Oil, Oil Everywhere....and a Collage for LMAC #95

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(Edited)

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I start off today by offering my apologies to @muelli. He claimed the oil spill/pollution theme brilliantly in his collages this week (yes, he does more than one!). However, I had already finished mine, except for the animation, when I saw his.

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I wasn't about to start over. But, since I don't compete, the similarity of our themes doesn't have any practical significance.

Both of us were inspired by @shaka's evocative picture of a rusting hulk. I found the rust unattractive (although the picture was startlingly expressive) and so I eliminated the rusty part of the boat before I did anything else:

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My collage was prompted by current events. There is a spill/leak right now that the people of California are cleaning up from their beaches. But isn't there always a spill somewhere? When will people stop measuring the price of a barrel and start measuring the toll this fuel, and other fossil fuels, take on the planet?

Cleaning Up a Spill

A 2010 article in Livescience offered some data about the amount of oil that spills into our seas. The U.S. Department of Energy reported that "1.3 million gallons of petroleum are spilled into U.S. waters from vessels and pipelines in a typical year". If there is a major oil spill, such as the 1991 Persian Gulf spill and the Exxon Valdez spill, that amount could double.

Is there any way to prevent these spills? Yes. Stop drilling for oil and stop transporting oil.

Bald Eagles Rescued After Exxon-Valdez Spill
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Image credit: Mckennagene (talk). Used under CC 3.0 license. According to the National Wildlife Federation, approximately "250 bald eagles, 22 orcas, 300 seals, 3,500 sea otters, countless fish and marine species, and as many as 250,000 seabirds" were killed because of the Exxon-Valdez spill.

It is true that a certain amount of oil in the seas is natural in origin. Another article in Livescience explains that over a period of hundreds of thousands of years, an amount equal to 80 Exxon-Valdez spills has leaked from the ocean floor.

How do we clean up all that oil, both oil that comes from human activity and oil that is of natural origin? One way is to burn it off right after a spill. Oil must be burned before it has spread over a large area.

Deep Water Horizon Burn-Off
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Image credit: U. S. Government. Public Domain

One organization, Oilspillprevention.org (I don't know if this is a pro-industry site or not), compares the benefits/harm of burning freshly spilled oil with not burning it. According to this site, the greatest danger posed by a controlled burn is particulate matter from the smoke spewing into the air. Oilspillprevention.org claims that the particulate matter is a localized issue and is short-lived. The site also claims that most toxic elements in the spilled/leaked oil are eliminated in a burn-off. As for wildlife, it is suggested that, "Birds and animals will generally avoid fire if able to flee". The conclusion drawn by this organization is that a burn-off significantly limits exposure to toxic elements for both wildlife, and humans.

What about all that other oil, the oil that leaks naturally into the sea and oil that remains after a spill/burn-off? According to yet another article in LiveScience: in time, some of the oil washes up on beaches as tar balls; some of it evaporates in the air; some of it is broken down by microbes; and some of it dissolves in water. The gradual degrading of oil is called 'weathering'.

Fusobacteria
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Image credit: U. S. CDC: Public domain. After the Deep Water Horizon spill, a large number of Fusobacteria were detected, to the surprise of observers. These microbes seem to have a great appetite for oil and are considered a potential tool for degrading future oil slicks.

Oil that is not weathered (does not evaporate, get degraded by microbes or dissolve in water), falls onto ocean sediment.

LMAC and Creative Coin

Creative Coin community and LMAC have formed a relationship that will contribute to the dynamic growth of each. This alliance is a natural evolution. Creatives work well together and fuel each other's energy.

If you look at @shaka's announcement post, you will note that Creative Coin is sponsoring this week's contest to the tune of 10k liquid CCC from the Creative Coin Fund (to curate and award contributions in this round). Additionally, Creative Coin has delegated 70K CCC to LMAC. This will be applied on an ongoing basis, along with our Hive support, as posts are upvoted. Finally, I have been delegated (through January), personally, 98K CCC. This applies every time I upvote a post. So, please use the Creative Coin tag when you post in LMAC. There are lots of goodies waiting for you if you do.

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Where can you discover your Creative Coin balance? Check out Hive Engine in your wallet. There you will find tokenized coins listed. Watch your balances as they accrue. An amazing number of tokenized coins are listed in Hive Engine, some you may not be aware of. There is a universe of crypto possibilities, all built on the Hive blockchain. Check it out.

