The Gulf War - An Environmental Disaster Essay -- Exploratory Essays R

While militarily, the disconnect War of 1990-91 seemed like a riotous and decisive victory, it was an environmental disaster, both at the time and when considering the residual impacts. environmental travesties were committed by both the Iraqi aggressor and the allied forces, ranging from function of minerals like depleted uranium in weapons to deliberate dumping of vegetable oil into the Gulf. Oil fires and spills had a severe impact on all forms of life, nigh prominent in the Gulf region, but with possible global implications. tender-hearted health, wildlife, natural resources and ecosystems were all adversely impacted by actions taken and non taken by both sides of the conflict. Controversy over where the oil that spilled into the Persian Gulf in the early months of 1991 came from still exists, but the fact dust that about 10 million barrels of oil were eventually fulfil into the Gulf. This amount is about forty times that spilled in the Exxon Valdez disaster, and was beyond each previously imaginable scope. Both Saddam Husseins armament and Coalition forces claimed that the other had done more to wreak havoc on the Gulf environment by evacuant oil into the Gulf. In reality, both belligerents in the conflict did significant handicap to the environment and mostly the damage was unnecessary. The US military accused Saddam Husseins forces of releasing large amounts of oil from the Sea Island Terminal in Kuwait by dynamiting the station at the beginning of the air war. In the end, about 6 million barrels flowed from Sea Island into the Gulf (Hawley, p 46). Iraqi dampen of oil ports are also cited as sources of the spill. Significant amounts were also released into the Gulf by Coalition attacks on oil tankers stationed in the Gulf. One tanker... ...ve transnational community and then by implementing more stringent laws that would make oddment of the environment without severe repercussions impossible.BibliographyClark, Ramsey The Fire This Time (New York Thunders communicate Press, 1992)Environmental News Service Iraqi Environment Defenseless onwards Warring Forces (Electronic source action 24, 2003)Kirby, Alex Gulf environment faces worse threats (BBC online parole March 14, 2003)Lash, Jonathan Reflections on War and the Environment (MSNBC.com interview January 10, 2003Levy, B. and Sidel, V. eds. War and everyday Health (New York Oxford University Press, 1997)Loretz, John The Animal Victims of the Gulf War (PSR Quarterly, 1991)UN Environment broadcast Air pollution from Baghdad fires poses risks for human health and the environment (Press release, March 30, 2003)