Against the Fires of Hell: The Environmental Disaster of the Gulf War

An account of the capping of burning oil wells in Kuwait depicts the damage that can be inflicted upon the planet by modern warfare

Through interviews with scientists, firefighters and Kuwaiti citizens, plus firsthand observations, freelance science reporter Hawley assesses the environmental impact of the Gulf war. It is a grim story: the largest waterborne oil spill in history occurred; smoke and petroleum fog from oil-well fires covered an area more than twice the size of Alaska; military activities of both sides produced wide-scale disruption of desert pavement leading to more frequent and severe dust storms; land mines and unexploded ordnance pose a continuing threat to the population. Hawley equates conditions in the Gulf area to the Bhopal and Chernobyl disasters. He charges that the Kuwaiti government downplayed possible health risks, and that efforts to protect wildlife areas were secondary to sheltering industrial facilities. Hawley describes the firefighting activities; by November 1991, the firefighters had the largest nonmilitary vehicle and equipment fleet in the world. He follows the cleanup efforts on the oil spill and discusses the smoke plumes that covered Kuwait. In a final chapter Hawley examines the health crisis in Iraq after the war. He shows in deadly detail the interconnected problems of power loss, waterborne infectious diseases, shortages of food and medicine. A well-documented and powerful statement on the ecological consequences of war. Author tour.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A careful assessment of the environmental damage wrought by both sides in Operation Desert Storm, locally and globally, from Boston-based science-writer Hawley. Focusing initially on the herculean efforts of firefighters to extinguish blazes and cap the oil flowing from 732 ruptured wells in Kuwait, Hawley describes a nightmarish world full of immense lakes of crude oil advancing across the desert sands, choking soot and airborne gases, and a vast blanket of smoke turning daylight into twilight for months. The battle against the fires went more quickly than expected despite a hesitant start, but efforts to combat other aspects of the disaster were less successful. The largest oil spill in history--40 times the amount that leaked from the Exxon Valdez, and caused by Allied bombing as well as Iraqi sabotage--flowed almost impeded onto the remote northern beaches of Saudi Arabia. Coastal industries and desalination plants to the south were protected, but clean-up efforts in the region most affected were spotty and underfunded, so that nearly all of the oil deposited on the beaches remains, buried now by shifting sands. While the impact of the wide-ranging plumes of smoke on life beyond the Gulf region has yet to be determined, the effects on the local population of breathing heavily polluted air for months may never be fully known, thanks to the Kuwait government's insistence that no danger existed and to its refusal to gather critical health data during the period. A provocative, detailed view, if somewhat disorganized and repetitious, offering ample evidence that the war was far from over after the soldiers went home. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Hawley recounts the enormous and successful effort to cap the burning Kuwaiti oil wells, then goes on to show that this, the most visible cleanup effort, was only the beginning. He describes the enormous ecological consequences of an oil spill 40 times larger than the Exxon Valdez . Hawley, a science journalist, raises many more questions than he answers with this book. Why has the United States consistently understated and blocked access to information about harm to the environment in the wake of the Gulf War? Did Kuwait deliberately endanger its citizens by covering up the effects of spilled and burning oil? Has the damage in Kuwait affected the region's environment? Hawley mixes statistics and personal anecdotes to create a telling picture of an appalling environmental disaster. Recommended for general collections.
- Randy Dykhuis, OCLC, Dublin, Ohio
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.