2010 Science News of the Year: Environment
By Science News
Credit: NASA Earth Observatory
Gulf drilling disaster
The biggest oil spill in U.S. history began April 20, when an explosion and fire on the Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling platform sent oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico at rates at times exceeding 65,000 barrels a day (SN Online: 9/23/10). By the time the well was capped 12 weeks later, an estimated 5.2 million barrels of oil had been released, all but 800,000 of which ended up in the water. Much of the oil drifted in diffuse subsea plumes (SN: 7/3/10, p. 5) that may have contained twice as much natural gas as oil (SN: 10/9/10, p. 10). Although native bacteria began degrading the oil (SN: 9/11/10, p. 5), much of the gas — especially methane — was expected to prove more resistant to rapid biodegradation. In late September, scientists reported that significant quantities of oil had landed in sediment or were headed there (SN Online: 9/28/10), where the crude is expected to resist breakdown.
Paper chase Bisphenol A, an estrogen-mimicking compound, has been found in the paper used for many store receipts (SN: 8/28/10, p. 5). The compound is linked to a variety of health concerns including heart disease in adults (SN: 2/13/10, p. 13) and increased risk of diabetes in pregnant animals and their young (SN Online: 5/19/10). Health concerns have led the federal government to recommend that parents minimize their kids’ exposure to plastics containing BPA (SN Online: 1/15/10), and led the only U.S. supplier of BPA-free cash register paper to tag its product (SN Online: 11/8/10).