The Gulf War demonstrated the manner in which natural resources could be manipulated as weapons of war. The Arabian Gulf’s shallow and highly productive waters and the surrounding region suffered an unprecedented environmental onslaught, triggered by Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. Black slicks and toxic smoke from blazing oil wells combined to create one of the world’s largest ecological catastrophes, severely affecting both people and wildlife. The war nearly pushed some species to the very edge of extinction.

After the War, environmental experts and scientists came to Kuwait from all parts of the world. Symposia were held and study groups were set up in the largest global research centres in an attempt to examine and study the effects of this environmental disaster.

The daily burning of three million barrels of crude oil created half a ton of air pollutants that filled the entire atmosphere. The heavy smoke even hid the sun. Evaporation of the spilled oil also added toxic chemicals in the atmosphere. The water cycle of Gulf was affected and the quantity of bacteria at the seashore level increased significantly causing great damage to availability of purified drinking water.

The fires also deposited a layer of soot over the desert and its plants. In places, everything was coated with an oil mist, while in others there were extensive oil slicks with a thick layer of crude oil lying across the soil.

In addition, the movement of huge military tanks, the digging of trenches by Iraqi troops, the bombardment, and even the subsequent movement of fire-fighting equipment into well areas, damaged the soil layer and affected its ability to sustain life in the desert. Plants and animals were crushed to death. Besides, the extensive use of sea water in combating the oil fires led to increased salinity in areas close to wells which had been on fire.

The soil composition and porosity were also altered, both by the oil soot, mist and sludge resulting from the blow-out of the oil wells and by the earth movement. In a region, which has high incidences of dust storms, increased erosion had its own catastrophic consequences.

The War affected the desert in many ways, not all of them as immediately obvious as the towering infernos of the oil fires. Every form of life in the desert suffered. For instance, thousands of birds, especially migratory species such as herons, swallows and cormorants, were trapped by the shiny surface of the oil lakes, as were mammals.

The Kuwaiti desert still remains littered with hidden mines, which are being discovered even now. The oil lakes, created by flowing oil wells, have wreaked severe damage on soil, plants and underground reservoirs. The gallons of oil spilled in the Gulf, has already threatened the oceanic marine ecosystem.