Английский язык

Scorecard of environmental damage – протокол результатов о вреде окружающей среде

Soot and vapor – копоть и пары

Spewed – извергать

Environmental assessments – оценка окружающей среды

Oil slicks – пятна нефти

Shoreline – линия побережья

Herds of wild camels – стада диких верблюдов

It was like a bad San Francisco fog, but you knew it wasn't fog," said Naud, an environmental consultant who visited Kuwait and surrounding regions in the spring following the 1991 Gulf War.

The "fog" was, in fact, plumes of oil soot that had wafted from more than 600 environmentally devastating oil well fires throughout Kuwait.

If the previous Gulf War is any indication, the environmental destruction any new conflict could cause is daunting. And since Iraq is home to two vital rivers and sensitive marshland, some fear the damage could be even more severe.

"The worst thing about war is it kills people," said Jonathan Lash, president of the World Resources Institute, an independent nonprofit environmental organization. "But the potential scorecard of environmental damage in Iraq is also catastrophic."

Lessons From an Oiled and Scarred Kuwait

Upon the Iraqis' retreat from Kuwait in 1991, Saddam Hussein instructed his troops to set fire to more than 600 oil wells in their wake. Soot and vapor drifted through the air for up to a 1,000-mile radius.

The resulting fires spewed millions of barrels of oil, releasing 500 million tons of carbon in the air and, according to environmental assessments released after the war, resulting in the largest oil spill in history.

Massive lakes of oil pooled in once-fertile croplands – one oil lake in southern Kuwait was a half-mile long and 25 feet deep. The World Resources Institute said it contained nine times as much oil as the Exxon Valdez spill. It took fire crews nine months to put out the blazes.

Some 6 million to 8 million barrels of oil dumped into the Indian Ocean created oil slicks that coated the shoreline. BirdLife International, a global partnership of nongovernmental conservation organizations, estimates the layers of thick, black goop killed 35,000 wintering birds and tens of thousands of wading birds.

The U.N. Environmental Program deemed the catastrophe "one of the worst engineered disasters of humanity."

Meanwhile, movement of heavy machinery by U.S., allied and Iraqi troops altered up to 90 percent of the Kuwaiti desert's surface. A quarter of the desert was covered in oil or deposits of oily soot. And unexploded bombs left on the desert sand have since killed herds of wild camels and other animals.

This time, Saddam has denied he would set fire to oil wells or blow up Iraq's dams to impede invaders.

"Iraq does not burn its wealth and it does not destroy its dams," he said in a recent interview with CBS' Dan Rather.

But few are willing to take Saddam at his word.

More Vulnerable Terrain

"I think there's every chance there will be purposeful environmental terrorism despite what [Saddam] has said," said John Hillen, a former U.S. Army captain who served in the 1991 Gulf War. "In this conflict – if it happens – his state is at stake. I think that measure of desperation could lead him to do almost anything."

Others point out that there may be much more at risk in a war staged within Iraq's borders. If, for example, Saddam reneges on his promise and orders troops to light his nation's oil wells, the damage could be far greater – Iraq hosts 1,500 oil wells, more than any other nation except Saudi Arabia.

And unlike Kuwait's mostly desert environment, terrain around Iraqi oil wells includes some sensitive ecosystems.

Some scholars believe the Iraqi region – called Mesopotamia in ancient times – was home to the lush, biblical Garden of Eden. If true, the description of Eden likely stemmed from the once-fertile croplands and marshlands that are fed by two majestic rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates.

Saddam’s Additional Damage.

Saddam's government has already inflicted massive damage on Iraq's marshlands by inserting more than 30 dams along the rivers and draining much of their flow. Lash says a war could lead to even more problems.

He fears that oil spills or possibly fallout from a chemical weapon could enter one of Iraq's rivers and infect these vital resources. Tainted water in the Tigris or Euphrates could then end up in the Gulf, where currents would spread the pollution ever further.

At stake are Iraq's fisheries and an already hurting bird population.