Although the last oil well fire left in the wake of Iraq's retreat from Kuwait was extinguished six years ago, the consequences of this unparalleled war against nature still go largely unassessed and unpunished. Environmental destruction on the scale that occurred in the Persian Gulf region is an issue of global scope and consequence that merits international attention commensurate with its scope. But this has not happened. The difficulties in addressing the environmental consequences of war make evident the need to establish globally recognized benchmarks for defining, sanctioning, and assessing wartime environmental destruction, and creating structures for implementing these norms.

The Environmental Law Institute is undertaking a new project designed to consider these issues from legal, scientific, and economic perspectives, and to increase their international visibility. The task is not just to assess the nature and extent of wartime damage but to identify and sanction unacceptable wartime activities and to devise mechanisms for deterring wartime environmental damage in the future.

Perhaps no conflict in recent memory typifies the use and abuse of the environment in time of war as does Iraq's seizure of Kuwait in its attempt to control the Arabian Peninsula. The experience of the Gulf War is a case study in the environmental consequences of war that presents a database and factual record for the international scientific and legal communities to ground their findings while putting their general conclusions in a global context.

The significant damages visited upon Kuwait and the Gulf Region during military operations of the invasion, occupation, and liberation, from shoreline fortifications to mining of land and sea to massive bombardment, were only the beginning of the mass destruction affecting both human health and nature that was deliberately initiated by Iraq. Saddam's forces poured oil into the waters of the gulf to interfere with military operations and to choke off Kuwaiti water supplies. The departing Iraqi army detonated and set aflame more than 700 oil wells, an unprecedented assault on the atmosphere and on an economic resource. As much as five million barrels of oil remains in the desert sand.

The fallout from the burning oil wells caused acid rain from Iran across South Asia. It contaminated food and fisheries in the entire region. Huge quantities of mines and other ordnance continue to blight both land and sea. As a result of exposure to toxic air pollutants, slow-appearing injury to kidneys, liver, and respiratory systems can be expected. Children, the elderly, and other sensitive populations are most likely to be seriously affected.

The waters of the Gulf were subjected to unprecedented stress. Damaged beaches, fisheries, and waterfowl are only the most visible scars. It may take years of scientific analysis to quantify the damage to the health of this sensitive ecosystem.

The tools of law and science and economics have been used before to cope with environmental damage, but in the case of war the scope is far vaster, political differences are a given, and the legal instruments to minimize damage and compensate for it are deliberately weak and ineffective. International institutions from the United Nations to the World Court are groping with how to handle issues of environmental damage caused by wartime aggressors now and in the future.

Through a series of conferences and reports, the Institute will: Achieve a better international understanding of the consequences of war to public health, the environment, and natural resources, and to develop the capacity of international law to compensate for these harms; Establish benchmarks for assessing environmental damage on the international level; Develop models for addressing worldwide both the environmental consequences of war and the definition of responsibilities for these consequences in the future; and Define methods for identifying, evaluating, and implementing appropriate remedies for the environmental damages caused by war.

The task of addressing environmental consequences of war raises difficult questions of science and legal issues of the first moment. International law offers few suitable precedents, and even the precedents from national laws are often unclear or conflicting. The relationship among the legal, scientific, and economic issues has never been explored in detail. Addressing these issues will suggest new avenues for legal action. The law needs to find the mechanisms for regional cooperation in a remediation effort that proceeds transnationally. Finally, the international community needs to consider the lessons that can be learned for the future to avert and deter such use of the environment as a tool of war.

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