War in Iraq: What's the Cost to the Environment?

Broadcast: Mar 1 27, 2003

When Iraqi soldiers retreated from Kuwait during the first Gulf 2 War in 1991, they set fire to 600 oil wells. Towering pillars of fire and columns of smoke vented 3 from the wells for eight months, spreading toxic 4 fumes 5 in all directions. The Iraqi military also unleashed 6 the largest oil slick ever over lowlands and farms. Twenty-five thousand birds died, fisheries were degraded, and acid rain poisoned trees.

Despite this widespread destruction, the Persian Gulf 1)rebounded faster than scientists had predicted, according to environmentalist Jonathan Lash 7, he is a president of the World Resources Institute, an environmental think tank.

"People were afraid that the damage from the oil fields would be 2)permanent. And in fact in the decade that has ensued, the fish is putting much recovered. There is still some evidence of contamination and no one knows how long the toxins 8 in the water column will remain, but because the water is relatively 9 warm the natural process of cleanup went remarkably 10 fast," he says. "The story with regard to Kuwaiti lands, and in particular agricultural lands, was not quite so good. There are still vast areas that are caked with hardened 3)residue 11 of oil vapor 12 and carbon that has made agriculture difficult. The Kuwaitis say it killed about 80 percent of their livestock 13."

Mr. Lash says the situation in Iraq could be radically 14 different, especially if Saddam Hussein initiates 15 what he calls "a scorched 16 earth" policy.

JL: "If Saddam Hussein's government chooses to ignite their oil fields and there is some of evidence that is happening more scarce, the oil fields are much larger than the Kuwaiti oil fields. They are distributed much more widely through Iraq through the southern regions that the alliance forces entered first all the way up to the north and in much more populated areas. So, the potential scale of the consequences is very great. Iraqis also depend on surface water for drinking water and there is a high risk of contamination of water supplies in this conflict."

RS: "So, what I hear you saying is that oil becomes kind of a weapon itself because of the impact after these fields are ignited and what have you."

JL: "That is the risk. Not that it becomes a weapon, but it is intentionally 17 used as a weapon. We are all used to thinking of environmental destruction as the unintended consequences of people's actions. This is a case where environmental destruction is an intended consequence to interfere 18 with advancing armies or even worse, to interfere with recovery afterwards."

RS: "How, under life and death pressures of armed conflict, can an army minimize the environmental impact of war?"

JL: "There have certainly been changes since the first Gulf War in terms of backing away from some of the 4)munitions that appear to be most dangerous in the aftermath of the war. There certainly can be care taken not to destroy key infrastructure 19 or water sources. Probably the most important step during the conflict is to be ready to act extremely quickly to respond to oil field fires or other measures of destruction, to have the equipment ready and if possible to use military force to prevent that kind of action."

RS: "What about when the war is over, what kind of plan [should be put in place] or should planning be going on while the war going on to protect the environment - the air, the water, the land that people depend on who live in the region."

JL: "It seems strange to be speculating while the fighting is underway, but in fact planning has been underway for months to think about what will happen after the war. At some point there will be some kind of peace, and then the key issue after security will be to help Iraqis rebuild their lives. At that point the state of their environment will become a very important issue, where they get clean water, how quickly they can restore their agriculture, and begin supporting themselves, how extensively their health has been affected 20 by the construction of the war and any environmental destruction. At that point, it will be very important for the cleanup to go forward quickly, for people to get information about the cleanup, what's happening, what the risks are. For Iraqis to have the opportunity to participate in decisions that shape their environment, to make decisions about what the highest priorities are. It is interesting as the former Soviet 21 Union was collapsing 22, one of the first areas in which public participation 23 was allowed in [that] totalitarian society was with regard to the environmental destruction that was invisible throughout the former Soviet Union. And here, too, there is an opportunity for Iraqis to participate in very immediate 24 decisions that directly affect them as the cleanup begins."

RS: "Thank you very much, thank you for speaking with us today."

JL: "Nice to talking with you. "

Jonathan Lash is a president of the World Resources Institute, an environmental think tank in Washington.

The United Nations Environment Program announced last week that it has begun to study the environmental impact of the war in Iraq and plans to send a team into the country after the war to assess the situation and help mitigate 25 any problems. The U.N. agency has done similar reports on environmental damage resulting from conflicts in Afghanistan, Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Republic of Macedonia, and the Palestinian Territories. It recently examined the health effects of the depleted 26 uranium that was released by the Balkans civil war.

I'm Rosanne Skirble.

1)    rebound[ri5baund]v.回弹

2)    permanent [5pE:mEnEnt]adj.永久的, 持久的

3)    residue [5rezidju:]n.残余, 渣滓, 滤渣, 残数, 剩余物

4)    munition[mju(:)5niFEn]n.军需品