S P E C I A L:

The Standoff with Iraq

Environmentalists fret about Baghdad's scorched-earth record

The Kuwaiti oil fields continued to burn for months after the Persian Gulf War

February 22, 1998
Web posted at: 1:52 p.m. EST (1852 GMT)

(CNN) -- Environmentalists are calling on President Clinton to re-think his position about bombing Iraq should Baghdad continue to refuse unrestricted access to U.N. weapons inspectors.

War is historically unkind to the environment, and Saddam Hussein's record of a scorched-earth policy has environmentalists especially concerned.

During the 1991 Gulf War, and in other conflicts, Baghdad took its anger out on the region's economic mainstay: oil.

CNN's Natalie Pawelski looks at the mother of all oil spills and its lasting legacy

For months, Iraqi forces dumped an estimated 3,000 barrels of oil per day into the Persian Gulf. Environmental experts told the U.S. Senate that it amounted to one Exxon Valdez oil spill every 12 weeks. The Valdez disaster, off the Alaskan coast in March 1989, is among the world's largest oil spills.

Hussein's forces in 1991 also dumped oil into the desert, creating the largest landlocked oil spill in history. The spills resulted in oil lakes scattered throughout the fragile desert ecosystem. Some migratory birds died by mistaking the oil lakes for water sources.

Iraqi troops also set fire to hundreds of oil wells, which burned in the desert for months. The Kuwaiti government capped the last of the fires by November 1991.

The Gulf's Chernobyl

Environmentalists say the Gulf War's legacy is the greatest environmental disaster in history.

"What we have in the Gulf region is a legacy of a petroleum Chernobyl," said Brent Blackwelder of Friends of the Earth, referencing the Soviet Union's nuclear disaster.

"It destroyed the Persian Gulf region along the Saudi (Arabian) shores, the mangrove swamps, the fisheries. It ruined the deserts. It spread its poison smoke plumes throughout a massive region," Blackwelder said.

While there has been some environmental recovery, the disaster's effects are still felt throughout the region.

Fishermen say their catches can be off as much as 80 percent during some seasons.

Some migratory bird populations have not recovered, environmentalists say.

And scientists are still studying the impact on human health, particularly the effect of breathing oily smoke over the long term.

Would he do it again?

Saddam Hussein's oil dumping track record gives environmentalists little reason to believe he won't trash the region's oil resources again.

Hussein's forces also dumped oil in 1983, during the Iran-Iraq war.

From February into September of that year, the Iraqi military dumped an estimated 2,000 to 10,000 barrels of crude a day into the environment. Each barrel holds 42 gallons, or 159 liters.

The Iranian government finally stopped the spillage on September 21, 1983.

Many world officials have accused Hussein of being more concerned about maintaining his power than he is about his people.

Environmentalists say his respect for the Earth is about the same.

"He is prepared to sacrifice the land of his people, the land of his ancestors, in an attempt to maintain power," Blackwelder told CNN.

CNN's Natalie Pawelski contributed to this report.

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Related stories:

• Oil fuels U.S. policy in Gulf - September 18, 1996
• Long-term effects of war on fragile Gulf ecology unknown - January 19, 1996

Related sites:

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• Model Simulations of the 1991 Kuwait Oil Fires
• Friends of the Earth
• Oil well fire smoke - PBS
• A Firefighters Home Page - The Hell I went through in Kuwait - 1991

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.

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