Sociocultural and psychosocial impacts of the exxon valdez oil spill: Twenty-four years of research in Cordova, Alaska

Gill, Duane A.; Ritchie, Liesel A.; Picou, J. Steven

doi:10.1016/j.exis.2016.09.004

Cited by 53 publications

(62 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…We show that residents continue to worry through at least the medium term and that worries relate to multiple dimensions. Our findings are consistent with prior research on the impacts of oil spills in other contexts, such as Exxon Valdez in Alaska, that document chronic stress within communities (e.g., Gill et al., ). Our findings suggest that the chronic stress may relate to economic hardship, physical health concerns, interruptions to social relationships, or a combination of these different human dimensions of oil spill effects.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…Indirect exposure may occur through daily media reports about the spill, providing clean‐up and other assistance to communities in oiled areas, and economic hardship as fisheries close and the seafood processing and tourism sectors are negatively affected. As shown in other oil spills (e.g., Gallacher, Bronstering, Palmer, Fone, & Lyons, ; Gill et al., ; Lyons, Temple, Evans, Fone, & Palmer, ; Picou, Marshall, & Gill, ), oil exposure, per se, is not related to anxiety and depression. Rather, mental health symptoms relate to worries about health, household finances, community conflict, seafood safety, and perceived environmental risk.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 65%

“…Seven years after the DH oil spill, however, there is relatively little ongoing research on the medium-and long-term human impacts of the spill. This lack of attention is problematic since research from other oil spills such as Exxon Valdez suggests that communities can struggle with health, social, and economic impacts for decades after the initial event (Gill, Ritchie, & Picou, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Persistent Risk‐Related Worry as a Function of Recalled Exposure to the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Prior Trauma

et al. 2019

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Large oil spills are disasters associated with psychological effects for exposed communities. The amount of worry that individuals experience after a disaster may be influenced by many factors, such as the type and extent of exposure to disaster impacts, prior trauma, and sociodemographic characteristics. This study examined the nature and predictors of worry about ongoing impacts of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon (DH) oil spill reported by Gulf of Mexico coastal residents. A random sample of 2,520 adult residents of Gulf of Mexico coastal counties were administered a telephone survey in 2016, including items about persistent worry and exposure to DH impacts, prior trauma, residence at the time of the spill, and sociodemographic characteristics. Respondents varied in the amount of worry they reported about ongoing health, social, and economic impacts. Controlling for sociodemographic characteristics, higher exposure to the DH oil spill was related to higher levels of worry about ongoing impacts, with past traumatic events related specifically to worry about health impacts. Unexpectedly, those who moved into the region after the spill showed similar levels of worry to residents exposed to the spill, and higher levels than residents who did not recall being exposed to the DH oil spill. This study highlights the impact of the DH oil spill on coastal residents many years after the DH disaster. The findings underscore the need to examine multiple pathways by which individuals experience disasters and for risk researchers to close knowledge gaps about long‐term impacts of oil spills within a multi‐dimensional framework.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 65%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Persistent Risk‐Related Worry as a Function of Recalled Exposure to the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Prior Trauma

et al. 2019

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“…This last dimension refers, for instance, to the influence of humans on climate change, leading to more extreme and frequent hazards [30]. The induction of disasters by humans is also reflected in the disastrous consequences of extreme extractivist practices around the globe [31]. In this regard, both the (economic) impact of "natural" disasters on extractive industries are studied [19,32], as well as the potentially disastrous impact of extractive industries on societies [33].…”

Section: Mechanisms Intervening In the Social Creation Of Disastersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The exploitation of a resource, in combination with a governance system that is ill-suited for dealing with socio-political and environmental challenges, usually leads to a deeper and more complex situation of crisis. These problematic and unsustainable situations can result in human-induced disasters and widespread disruptions of societies [11,31,38].…”

Section: The Growth Of Human-induced Disastersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analyzing the Social Lead-Up to a Human-Induced Disaster: The Gas Extraction-Earthquake Nexus in Groningen, The Netherlands

2018

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The overwhelming impact that disasters have on societies is fed by socio-economic vulnerabilities and political-institutional factors. Disasters are, therefore, increasingly regarded as partially created by humans instead of as purely natural events. Although the “social creation” of disasters is assumed to occur “above the ground” and triggered by extreme natural events, this article explores several dimensions to the social creation of disasters, including technological and institutional dimensions from both “above” and “below the ground”. It furthers the understanding of disaster governance by investigating processes that generate the social lead-up to a human-induced disaster, and that are installed to deal with its consequences. Focusing on the case of Groningen, the Netherlands, where gas extraction leads to earthquakes, the article looks in particular at the interrelationships between different state and non-state actors in the governance dynamics that structure the processes to deal with the earthquake issues. Based on in-depth interviews with a variety of stakeholders, we found that public-private institutional structures, the nature of the disaster and societal (dis)trust are entangled and influence disaster governance processes mediating resilience and sustainability. The article concludes by arguing that both the causes of (human-induced) disasters and the approaches to disaster mitigation lie in these political-institutional and governance fundaments.

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Beyond Thresholds: A Holistic Approach to Impact Assessment Is Needed to Enable Accurate Predictions of Environmental Risk from Oil Spills

Hook

2020

Integr Envir Assess & Manag

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The risk assessment for the environmental impact of oil spills in Australia is often conducted in part using a combination of spill mapping and toxicological thresholds derived from laboratory studies. While this process is useful in planning operational responses, such as where to position equipment stockpiles and whether to disperse oil, and can be used to identify areas near the spill site where impacts are likely to occur, it cannot accurately predict the environmental consequences of an oil spill or the ecosystem recovery times. Evidence of this disconnect between model predictions and observed impacts is the lack of a profound effect of the Deepwater Horizon wellhead blowout on recruitment to fisheries in the northern Gulf of Mexico, contrary to the predictions made in the Natural Resources Damage Assessment and despite the occurrence of impacts of the spill on marine mammals, marshes, and deep water ecosystems. The incongruity between predictions made with the current approach using threshold monitoring and impacts measured in the field results from some of the assumptions included in the oil spill models. The incorrect assumptions include that toxicity is acute, results from dissolved phase exposure, and would be readily reversible. The toxicity tests from which threshold models are derived use members of the ecosystem that are easily studied in the lab but may not represent the ecosystem as a whole. The test species are typically highly abundant plankton or planktonic life stages, and they have life histories that account for rapid changes in environmental conditions. As a consequence, these organisms recover quickly from an oil spill. The interdependence of ecosystem components, including the reliance of organisms on their microbiomes, is often overlooked. Additional research to assess these data gaps conducted using economically and ecologically relevant species, especially in Australia and other understudied areas of the world, and the use of population dynamic models, will improve the accuracy of environmental risk assessment for oil spills.

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Sociocultural and psychosocial impacts of the exxon valdez oil spill: Twenty-four years of research in Cordova, Alaska

Cited by 53 publications

References 28 publications

Persistent Risk‐Related Worry as a Function of Recalled Exposure to the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Prior Trauma

Persistent Risk‐Related Worry as a Function of Recalled Exposure to the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Prior Trauma

Analyzing the Social Lead-Up to a Human-Induced Disaster: The Gas Extraction-Earthquake Nexus in Groningen, The Netherlands

Beyond Thresholds: A Holistic Approach to Impact Assessment Is Needed to Enable Accurate Predictions of Environmental Risk from Oil Spills

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