GRAPEVINE

By DAVID ELLIS

Environmentalists are sounding an 11th-hour warning about the explosives that Iraqi soldiers have planted around most of Kuwait's 700 oil wells and 21 processing plants. If those devices are set off, the subsequent conflagration could create "a nuclear-winter-like situation," asserts Paul Crutzen, director of Germany's Max Planck Institute for Chemistry. Jordanian experts say the wells could burn 10 million bbl. of oil a day, releasing a vast cloud of black smoke into the stratosphere. Such a cloud has the potential to screen sunlight, reduce temperatures and damage crops throughout the northern hemisphere. Not all experts agree with the grim forecasts, contending that Kuwaiti oil fields are too far apart to combine into one conflagration. If only some wells blow, the multibillion-dollar task of extinguishing the fires would be unlike any previous disaster. Much of Kuwait's crude lies close to the surface and could continuously feed the flames. Ensuing fire storms, producing temperatures exceeding 160 degreesF, could keep fire fighters at bay for a year. "Leaders involved in the conflict should become aware of the consequences," says Crutzen, "so that such an act of madness will not take place."

With reporting by Sidney Urquhart