By Susan Messer

When a country is at war, both its people and its biodiversity are under attack. As warfare kills, wounds, and traumatizes countless humans, it also destroys, damages, and endangers soil, air, water, wildlife, flora, and fauna—elements that all humans depend on for life. Warfare is, in short, an act of destruction that disproportionately affects all the planet’s essential ecosystems.

Much of the information in this article comes from the Conflict and Environment Observatory—an organization that monitors the impact of wars. Unfortunately, the many harms the Observatory has identified in multiple areas of the world (Gaza, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Colombia, Iraq, Libya, South Sudan, Syria, and Yemen) are too numerous to mention here. I offer only a sampling.

Warfare requires and consumes vast quantities of fuel, leading to massive CO2 emissions that contribute to climate change.
Research indicates that the U.S. Department of Defense is the world’s single largest institutional consumer of oil—and as a result, one of the world’s top greenhouse gas emitters. Moreover, in a joint study, Scientists for Global Responsibility and the Conflict and Environmental Observatory estimate that if the world’s militaries were a country, they would have the fourth-largest national carbon footprint in the world—greater than that of the African continent.
Movement of military vehicles and intensive use of explosives severely damage sensitive landscapes and geodiversity—a term that refers to the variety of rocks, fossils, minerals, natural processes, landforms, and soils that underlie and determine the character of our landscapes and environment.
Vehicle placements, trenching, and construction of earthworks contribute to erosion, change drainage patterns, damage root systems, interfere with wildlife movements, and disrupt habitats and vegetation assemblages.
The use of explosive weapons in urban areas creates vast quantities of debris and rubble, which cause air and soil pollution. Damage to environmentally sensitive infrastructure such as water treatment plants also causes pollution.
Cratering and fires leave landscapes exposed to erosion, and to colonization by invasive species. Vegetation loss reduces habitats and food sources.
The interruption of energy supplies that occurs for multiple reasons related to warfare reverberate negatively through the environment, shutting down treatment plants or pumping systems, and/or forcing people who are under siege to use dirtier fuels.
Warfare leaves behind toxic remnants, including munition residues, fuels and oils, military waste, and contaminated military scrap.
Acoustic disturbance from fighting and vehicle movements disrupts wildlife feeding and breeding patterns. When explosive weapons are used near bodies of water, acoustic shock can affect aquatic organisms.
Countries such as Ukraine that are heavily industrialized have many mines, chemical processing plants, and metallurgical works—all posing risks for environmental catastrophes, especially during war.
In the Black Sea Biosphere Reserve—a rich ecosystem on Ukraine’s southern coast—fires large enough to be detected from space have been seen, prompting concerns about the destruction of critical habitats for multiple species. These include more than 120,000 migrating birds that winter, nest, and breed on those shores and wetlands; the endangered sandy blind mole rat; the Black Sea bottlenose dolphin; rare flowers; countless mollusks; and dozens of species of fish.
In 2020, scientific observers noted that Gaza and the West Bank were in a state of severe environmental degradation, and the outlook for environmental sustainability was bleak. Based on what we know of the blast damage war has brought to Gaza in 2023/24, the number of tanks and other military vehicles that are being used there, and the destruction of infrastructure related to water treatment and sanitation, we can only surmise what the environmental damage is currently and will be into the foreseeable future.
Anti-microbial resistance (AMR) and the emergence of superbugs is occurring throughout the world. According to the Climate and Environment Observatory, “A pilot study conducted in Gaza found AMR bacteria everywhere the researchers looked: in the water supply of health care facilities, on the surface of hygiene facilities, and in the wastewater discharged to public networks. In a besieged area like Gaza, untreated or partially treated wastewater, including medical wastewater, is discharged to the sea, or seeps back into aquifers.”

I am almost certain that no reader of this website blog needed even one more reason to despair at the ravages of war. However, let me add this thought: Might a focus on the environmental toxicity of war—its devastating impact on our planet and, thus, on all of us—have the potential to create a bridge between warring sides?