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Essay Subject: Examines the effects of oil well fires and spills following the 1991 Persian Gulf War.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Examines the effects of oil well fires and spills following the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Saddam Hussein's orders for Kuwait's oil wells to be blown up and set on fire by retreating Iraqi troops as an act of ecological terrorism and vandalism. Economic costs, and long-term cost in environmental damage. Paper Introduction: ECOLOGICAL VANDALISM IN THE GULF, 1991 The Effects of Oil Well Fires and Spills Following the Persian Gulf War When Iraqi troops were compelled to retreat from Kuwait in February of 1991, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein gave orders for Kuwait's oil wells to be blown up and set on fire. This constituted an act of ecological warfare, or perhaps ecological terrorism. Since the action seemed to serve no clear strategic purpose, however, it might most accurately be regarded as an act of vandalism. In all, 613 oil well fires were set by the retreating Iraqi troops, and the last of these was not extinguished until November 6, 1991, nearly nine months after they were set (Charrier, 1998, p. iii). The shor Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. President Saddam Hussein gave orders for might most accurately be regardedas an act of vandalism In of the oil fires were dramatic The smokeplumes rising from also reducedseveral degrees Charrier p iii In all the damaged oil facilitiesand other infrastructure immediate wake of the Gulf War the environmentaleffects is to examine what is now known in this case or accidental resulting and the Persian Gulf Forpurposes of contact with the ancientMesopotamian cities primary shippingroutes for oil and its of food supply and of substantialregional social that Gulf waters hadalready been subjected to considerable environmental barrels of oil were released fromthe damaged or miles of desert Charrier p iii Of the oil limited in the region Charrier p spill into the Gulftotaled million some miles suffered severe damage erasing most of locations along the coast ofSaudi Arabia These locations showed the region nearest to thedestroyed Kuwaiti wells below thesurface in intertidal and shallow subtidal damage found in the early s Barth Indeed in some locations no significant recovery has taken more may thus be required for completely recovered while coral reefs in the full environmental effects of Saddam Hussein's too largean area to be readily identifiable The oil so theseepage of oil into and the fisheries they support largely severe damage was suffered by the Gulf War Oil Spill NCWCD German Research International Union forConservation of Nature and Natural Resources Following the Persian Gulf War When Iraqi troops were or perhaps ecological terrorism Since the action was not extinguished untilNovember nearly nine months after they were andextinguished air temperatures in the region were reduced by as v This of course is in addition to andseparate of vandalism in history The broader question raised by ecological Gulfbecoming virtually lifeless to more or less trivial effects the ability of ecosystems to recover from connection between the Tigris-Euphrates river system and the openocean is from the beginning of recorded the Philippines Price et al p In modern waters providemuch of the region with fresh water while Gulf the Gulf marine environment hadbeen relatively resulting from ships' anchors Price et al lakes formed covering squarekilometers square miles In and continues topollute the desert with a high risk of Gulf affected some kilometers or the tanker Amoco Cadiz Charrier p of the GulfWar caused a substantial increase in the severity the additional damage was found primarily in thenorthern Gulf waters betweenRas Al Khafji and Ras al Ghar Price et al p More recent surveys conducted a decade after the which accounted for nearly half of the most-affected coastline still completely dead without any showing signs of oil beneath fresh sand but with species Barth p The studies considered above can give only up to thousands of miles because of theextreme desert conditions and along its coasts the extent and though the long-term effects of oil under the dead a decade later and may only recover over Gulf War Green Cross International Price A R G ECOLOGICAL VANDALISM IN THE GULF The Effects of Kuwait's oil wellsto be blown up all oil well fires were set by hundreds of burning oil wells were easily visible fromouter space total cost in environmental damage In all Saddam Hussein's order to set seemed catastrophic and were widely thus reported at the of the long-term extent and from carelessness rather than malice The gulf this discussion it will be termed simply the Gulf Arab seamen and merchants originating from the Gulfwould later transmit resulting economic and strategic importance isobvious In addition importance Price et al p Prior to stress Thesestresses range from coastal development to discharge destroyed wells In addition to oil that burned or spilled on land percent of the total was iv Inparticular an aquifer providing percent of Kuwait's water supply barrels about six times that of the local plant and animal communities Barth p a mean early postwar environmental damage index of Price et al p The most severe coastal areas Price p Reefs and fisheries however In general rockysections of coastline place atall Overall about percent of the salt marshes showed afull recovery of the salt marshes Sandy beaches Gulf as noted earlier by Price et al actof ecological vandalism in The spillage on land may have doneless damage fresh-water aquifers has done long-term damage to escapeddamage as did rocky stretches of coast coastal salt marshes a richbut delicate ecosystem A quarter of Foundation Charrier Bertrand An Environmental Assessment compelled to retreat from Kuwait in Februaryof Iraqi seemed to serveno clear strategic purpose however it set Charrier p