The death and destruction caused by conflict are visible and immediate tragedies, but the long-term environmental consequences of violence are often overlooked: sinister and toxic legacies. Even before the first shot is fired, standing armies are hostile to the climate: voracious energy consumers and wasteful, they are responsible for 5.5% of global greenhouse gas emissionsThe US military, with its fleets of ships, tanks and high-performance aircraft, is the largest institutional consumers of oil in the world. As a result, its carbon footprint is larger than that of most countries – larger than that of Sweden, Denmark or Portugal.
Another factor to consider is the logistics chains that keep armies supplied, as well as emissions from the weapons manufacturing industry.
Artillery fire and airstrikes destroy forests, fields and woods; trenches and fortifications disrupt natural habitats; people forced from their homes put added pressure on the earth’s resources; while the deliberate targeting of economic assets – from factories to refineries – pollutes the air, soil and water. Rebuilding what has been destroyed also has a climatic cost.
At least 59 armed conflicts were recorded last year, a record number. Here are four examples of the environmental impact of violence:
Ukraine’s ecocide
The first 12 months of war may have led to a net increase of 120 million tons of greenhouse gasesequivalent to the annual production of Belgium. The environmental destruction is so extensive that it has been described as “ecocide”, and the damage is estimated to exceed 57 billion dollars (51.56 billion euros).
Attacks on factories, agribusinesses, and water and sewage infrastructure have led to widespread pollution. Bombings, forest fires, deforestation, and chemical pollution have already affected nearly 1,000 people. One third of Ukraine’s protected areasThe ecological damage adds to the toxic legacy of Ukraine’s time as part of the Soviet Union.
Two environmental crises stand out for both their scale and their potential long-term public health consequences. The June 2022 destruction of the Kakhovka reservoir, Ukraine’s largest, is considered the worst environmental disaster in Europe since Chernobyl. The suspected Russian attack led to the emptying of nearly 90% of the reservoir and caused massive flooding that inundated thousands of hectares of land in what was the country’s southern breadbasket.
Since then they have stopped watering 600,000 hectares of former farmlandaccording to the Ukrainian Ministry of Agriculture, and the region may quickly return to its former semi-desert state.
That same year, a missile attack on the Kremenchuk oil refinery caused several major fires, releasing pollutants into the atmosphere. The densely populated southern city of Kremenchuk was also affected, but the prevailing wind blew much of the toxic smoke northward into rural areas. The emergency response may also have contributed to the disaster, as the fire-fighting foams used contained “permanent chemicals”.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has described the ecological impact of the Israeli invasion of Gaza as a disaster. “unprecedented”and says the damage to ecosystems and biodiversity is likely to be irreversible.
Nearly half of Gaza’s tree cover and farmland have been destroyed, with orchards and olive groves systematically targeted. Israel’s military action has been so devastating that environmental organisations have condemned it. described as another ecocide.
The Geneva Conventions specifically prohibit warring parties from using methods that cause “widespread, long-term and severe damage to the natural environment.”
The fighting has generated 39 million tons of rubble, contaminated with asbestos, industrial and medical waste and other hazardous substances, according to a preliminary assessment by UNEPThe Israeli army has also used munitions containing heavy metals and explosive chemicals in densely populated Gaza, according to a preliminary study by the United Nations environmental programme released in June.
The closure of wastewater treatment plants is polluting beaches, coastal waters, soil and fresh water. Solid waste management has also come to a standstill. Some of the rubbish choking the city is being burned as fuel by displaced families, with unknown health consequences. Surviving trees are also being cut down and used for heating.
According to new researchIn the first two months alone, the war may have generated a carbon footprint equivalent to burning at least 150,000 tons of coal. The calculation includes CO₂ emissions from the manufacture and explosion of munitions and flights to Israel by US cargo planes carrying military supplies.
Ethiopia: Goodbye to ecological achievements
The Ethiopian government has spent three decades reclaiming degraded land in the arid, drought-prone northern region of Tigray. But the Tigray war, which began in 2020 and lasted two years, has shattered those ecological gains.
Both people made homeless by the conflict and soldiers camped in rural areas cut down trees for fuel. The extent of degraded forest cover is clearly visible by satellite. The region’s agricultural infrastructure, a strategic investment that includes irrigation equipment, seed nurseries and research institutions, has also been destroyed.
Threatened by extreme hunger as a result of the government’s scorched earth campaign and de facto aid blockade, people have turned to the natural environment to try to earn income or feed themselves, exacerbating environmental damage. Even the forest reserves in and around Waldiba Monastery were not spared, having been exploited after the monks guarding them were killed or displaced.
According to the latest report from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 15.8 million people are food insecure in Ethiopia. With the government heavily indebted and donor funding inadequate to meet e
mergency needs, green recovery could take a backseat to other priorities.
Myanmar: plundering resources
Since the coup in Myanmar in 2021, there has been a surge in ecological plunder, driven by weak environmental regulations and a cash-strapped government seeking to evade financial sanctions.
Myanmar is a country incredibly rich in resources, ranging from the biodiversity of its forests to the rare earth elements buried deep in its mountains. The escalating civil war has provided wealthy elites and armed groups with an opportunity to plunder them. Environmentalists, who before the coup had reined in some of the worst excesses, have been victims of murders and arrests by the military.
In addition to increased logging and jade mining, gold mining has also increased in the north of the country, involving both the military and the secessionist Kachin Independence Organisation. Trees have been cut down, land and riverbanks eroded, and waterways polluted with silt and mercury. The humanitarian consequence of this extractive war economy has been the displacement and violent persecution of vulnerable communities.
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