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Birds covered in oil after attempting to hunt for food.

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Dead fish washing ashore after being poisoned by oil.

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The Persian Gulf Oil Spill had massive environmental effects, such as covering birds with toxic oil. This damages their feather, skin, and internal organs. The oil spilled into the ocean also had massive effects on the marine life in the area, killing millions of fish. This sudden absence of marine life threw off the ecosystems and food chains of the areas in the water and on land. Contaminating the land and causing many farms to shut down.

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The Gulf War oil spill was one of the largest oil spills in history, resulting from the Gulf War in 1991. The apparent strategic goal was to foil a potential landing by US Marines. It also made commandeering oil reserves dangerous for US and Coalition forces as visibility and movement were inhibited. The immediate reports from Baghdad said that American airstrikes had caused a discharge of oil from two tankers. Coalition forces determined the main source of oil to be the Sea Island terminal in Kuwait. On January 26, three US F-117 fighter-bombers destroyed pipelines to prevent further spillage into the Persian Gulf. Several other sources of oil were found to be active: tankers and a damaged Kuwaiti oil refinery near Mina Al Ahmadi, tankers near Bubiyan Island, and Iraq's Mina Al Bakr terminal.

Early estimates on the volume spilled hovered around 11,000,000 US barrels (1,300,000 m ³).. These numbers were however significantly adjusted downward by later, more detailed studies, both by government researchers (between 4,000,000 US barrels (480,000 m ³) and 6,000,000 US barrels (720,000 m ³)), and by private researchers (between 2,000,000 US barrels (240,000 m ³) and 4,000,000 US barrels (480,000 m ³)).

The slick reached a maximum size of 101 miles (160 km) by 42 miles (68 km) and was 5 inches (13 cm) thick in some areas. Despite the uncertainty surrounding the size of the spill, figures place it several times the size (by volume) of the Exxon Valdez oil spill.

The New York Times reported that a 1993 study sponsored by UNESCO, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the United States found the spill did "little long-term damage": About half the oil evaporated, 1,000,000 US barrels (120,000 m ³) were recovered and 2,000,000 US barrels (240,000 m ³) to 3,000,000 US barrels (360,000 m ³) washed ashore, mainly in Saudi Arabia.

More recent scientific studies have tended to disagree with this assessment. Marshlands and mud tidal flats continued to contain large quantities of oil, over nine years later, and full recovery is likely to take decades.

Dr. Jacqueline Michel, US geochemist (2010 interview - transcript of radio broadcast):

The long term effects were very significant. There was no shoreline cleanup, essentially, over the 800 kilometres that the oil - - in Saudi Arabia. And so when we went back in to do quantitative survey in 2002 and 2003, there was a million cubic meters of oil sediment remained then 12 years after the spill.... [T]he oil penetrated much more deeply into the intertidal sediment than normal because those sediments there have a lot of crab burrows, and the oil penetrated deep, sometimes 30, 40 centimetres, you know a couple of feet, into the mud of these tidal flats. There's no way to get it out now. So it has had long term impact.

Dr. Hans-Jörg Barth, German geographer (2001 research report):

The study demonstrated that, in contrary to previously published reports e.g. already 1993 by UNEP, several coastal areas even in 2001 still show significant oil impact and in some places no recovery at all. The salt marshes which occur at almost 50% of the coastline show the heaviest impact compared to the other ecosystem types after 10 years. Completely recovered are the rocky shores and mangroves. Sand beaches are on the best way to complete recovery. The main reason for the delayed recovery of the salt marshes is the absence of physical energy (wave action) and the mostly anaerobic milieu of the oiled substrates. The latter is mostly caused by cyanobacteria which forms impermeable mats. In other cases tar crusts are responsible. The availability of oxygen is the most important criteria for oil degradation. Where oil degrades it was obvious that benthic intertidal fauna such as crabs re-colonise the destroyed habitats long before the halophytes. The most important paths of regeneration are the tidal channels and the adjacent areas. Full recovery of the salt marshes will certainly need some centuries.

The Financial Times, in reference to the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, cited the 1993 optimistic assessment of the Gulf War oil spill as evidence that "Initial warnings of catastrophic environmental damage from oil spills can turn out to be overdone".

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The Gulf War oil spill was one of the largest oil spills in history, resulting from the Gulf War in 1991. The apparent strategic goal was to foil a potential landing by US Marines. It also made commandeering oil reserves dangerous for US and Coalition forces as visibility and movement were inhibited.

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The Persian Gulf Oil Spill allegedly occurred when Iraqi forces began dumping oil into the Gulf to stop U.S. forces. The estimated amount of oil dumped is around 11,000,000 US barrels. There was very little clean-up concerning helping the environment, but rather, towards collecting the oil by skimming it off the surface. An initial study claimed that the spill will not have any long-term effects on the environment, but recent claims suggest otherwise, saying that the event is responsible for damage to coastline sediments, and to marine species and ecosystems.

