But the effects on wildlife are a concern, too.
Now, researchers from Montana State and Michigan Technological Universities have provided some measure of the effects on wildlife.
But, as with the Mimram, the long-term effects on wildlife - the fish, and fish eating predators like otters - are not easily reversed.
BP is still counting the cost of its Gulf of Mexico Macondo blowout in 2010, whose effects on wildlife are pictured.
And even though its effects on wildlife have been known for decades, federal agencies have not been able to agree on what level should be prohibited.
Then in the 1970s, after the publication of Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring," which raised concern over DDT's effects on wildlife and people, the chemical was banned in many countries.
But as the A.P. relates, research on the effects on wildlife has yielded some scary examples: Pharmaceuticals in river and lake water are being blamed for "feminized" male fish and other changes observed in earthworms and zooplankton.
The loss of ice around the Arctic has adverse effects on wildlife and also opens up new northern sea routes and opportunities to drill for oil and gas under the newly accessible sea bed.
A coalition of NGOs in Kampala is now calling for a suspension of exploration drilling in protected areas of Murchison Park while the effects on wildlife remain so uncertain.
Andrew Whitehead, a biologist at Louisiana State University and the lead author of the report, said the report was the first he knew of about biological effects on wildlife since the spill and that it was cause for concern.
While the aboriginal residents of Kakadu used patchwork burning to clear space and to reduce the risk of major fires, large parts of the park are now being burned deliberately and repeatedly without adequate consideration of the effects on wildlife.
