Word: deserts
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Time is short. The gulf war forged new alliances, shattered old ideas and forced a reconsideration of dug-in positions, giving peace at least a slim chance in the Middle East. But the new climate may not last much longer than a desert rainstorm; old habits, ways of thinking and alignments could quickly reassert themselves. So, to use a much overworked but appropriate metaphor, all parties interested in an Arab-Israeli peace process must scramble through the window of opportunity before it bangs shut...
Dante would have felt right at home in Kuwait, a desert paradise that has suddenly been transformed into an environmental inferno. Across the land hundreds of orange fireballs roar like dragons, blasting sulfurous clouds high into the air. Soot falls like gritty snowflakes, streaking windshields and staining clothes. From the overcast skies drips a greasy black rain, while sheets of gooey oil slap against a polluted shore. Burned-out hulks of twisted metal litter a landscape pockmarked by bomb craters, land mines and shallow graves scraped in the sand...
TRACKS ACROSS THE DESERT...
Less evident is the damage to the desert. Although many think of it as a lifeless place, the desert is actually a teeming, though fragile, ecosystem. Home to a variety of spiders, snakes and scorpions as well as larger creatures like camels, sheep and gazelles, it is literally held together by microorganisms, which form a thin surface crust. This crust catches the seeds of sparse shrubs and prevents surface soil from blowing away. Once it is disturbed -- by the maneuvers of a million soldiers, say -- recovery can take decades. The Libyan desert still shows tank tracks laid down in World...
Ironically, some parts of the Kuwaiti desert may indirectly benefit from the war. Much of the battle was fought on sandy or stony surfaces that had already been deformed almost beyond redemption by generations of Bedouin shepherds and, more recently, caravans of joyriders and hunters in all-terrain vehicles. The presence of hundreds of thousands of unexploded Iraqi mines in and around Kuwait will make both groups think twice about visiting their favorite haunts, thus giving large stretches of desert a chance to heal...