Scientists say Gulf war could devastate ecology

The long-term environmental costs of war in the Persian Gulf are "likely to outstrip all other costs, great though those will be," claim Paul Crutzen, an atmospheric chemist and director of the Max Planck Institute in Germany, and several other well-respected scientists. They sounded this warning at press conferences in London on Jan. 2 and in New York last Friday, at which they announced formation of an international scientific task force. The task force would act as an environmental crisis management network, deployed swiftly to advise political leaders in the early days of future crises, explains physicist Abdullah Toukan, chief scientific adviser to King Hussein of Jordan. The scientists' fear of ecological disaster is based on the assumption that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein will detonate the Kuwaiti oil wells some military strategists say he has mined. Such detonations could set ablaze up to 1000 oil wells and burn about 3 million barrels of oil per ...