Stone, J., & Herrera, J. (2021, February 10). ‘I’m really scared’: NEIGHBORS sound off AFTER 600-GALLON oil spill NEAR richmond’s CHEVRON refinery. Retrieved February 25, 2021, from https://abc7news.com/chevron-oil-spill-richmond-refinery-sf-bay-in-san-francisco/10324620/

 

At a Chevron owned refinery in Richmond around 600 gallons of oil have spilled into the water, harming the nearby ecosystems and communities. Luckily not too many animals were harmed by the spill, even if the ecosystem as a whole was impacted. Community members were told to avoid the water and the shoreline where the oil may have reached. Some in the community see it as a necessary evil in order to support the economic activity generated by the refinery. This spill is an example of how those near polluting activities are more at risk than the wider California community.

 

I am disappointed that once again an oil spill has caused damage to the environment and those that live nearby. They are too common and cause so much harm to local environments and those within them. It is unfair to those communities that rely on the damaged ecosystems and they shouldn’t have to bear the brunt of the damages of pollution and environmental degradation. Communities that live near refineries and other energy processing plants are lower than average income and due to redlining and other antiquated policies are more disadvantaged as well as less able to fight environmental degradation and those that cause it, and benefit less from the economic activity generated from it than the state as a whole. It relates to environmental science as it is both a failure of the California government to properly ensure the safety of the environment, and a failure of Chevron to actually cause harm to it. If we cannot remove harmful oil spills from the equation, we must phase out oil extraction sooner rather than later in the fight against climate change.