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This event happened in the Persian Gulf, with effects spreading across the coastlines of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and other countries in the area.

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People collecting oil off of the waters surface.

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The spill caused a food deficit, making people in the area go hungry. It ruined many fishing boats and other related infrastructure. The added stress from the spill created mass loads of stress and depression, with people worrying about the economy and in some cases, their friends and family. Many people also lost their jobs, an estimated 23,000 people lost jobs, throwing many people into or deeper into poverty.

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The spill caused massive damage to the fishing industry in the area. Due to the oil getting into equipment and infrastructure, many needed tools were ruined, causing the industry to falter. As well as causing lots of damage to the oil industry, with massive loss of their product, and the money required to reclaim it. This caused a spike in gas costs across the globe, making people spend a load of money on it. Inflated to today's price, it was around $11 per gallon, right now it is around $3.5 per gallon. The estimated money loss from this incident is 34.8 billion USD.

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People across the globe had a massive reaction to the oil spill, with things like outrage, humanitarian response, military response, political and legal reactions, etc.

-When people learned about it, many people named it a blatant act of environmental terrorism, and ecologists raised many alarms about how it will have long-term effects on the environment.

-Immediately after the incident, there was an influx of humanitarian and military aid, initiating clean ups, and and relief efforts. However, due to Iraq's military activity in the area, made it extremely difficult for much aid to reach, causing the overall help needed to not be met.

-The oil spill also had a lot of media coverage, partly due to the fact that it occurred during the Gulf War, and the images that occurred post-spill caused many environmental complaints around the globe.

-It sparked many political and legal reactions, with things like it being named an act of environmental warfare, and straining Iraq's relations to countries in the area. There were many calls for accountability and reparations, but none of them were answered.

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The spill was cleaned up mainly to recover the oil and profits rather than environmental concerns. Most clean-up efforts involved skimming oil off the water surface and putting it back into barrels. It is estimated that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia recovered 1,000,000 barrels of oil, a record amount. They not only recovered oil but also protected coastal oil infrastructure, allowing them to maintain some form of production and stay out of debt. This way of addressing it reflects amounts of both technocentric and anthropocentric values. By recovering the oil, they not only somewhat help the environment, but also allow for more to be sold. They also relied on inventions to clean this up, without them, it would be impossible.

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How this Changed our Views of the Environment

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How this Changed our Views of the Environment

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The spill changed our views of the environment towards more preventative and aware viewpoints. Affecting things such as our awareness of the fragility of ecosystems, our ideology on preventative measures, and our focus on long-term environmental impacts.

-The spill had massive and devastating effects on marine life in the area, especially in coral reefs, shorelines, and birds. It brought how fragile marine ecosystems are into the light, and how our industries can destroy vital wildlife.

-The spill emphasized the need for improved safe measures and disaster response action. It sparked greater attention to the necessity of planning for disasters such as the spill.

-Earlier, more contained environmental disasters allowed for the idea that the impacts do not last long, however, the Persian Gulf Oil Spill demonstrated how disasters like it can have long-lasting, impactful effects.

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Boat floating along the oil covered Persian Gulf

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1: For the next three months after the spill, about 6,000 barrels of crude oil a day continued to spill into the gulf.

2: Because the Iraqi's were anticipating an attack, they dug trenches and filled them with oil, and as they were retreating, caught 732 oil wells on fire.

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Contrasting the Persian Gulf Oil Spill to the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

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Contrasting the Persian Gulf Oil Spill to the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

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The Persian Gulf oil spill and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill are two oil spills that had detrimental effects on the local environment and ecosystems.

-Causes:

The Persian Gulf Oil Spill was a deliberate release of oil from the retreating Iraqis, while Deepwater Horizon was due to a failure in boat structure due to inadequate safety regulations and human error.

-Scale:

The Persian Gulf Oil Spill released approximately 11 million barrels of oil into the gulf, being the largest in history, while the Deepwater horizon was closer to 4.9 million barrels.

-Environmental impact:

The Persian Gulf Oil Spill Caused significant damage to the local ecosystems within the gulf, but was mitigated by the warmer water, which broke down the oil better. The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Spread oil across a bigger area, having less impact individually, but causing damage to many different ecosystems, and due to the colder water it took longer for the oil to break down.

-Media coverage:

The Persian Gulf Oil Spill was a significant event but was overshadowed by the conflict, making it get less attention from the media, and therefore the world. The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill however received widespread and sustained coverage, somewhat due to its occurrence in the U.S., but also because of its long-lasting occurrence.