Thank You

Thank you @shaka for creating and leading the amazing LMAC community. With the addition of #LIL, our image library, the potential for community growth is tremendous. Thank you @quantumg for always being a resource and for doing magical coding that gives function to our library. And, finally, thank you to three #LIL contributors whose images give life to my collage:
The sky @jedigeiss
The fire @donroberts
The barrel @muelli
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(Oh no! I just realized I forgot to name my #LIL contributors as 2% beneficiaries!! That will be remedied on post payout, I promise. This is a courtesy collage creators extend to all #LIL contributors who help to make our creations sparkle)

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To all my readers: I wrote a long one this week, didn't I? :)) Thank you for reading. I hope you check out all the wonderful collages on the LMAC site.

Find LMAC on Discord, and connect with us.

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16 comments
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Fantastic collage this week! And very relevant as well! Thanks for using my image!

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Thank you! I love your images on LIL. Not only are they well executed, but you offer them in a format that is easy to use. The fire was a 'blast'. Works really well.

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Dear @agmoore, you don't have to apologize, we are free artists after all. 😎✌️
I was like you when I saw @shaka's rusty barge and the first thought was that there is oil leaking and so one thing led to another.
You have again succeeded in an expressive work of art!
Kind regards. 😎

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Dear @muelli,
You are a gracious artist, and person. Thank you for visiting, for your kind words and for that wonderful barrel. What would I have done without the barrel? It told the story.

Very warm regards,
AG

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Oh my god, only now with glasses I realized it! 🤣
I know these barrels. 😎
Thank you!

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A wonderful trasnformation from picture to art agmoore!

Love it :)

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Hello @raj808,
Thank you very much for visiting. In recent years I have been trying my hand at visual arts. In my youth (and middle age 😆) it was not something I dared do. But, now I feel free and that freedom allows me to experiment.

I appreciate your generous assessment of my efforts.

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(Edited)

In recent years I have been trying my hand at visual arts. In my youth (and middle age 😆) it was not something I dared do.

Variety is truly the spice of life, and it is good for the soul to reach out of our comfort zones, especially when it is enjoyable. I dabbled a little with creating NFT art when I was away from hive last year, but I found it to be insanely competitive and time consuming. I stopped enjoying the process which is the main reason why I stopped. Now I just make digital art occasionally for fun.

I really should try getting on the hive NFTshowroom site with some of it but just don't have the time right now 😂

I've always liked your creations for LMAC. Even though I haven't commented much I've seen many of them 🙂

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Long live ecology, you have managed to reflect the real damage we are doing to the environment, by the exploitation and use of a non-renewable natural resource. Excellent contribution.

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Thank you. Yes!long live ecology. It is not separate from us, it is us. We are part of nature. Everything we do to our environment, we do to ourselves.

I appreciate your visit and your kind words.

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Hello friend, excellent collage with a great message of reflection on the pollution caused by the oil spills, it is unfortunate the large number of birds and marine species that have died from this pollution.

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Hello my friend @cetb2008

Thank you for visiting my blog. It saddens me to think of all the animals that suffer and of our planet soiled by fossil fuel emissions/waste. So avoidable, if we would just apply ourselves and use clean technology. When I see your beautiful mountains, where you hike with your children, it all looks so clean and fresh.

Have a wonderful evening.

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Querida @agmoore, has hecho un collage poderoso. Como venezolana,cuyo país ha vivido (y malgastado) la riqueza del petróleo y en la actualidad vive (sin control) los desastres ecológicos de los derrames, y los económicos de la destrucción de la industria petrolera, lo agradezco. Agradezco la fuerza que yo no tuve.
Vi el tema y huí de él. Pero es muy necesario poner el pie sobre la cabeza de una industria que...
Tu collage, no obstante lo duro del tema, es hermoso.

Recibe un abrazo enorme con mi agradecimiento.

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Thank you my friend, @adncabrera. Yes, you do know first hand about the dark side of oil. But don't we all, though less directly.

I appreciate your visit and am very happy you are able to engage again on Hive.

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Love your take on the rusty oil tanker, A.G. Awesome collage and informative writing on oil spills.

I meant to explain that I use the iPad for everything but I have an attached keyboard to it that makes it easier to use.

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