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November 7, 2004

Damaging Effects of War on Environment

Barrister Harun ur Rashid

"Accursed be he that first invented war", so wrote the 16th century English dramatist and contemporary to Shakespeare, Christopher Marlow (1564-93). War has caused multitude of catastrophic consequences on environment--land, air and water of the Earth.

The International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War/Armed conflict is being observed on 6 November in many countries with some appropriate local event to bring awareness among people of the devastation caused to environment in war. The destruction of ecosystem of the mother Earth as a result of war is not usually highlighted in media. People in war zone suffer silently and helplessly for years together.

Those of us who have lived through the years since the dropping of the first nuclear bomb in Japan in 1945 thought that the end of the Cold War in 1990 spelled a return to sanity in not waging war against another country. Wars are, by their nature, violent, deadly and destructive. During the 20th century alone, there have occurred some 16 major wars and more than 10 times as many minor wars in developing countries.

As weaponry and warfare have become more sophisticated, their long- term effects on environment have become more insidious and deadly. While it has been easier to count the loss of human lives, it is very difficult to gauge less obvious effects on environment. War, as a means of settling political conflicts, has destabilized the delicate natural balance of the earth's ecosystem, causing widespread devastation on environment.

The issue has been given fresh sharpness and urgency in view of the wars and armed conflict continuing not only in Iraq and Afghanistan but also in many parts in Africa. It is reported in media that even Queen Elizabeth of Britain has become worried observing the alarming impact of Britain's changing weather pattern in recent years and has expressed her concerns to the British Prime Minister.

Environment and military establishment
Let us first begin with some basic statistics as to how military establishments degrade environment. It is reported that the world's military consumes as much petrol as Japan, the world's largest economy- and produce an estimated 10% per cent of global air pollution. The world's military forces are responsible for the emission of more than two thirds of ozone-depleting CFCs (chloroflucarbons) and Halon.

Nuclear weapons are an environmental catastrophe. There are 400 metric tons of weapons- grade plutonium in the world today. Most of them are with the military of the US and Russia. The ever present threat of nuclear war aside, plutonium has a radioactive half-life of 24,000 thousand years. Naval accidents of at least 50 nuclear warheads and 11 nuclear reactors litter the ocean floor, much to the peril of living sea resources.

Environment and War
There is a saying that whichever side wins, there is one loser in every warthe Earth. Wars are ecologically destructive for a number of reasons: (a) war exerts a substantial destructive impact on civil population, (b) war has an destructive impact on land and other natural resources, living and non-living, and (c) there has been an increasing tendency in recent wars to use sophisticated weapons that result in ever greater disruption on environment.

To illustrate the point, let me cite a few examples. In 1999, the US military bombed a petrochemical complex, 15 kilometres northeast of Belgrade (Serbia), releasing toxins as chlorine in the air. The pollutants that were released from the plant are believed to have a negative impact on the nutrition chain. Land, rivers, lakes and underground waters have been polluted due to the spillage of petrochemical, oil spills and other chemicals. Experts say that it will take many years before the full impact of the destruction in Serbia is known. Furthermore NATO's bombing of Yugoslav industrial sites has contaminated the river Danube, posing a heath hazard for decades.

In 1991 during the First Gulf War, US bombing of oil facilities caused spills of 6 to 8 million barrels of crude oil, killing about 30,000 marine birds. Damage to other marine environments was extensive. Saddam Hussein's deliberate oil well fires in Kuwait spewed toxic soot and poisoned water supplies both in Kuwait and Iraq. Smoke plumes remained around 10,000 feet in atmosphere from those oil well fires where they could remain for years and could disperse with the wind around the globe. William Reilly, who was then the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency in the US, reportedly said: " If hell had a national park, it would be those burning oil fires."

Although the environmental costs of the current war in Iraq will not be known for sometime to come, depleted uranium from US weapons has contaminated the soil and plants in Iraq that may cause cancers and deformities associated with uranium exposure.

In Afghanistan, the US-led war has resulted uranium exposure, causing many illnesses, such as, joint pains, flu-like diseases, bleeding mucous membranes among many Kabul residents. One quarter of the Kabul newborns examined in 2002 had health problems consistent with uranium exposure.

Nearly 30 years after the end of War in Indo-China (Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam), many of the ecosystems in these countries have not recovered, according to the Environment Conference on Indo-China in Stockholm in September, 2002. Ten (10%) per cent of southern Vietnam forests including one third of the coastal mangroves (comparable to Bangladesh's Sunderban forest area), which play a vital role in the coastal ecosystem and fish habitats were destroyed by the 72 million litres of herbicide the US military dropped during the Vietnam war.

Asia Brown Cloud
The Nairobi-based UN Environmental Programme Agency-sponsored study, released in early August 2002, revealed that 3-km thick cloud of pollution containing a toxic cocktail of ash, acids, aerosols and other toxic particles, commonly known as "Asian Brown Cloud", was found to be stretching across the whole of northern Indian Ocean and much of South Asia, South East Asia and China. This toxic cloud is claimed to be principally result of the wars in South East Asia (Vietnam War) and Gulf Wars. The presence of the cloud is believed to be a great threat to environment because climate pattern may drastically change resulting more floods and droughts in many parts of Asia in the years ahead.

Planting of landmines and degradation of environment
Landmines are one of the most repugnant weapons during war. As reported by the Geneva-based International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC), these hidden weapons on the ground do not miss their target and their victims, mostly children playing in the open space, are grievously afflicted or permanently crippled or disabled.

Environmental damage due to implanting of landmines is severe and the damage include (a) the rise of sand and dust, if it is a desert country, (b) the rise of soil pollution and change of its chemical particles and (c) destruction of reefs and corals at the coastal belt , negatively affecting marine life. All the damages enumerated here are detected in Kuwait even after almost 14 years of the First Gulf War.

Conclusion
The world is home to more than 6 billion people. The vast and growing human population must share the Earth's ever more limited natural resources not only among its members but also with the other living things that inhabit the Earth. With the Earth's natural resources already insufficient to provide an adequate standard of living for all across the world, it become especially important to reduce all unnecessary depredations of the global environment.

One obvious action to do this is to provide robustly the awareness of the short-term and long-term consequences of contamination of land, air and water due to wars. It is this anti-environmental aspect of warfare, largely overlooked in the past, needs to be addressed by all states through the institutional framework of the UN. In this connection, 6th November is a significant day for reminding that saving the environment from wars will be this century's biggest challenge. Our descendants may find themselves paying dearly for the follies of leaders launching wars to settle an inter-state dispute.

The author is Former Bangladesh Ambassador to the UN, Geneva.