispersants used to treat the oil and break it down have actually increased the toxicity of the oil by as much as 52 times. Over two million gallons of dispersants have been released to mix with the oil in attempts to break up the oil slicks and clean up the ocean. However tests have found that the mixed oil and chemical dispersant fluid vastly increase the mortality rates of rotifers, the microscopic, plankton-like animals that form the base of the Gulf’s food chain.
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