European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 30, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Tuesday july 30, 1991 the stars and stripes a Page 13 commentary Tom Wicker kuwaiti Oil Well fires pose Range threat those Oil Wells in Kuwait Are still burning a More of them than at first reported with unknown final effects and probably for a longer period than officially projected. Not just a about 500,�?T�?T As generally reported but 732 kuwaiti Oil Wells were set afire by retreating iraqi forces last Winter. A Senate subcommittee chaired by Joseph Liebe Mari d-conn., received that hard figure on july 11 from Kuwait a ambassador to the United states Sheik Saud Nasir Al Sabah and . Shannon jr., chairman of Santa be International an Oil drilling company owned by Kuwait. Shannon testified that by july 8, a some 199 Wells had been extinguished or capped a which Means that More than 500 still were burning four months after the desert War ended. In fact the Overall problem May have grown worse owing to huge Oil lakes being formed by Wells that Are still gushing but no longer afire. James George a former Canadian ambassador to Kuwait and an environmental scientist who led a friends of the Earth inspection team to Kuwait in june told the subcommittee that now these lakes Are catching fire causing More pollution than a Well fire and will be harder to extinguish. Shannon said the kuwaiti government had set a goal of 500 Wells a a secured by the end of the year and All by March 1992. But George in much More pessimistic testimony said his friends of the Earth team had concluded that the fires a will not be controlled for years a perhaps four or five years a As red Adair told the committee a month  Adair is one of the worlds leading Oil Well firefighters. Both Shannon and George agreed that the work in Kuwait is being complicated by the Hazard of unexploded Allied and iraqi munitions some of them now submerged in the Oil lakes. Various scientific teams have reached differing conclusions As to the regional and global consequences of the fires. Most now believe that they will cause neither a widespread a nuclear Winter effect falling temperatures As smoke blocks the suns rays or a major increase in global warming from the greenhouse effect of Carbon dioxide emissions. But within those extremes there a much disagreement. Data Are still scarce and there Are no useful precedents the largest previous Oil Field Blaze a Only five fires a was in Libya in 1965. Some evidence indicates that the kuwaiti fires could become a far reaching environmental catastrophe. John Horgan of scientific american has reported that Levels of soot a believed to be from Kuwait a above the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii were five times higher in March than in the three previous marches. The environmental Protection Agency for unexplained reasons briefly suppressed this finding. Balloon observations at the University of Wyoming Horgan reported suggest that kuwaiti smoke has passed Over the Continental United states. Particle concentrations in the troposphere above Wyoming increased by a Factor of 10 or More from Early february to late March 1991. By far the most apocalyptic speculation a much disputed a is that smoke from Kuwait May have worsened the Gigantic typhoon that killed More than 100,000 persons in Bangladesh on May 1. This theory holds that the smoke warmed the atmosphere and increased the customary Monsoon Rains. Tir Valam Krishnamurti of Florida state University a Monsoon expert told Horgan that floods in Bangladesh Rose 2 feet higher than Ever before recorded and that Rains after the storm were unusually severe. The visible smoke plume from Kuwait would cover most of the coastal United states from new York to Florida. Kuwaiti soot has been detected in Northern Japan. Soviet scientists already have measured unprecedented Levels of acid rain in regions of the soviet Union and similar fallout is expected in areas about 1,200 Miles from Kuwait possibly As far away As China. Temperature drops of up to 10 degrees celsius Are predicted for a radius of hundreds of Miles around Kuwait drops of 1 or 2 degrees May be Felt for about 600 Miles. Nearby Bahrain has just had its coolest May in 35 years. These effects could produce crop failures and famine and soot falling on snowy regions a already seen in the Himalayas a May cause rapid melting followed by flooding. If the fires Are extinguished on Kuwait a official schedule such consequences May be Brief and manageable. But suppose the fires Burn for years the cumulative effect would be disastrous. C the new York time Leslie h. Gelbin new Era soviet woes Best focus for Summit this weeks Bush Gorbachev meeting has the air of a last superpower Summit the Farewell to the dramatic Days when the United states and soviet Union seemed to hold the worldwide reins of War and peace the ritual end to a titanic bipolar struggle that sucked up energies and resources and lives yet effectively maintained a nuclear peace. Compared with the cold War meetings this will be a Potemkin Summit. The United states and the soviet Union a separately and together a no longer shape global destiny. Which does not mean summits Are useless and which raises two questions first what will replace the superpower forum As the organizing vehicle or principle for International politics the Short answer is no single group of states but and hoc arrangements. President Bush is already practising this approach skilfully though he has botched its articulation. And holism is the most that can be done to bring some semblance of peaceful change to an increasingly Messy and fluid world. Second what will be the value of this and future soviet american summits the Short answer is that they will become one of Many needed clearinghouses for dealing with the old issues such As arms control the Middle East and Afghanistan. But such meetings can also become an effective Means for governments in Washington and Moscow to confront their most important Mutual concern a the soviet Union itself. For All Bush stalk about a new world order he frets about Mikhail s. Gorbachev a political survival and the disintegration of the soviet Union. The american president is simply most comfortable in the orderly old bipolar world. As much As he would like to hang onto it however he knows he needs a new Security policy. Bush has made collective Security his rhetorical trademark yet knows its limitations. It worked Well enough in the persian Gulf War. But the iraqi threat was egregious and near Universal and thus is unlikely to serve As a Model in any event the United nations is constituted to handle Only old Model wars a one nation attacking another. It will always resist intervening in current style conflicts a civil wars and wars of National Independence. Such intervention is too Likely to end up one Day in ones own Back Yard. Nor Are regional Security groups eager to police a a internal wars. True african states did the Job recently in Liberia. But the highly touted conference on Security and cooperation in Europe ran away from the imbroglio in Yugoslavia. The european Community led by Britain France and Germany could not get its act together there either. And these european organizations Are generally better positioned than their counterparts on other continents to take such action. It is similarly unrealistic to expect the leading industrialized democracies known As the group of seven to step into and up to political military quarrels. Their interests simply Are not sufficiently convergent on these matters. That should not be surprising Given their paltry performance in coordinating economic policies their principal reason for being. All of which Points to an even larger role for the United states. Forget this idea although the United states is now the Lone superpower it is so by default. It no longer has the economic strength to make the sacrifices required to run the world. And it could not do so anyway. Bush has taken the fur Wiser course. He is energizing every available combination of states to confront specific problems on an and hoc basis from free Trade to missile sales to Cambodia. And where most conflicts will be internal and economic that is the Only sensible approach. Bush headed toward the Moscow Summit in just this spirit. He is planning to spend most of his time on soviet internal politics and economics. He will give primary attention and help to Gorbachev a proven Friend who has bravely overthrown communist totalitarianism and finally committed himself to a co Federal and democratic future for his country. But he will also Confer with Boris Yeltsin Gorbachev a archrival just in Case. Then he will visit the Ukraine to underline americans support for confederation. In the bad old Days soviet leaders would go ballistic at any mention of their internal situation. Now it is the Only subject they want to discuss. And it is precisely the right focus for soviet american sum Mitry in a new non Polar and disorderly world. C the new York times