War and Conflict–Related Environmental Destruction

Introduction

Armed conflict often causes negative environmental impacts. This can occur on local and regional levels. Impacts of war on ecosystems depend on the magnitude and duration of a conflict, as well as the types of weapons used. For example, a conflict over an isolated water source may impact only a few villages, but large international conflicts that employ modern weaponry could harm many regions. Recent environmental effects of armed conflict have included soil degradation, radioactive pollution, acid rain, and diminution of air quality.

Historical Background and Scientific Foundations

By definition, war is destructive, not just on people and infrastructure, but also on the surrounding natural environment. Throughout history, from the Roman sacking of Carthage to the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, conflict has caused large-scale environmental damage. Yet only in recent decades have researchers measured the environmental costs of war. The media have paid increasing attention to issues of environmental degradation caused by human conflict in recent years. When Israel invaded Lebanon in 2006, the media reported on a conflict-caused release of 100,000 tons of oil into the Mediterranean Sea.

Modern warfare has particularly severe environmental impacts. Scorched earth tactics have been deployed for almost as long as war is old. Although the initial effect is devastating, the environmental effects have for most of history been short term: trees and crops will grow again, towns and cities can be rebuilt, wildlife will usually return. Yet in the Gulf War (1990–1991) between a U.S.-led coalition and Iraq, the retreating Iraqi army deployed scorched earth tactics on a different scale, by destroying the Kuwaiti oil field it had recently seized.

In total, 736 oil wells were set ablaze, consuming 6 million barrels of oil daily and dousing significant parts of the Persian Gulf in impenetrable black clouds. The fires burned until November 1991, eight months after a ceasefire. Although initial fears proved unfounded that the smoke would penetrate the upper atmosphere and influence weather patterns—similar to the effects of major volcanic eruptions—the sabotage had a significant regional effect. Released sulfur contributed to acid rain and local air quality was significantly diminished. Non-ignited oil formed vast lakes on the Arabian Desert, contaminating huge amounts of soil and freshwater.

Gulf War alliance forces used depleted uranium (DU)—a dense metal used to enhance the penetrative quality of munitions. Because DU is essentially a low-level nuclear waste, it is toxic. Scientific opinion remains split on the degree of harm caused by exposure, but DU use can contaminate its very immediate surroundings.

After fighting in France and Belgium in World War I (1914–1918), and through Poland and the Ukraine in World War II (1939–1945), most of the major battlefields were successfully turned back to agricultural land with the commencement of peace—despite thousands of tons of munitions lying unexploded in the ground. By contrast, modern battlefields lie contaminated not just by DU, but often by very sensitive weapons like unexploded cluster bombs and landmines—both of which are difficult to detect but remain deadly for decades.

Cheap, easy to deploy, and deadly (and just as difficult and costly to deactivate), landmines are a problem in large areas of the former Yugoslavia, West Africa, and parts of East Asia. Landmines render land an uninhabitable environmental disaster zone. In Cambodia and Bosnia there is approximately one landmine for every person; in Afghanistan, Iraq, Croatia, Eritrea, and Sudan, the ratio is one mine for every two persons.

Other effects of war on local ecosystems are less immediately obvious. Changes in land use, abandon-¥

WORDS TO KNOW

ACID RAIN: A form of precipitation that is significantly more acidic than neutral water, often produced as the result of industrial processes.

ATOMIC BOMB: A highly destructive weapon that derives its explosive power from the fission of atomic nuclei.

DEPLETED URANIUM (DU): A byproduct of spent nuclear fuel, DU is a dense metal with a variety of civilian and military uses. It is often used to enhance the armor piercing qualities of munitions, although its deployment is riddled with controversy and it has been linked to increased incidence of cancer rates and birth defects.

ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION: The overall deterioration of environmental quality due to a range of issues, such as deforestation, desertification, pollution, and climate change.

LANDMINE: A bomb planted on or near the surface of the ground that is triggered by something passing over it.

NATO: The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is a military alliance comprising the United States and 25 other members states, along with 14 major allies. It was involved in the bombing of Serbia in 1999 and most recently in Afghanistan.

NUCLEAR WEAPON: A military device whose explosive power is derived from nuclear fission or fusion.

SCORCHED EARTH: A military policy involving widespread destruction of property and resources, especially by burning, so that an advancing enemy cannot use them.

ment of cultivated land, or significantly increased demands on natural resources can have long-term consequences on an environment. During the war between Eritrean and Ethiopia (1961–1991), the country’s forest cover was reduced from nearly one third of its overall landmass to less than 1%, resulting in high rates of soil erosion, reduced wildlife populations, sedimentation of rivers and reservoirs, and crop failures.

Impacts and Issues

Nuclear weapons remain controversial because of their capacity for destruction. It is estimated that such a conflict could result in more than 1 billion deaths, with a similar number injured due to the combined effects of blast, fire, and radiation. Scientists predict an appalling array of environmental consequences too: a tripling of UV-B radiation; increased doses of ionizing radiation; atmospheric pollution; chemical pollution of surface waters; and release of toxic chemicals from secondary fires.

In August 1945, during World War II, the United States used atomic bombs against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The human and environmental effects were devastating. The blasts caused air pollution from dust particles and radioactive debris. Fires burned for some six weeks, destroying plants and wildlife. The region’s water table was polluted by radioactive particles. Radioactive precipitation contaminated humans and agriculture far beyond the blast zone. Birth defects and incidence of cancer were significantly enhanced over following decades. Several nations have since developed exponentially more powerful nuclear weapons than the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs, though these weapons were used in tests or never detonated. Even testing of nuclear weapons has caused serious environmental damage. Some researchers have studied test sites for clues about the possible impacts of wide-scale use of nuclear weapons in future conflicts. Some assert that nuclear weapons pose a considerable threat to the environment and increasing global instability could lead to increased use of nuclear devices. However, others counter that modern tactical nuclear weapons allow for more accurate targeting and concentrated explosions, limiting the scope of human and environmental impacts when compared to the earliest atomic bombs.

As the effects of climate change are increasingly felt, global environmental degradation is also seen as a major contributing factor to future conflicts. The United Nations and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have addressed the possibility that climate-change induced food and resource scarcity could spark regional conflict. In the Middle East, disputes over water access are already a significant impediment to lasting peace settlements between some nations. The armed conflict in the Sudan in the 1980s is an example of conflict initiated by food insecurity and famine. Elsewhere in East Africa deforestation and soil erosion combined with spiraling populations and uncontrolled urban migration have diminished food self-sufficiency and heightened the danger of civil conflict.

See Also Human Impacts; International Environmental Law; Oil Spills

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Books

Gleditsch, Nils Petter, ed. Conflict and the Environment, NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Conflict and the Environment. Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1997.

Gleditsch, Nils Petter, and Paul F. Diehl, eds. Environmental Conflict. Boulder: Westview, 2001.

Schneider, Gerald, Katherine Barbieri, and Nils Petter Gleditsch, eds. Globalization and Armed Conflict. New York: Rowman and Littlefield, 2003.

Periodicals

“Special Issue on Environmental Conflict.” Journal of Peace Research 35, no.3 (May 1998).

James Corbett