Abstract Just after the invasion of Kuwait, scientists began predictions on the environmental disaster due to threat by the Iraqi regime to blow out oil wells in the Kuwaiti oil fields. The findings with the speculations ranging from a nuclear winter to super-acid rain and global warming were presented in the World Climate Conference in Geneva in November 1990. Just before the war erupted in the middle of January 1991, a conference in London was called to discuss the potential risks to human life and ecological systems in case of blow out of oil fields. The scientists, using modeling techniques, raised the speculations about the global impact which, however, was discounted at a later stage. This paper presents an overview of the selected models used to assess the local, regional, and global impacts. The paper also highlights the model and data limitations and suggests future research directions to respond more effectively under emergency situations.