The environmental impacts of the Kuwait invasion and the main casualties and losses during the seven month long Iraqi occupation of Kuwait - Term Paper Example

Download file to see previous pages However, this invasion did not become without negative impact, especially to the local civilians. Some of the outcomes of the Kuwait invasion were environmental. The long term effect includes climatic, vegetation, and biological changes in Kuwait. They experienced high penetration of sun rays due to global warming, poor vegetation, and poor health. The invasion had some effect on air, water, and land. This paper aims at discussing the environmental impacts of the Kuwait invasion.
After the United States of America had come to the aid of Kuwait, Sadam Hussein, the then Iraqi president orders his troops to undertake a scorched earth policy which would see to it that all the oil wells in Kuwait were lit on fire before the soldiers retreated from Kuwait (Wilcox 177). The main aim of using the scorched earth policy was aimed at giving them a military advantage by slowing down the USA troops. The scorched earth policy led to the burning of 700 wells in. The Kuwait atmosphere was one of the most affected by the scorched earth policy. When oil is burned in the presence of air there is always the production of carbon dioxide smoke (Austin 101). Carbon dioxide usually has negative effects to the atmosphere. One thing that is obvious is that the massive production of carbon dioxide, smoke led to climatic changes in the region. This means that the ozone layer was highly interfered with lead to an increase in the rate of global warming in Kuwait.
During the burning there is definitely some oil that was not completely burnt and found its way to the atmosphere. Such oil led to the formation of invisible droplets in the air. Such droplets led to the formation of oil mist and fog which is believed to have led to the death of many animals and plants. This is because air, with such composition would definitely find themselves in the animals and human lungs whenever it is inhaled ...Download file to see next pagesRead More