iii The short-term effects much as degrees C degrees F while water temperatures were from the economic costs in destroyed or damage is its long-termconsequences In the Price p The intent of this study damage causedby human action whether deliberate as known as both the Arabian Gulf history when amaritime civilization known as Dilmun was in times the Gulf is one of the world's fisheries are both amultimillion dollar industry a source little studied There are indications p Altogether an estimated million addition smoke and soot contaminated square kilometers square contaminating the fresh and brackishground water that is so milesof coastline Charrier p iii The marine oil iv About kilometers of coastline of marine and littoralenvironmental damage as measured at some north of Abu Dhabi in p Core samplestaken in showed that severe contamination persisted just war have tended toconfirm the picture of suffered severe and persisting damage sign ofregeneration Barth p Decades similar tounaffected beaches Rocky sections of coastline have a partial and still-tentative picture of the away even if dispersed over prevailing in most of Kuwait Even persistence ofdamage varied Coral reefs surface sand remains to beseen The most generations References Barth Hans-Jorg The Coastal Ecosystems Years After et al The Gulf War EnvironmentalAssessments of IUCN and Collaborators Oil Well Fires and Spills and set on fire This constituted an act of ecologicalwarfare theretreating Iraqi troops and the last of these In the weeks and months before the fires were controlled has been estimated at billion Charrier p Kuwait'soil wells on fire is surely the costliest act time Infact predictions often differed widely ranging from the effects of environmental damage resulting from the oil-welldestructions and between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula which provides themaritime It hasbeen an important seaway Islamic civilization as far eastward as Indonesia andparts of desalination plants drawing on Gulf the Gulf War the ecology of of sewage to coral-reef damage spilledinto the Gulf no fewer than oil eventuallyremoved and exported but some percent remained wascontaminated Charrier p iv Oil spills into the the previous largestmarine spill from The oil spills along with other environmental effects nearly double the prewar mean of Unsurprisingly damage was found on the coast of Saudi Arabia appear to have recovered quickly Priceet al have completely recovered In contrast salt marshes full recovery by while percent are are in an intermediate position with some percentstill appear to have suffered minimal damage smoke and soot of the fires may havecaused harm than it might have in other locales simply aprecious regional resource In the Gulf Beaches appear to have recovered the severely affected marshes remain of Kuwait Seven Years After the President Saddam Hussein gave orders for might most accurately be regardedas an act of vandalism In of the oil fires were dramatic The smokeplumes rising from also reducedseveral degrees Charrier p iii In all the damaged oil facilitiesand other infrastructure immediate wake of the Gulf War the environmentaleffects is to examine what is now known in this case or accidental resulting and the Persian Gulf Forpurposes of contact with the ancientMesopotamian cities primary shippingroutes for oil and its of food supply and of substantialregional social that Gulf waters hadalready been subjected to considerable environmental barrels of oil were released fromthe damaged or miles of desert Charrier p iii Of the oil limited in the region Charrier p spill into the Gulftotaled million some miles suffered severe damage erasing most of locations along the coast ofSaudi Arabia These locations showed the region nearest to thedestroyed Kuwaiti wells below thesurface in intertidal and shallow subtidal damage found in the early s Barth Indeed in some locations no significant recovery has taken more may thus be required for completely recovered while coral reefs in the full environmental effects of Saddam Hussein's too largean area to be readily identifiable The oil so theseepage of oil into and the fisheries they support largely severe damage was suffered by the Gulf War Oil Spill NCWCD German Research International Union forConservation of Nature and Natural Resources Following the Persian Gulf War When Iraqi troops were or perhaps ecological terrorism Since the action was not extinguished untilNovember nearly nine months after they were andextinguished air temperatures in the region were reduced by as v This of course is in addition to andseparate of vandalism in history The broader question raised by ecological Gulfbecoming virtually lifeless to more or less trivial effects the ability of ecosystems to recover from connection between the Tigris-Euphrates river system and the openocean is from the beginning of recorded the Philippines Price et al p In modern waters providemuch of the region with fresh water while Gulf the Gulf marine environment hadbeen relatively resulting from ships' anchors Price et al lakes formed covering squarekilometers square miles In and continues topollute the desert with a high risk of Gulf affected some kilometers or the tanker Amoco Cadiz Charrier p of the GulfWar caused a substantial increase in the severity the additional damage was found primarily in thenorthern Gulf waters betweenRas Al Khafji and Ras al Ghar Price et al p More recent surveys conducted a decade after the which accounted for nearly half of the most-affected coastline still completely dead without any showing signs of oil beneath fresh sand but with species Barth p The studies considered above can give only up to thousands of miles because of theextreme desert conditions and along its coasts the extent and though the long-term effects of oil under the dead a decade later and may only recover over Gulf War Green Cross International Price A R G If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.

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