Enviromental file

1- search information about toxic dumping in the

seas, caused by accidents, wars, natural
desasrers,etc
2- search information about the melting ice in
Greenlang
3- Make a graphic with the evolution of the
temperatures in Spain the last years
4- look for images of the two ice shelves on the
Antartic
5- make a list with the terminology you have used
and learnt in this file (related to the environment)
 Exxon Valdez

• On March 24th, 1989, the oil tanker Exxon Valdez departed from the
Valdez oil terminal in Valdez, Alaska, (on its 28th voyage), heading
south through Prince William Sound, with a full load (52 million gallons)
of oil. Captain Joseph Hazelwood radioed to the Coast Guard station
that he would be changing course in order to avoid some growlers,
small icebergs which had drifted into the sound from the
Columbia Glacier. The captain received permission to move into the
northbound lane. Before retiring to his cabin, Captain Hazelwood
instructed his third mate, Gregory Cousins, to "start coming back into
the lanes" once the ship was abeam Busby Island Light, some two
minutes ahead.
• Although Cousins did give the instructions to the helmsman, a relapsed
alcoholic, to steer the vessel to the right, the vessel was not turning
sharply enough and at 12:04 a.m. on March 24, the vessel hit Bligh Reef
. It is not known whether Cousins gave the orders too late or the
helmsman did not follow instructions properly.
• The spilled oil affected 1,900 km of Alaskan coastline. Although Exxon's
initial report of 10.8 million gallons (40,900 m³) of oil spilled has been
widely accepted, other sources estimate the spill at 35 million gallons
(110,000 m³) [1][2]. None of the estimates of the size of the spill have
ever been verified, as ExxonMobil has not made their records public.
 Prestige
The Prestige was an oil tanker whose sinking in 2002
off the Galician coast caused a large oil spill. The
spill polluted thousands of kilometers of coastline
and more than one thousand beaches on the
Spanish and French coast, as well as causing great
damage to the local fishing industry. The spill is the
largest environmental disaster in Spain's history.
 Torrey Canyon
• The Torrey Canyon was the first of the big supertankers,
supertankers, capable of carrying a cargo of 120,000
tons of crude oil,
oil, and was wrecked off the western coast of Cornwall in 1967 causing an
environmental disaster.
disaster.
• She was built in the United States in 1959 and originally had a capacity of 60,000 tons but she
was enlarged in Japan to 120,000 tons capacity. At the time of the accident she was owned by
Barracuda Tanker Corporation,
Corporation, a subsidiary of Union Oil Company of California but chartered to
British Petroleum.
Petroleum. She was 974 feet 5 inches long, 125 feet 5 inches beam and 68 feet 8 inches
draught.
• She left Mena al-Ahmadi in Kuwait on her final voyage on 19 February 1967 with full cargo of
crude oil, and reached the Canary Islands on 14 March.
March. From there she was routed to Milford
Haven.
Haven.
• On March 18,18, 1967,
1967, owing to a navigational error, the Torrey Canyon struck Pollard's Rock in the
Seven Stones reef between the Isles of Scilly and Land's End,End, Cornwall,
Cornwall, causing major
environmental damage on the Cornish and French coasts.
• This was the first major oil spill and no plans had been prepared beforehand to deal with it.
Unsuccessful attempts were made to float the ship off the reef,reef, and one of the Dutch salvage
team was killed. The ship broke apart after being stranded on the reef for several days. Attempts
to use foam booms to contain the oil were also of limited success due to their fragility in high
seas.
• The Fleet Air Arm bombed the wreck in an effort to sink it, burn off the slick and reduce the oil
spilling from it. Although the operation was declared a success, the Navy came in for some
criticism as around a quarter of the 42 bombs dropped on the stationary target failed to hit it.
The bombing was followed by Royal Air Force and Fleet Air Arm aircraft dropping petrol and
napalm to try to burn the oil.
• Around 120 miles of Cornish coast and 80 kilometres of France was contaminated and around
15,000 sea birds killed along with huge numbers of marine organisms before the 270 square mile
slick dispersed. Further damage was caused by the heavy use of detergents to break up the
slick. Some 42 vessels sprayed over 10,000 tons of detergents onto the floating oil to emulsify
Evolution temperatures in
Spain
• Graphs of evolution of the diversions
of the monthly temperatures of the fall
troposfera for the north hemisphere
(fuchsia) and for the south (blue)
hemisphere, from January, 1990 to
June, 2006. The values are the
diversions with regard to the monthly
averages of the period of reference
1979-1998.
• The Hemisphere South does not seem
to want to warm up and in the last
months his(her,your) behavior
separates much of the behavior of the
Hemisphere North. The global
temperature departure of the latter
June of 2006 in the Hemisphere North
has been very high, just overcome in
April, 1998 because of the Child. Is
observed that both hemispheres
answered almost to the unison to the
disturbances of the eruption of the
Pinatubo (June, 1991) (cooling) and to
the intense Child of 1997-98
(warming).
Evolution temperature in the
world
• Evolution of the global everage
temperature in surface measured up
to thermometers (red line) and in the
fall troposfera (between(among) 0 and
3.000 meters) measured by satellites
(blue line). There are represented the
differences of the monthly
temperatures with regard to the
monthly averages of the period of
twenty years 1979-1998 (only
measurements exist satelitarias from
1979).
• A great similarity is observed
between(among) both graphs. The
most notable thing is the thermal
decrease happened after the eruption
of the volcano Pinatubo, in June, 1991,
(minimum in August, 1992) and the
ascent of the global everage
temperature during The Child of 1997-
98 (maximum in April, 1998).
Melting ice in
Greennland
 Greenland loses every year an average of
approximately 240 cubic kilometres of ice.

• The thaw in Greenland there is

triplicate in the last years in a new
test(proof) of the effects of the global
warming of the planet, according to a
study that spreads the magazine
Science.
Antartic peninsula
 List with vocabulary
Toxic residues Toxic dumping
To rise the Natural disasters
level of the sea Melting ice
Spilled Temperatures
Ecosystem Oil tanker
Biosphere Oil spill
Acid rain Global warming
Aerosol Crude oil
Climate Increase the temperature
Carbon monoxide Petrol
Nuclear energy Environment
Green house effect Blow-out
Oil-slick Reef
Nuclear waste
Solar energy
Elisenda i Dídac