By Zsuzsa Román

Today we hear the shocking news of the war in Ukraine, but there are many more military conflicts in the world, including those of Yemen, Syria and Ethiopia. As a result, let us now take a look at war, at the effects of its dark pages of history!

The phenomenon of war quickly leads to direct losses in human lives, cities and infrastructure, but beyond these there are indirect and long-term losses in the environment and also in the psyche of every human being and of peoples, regardless of the side that is fighting. Damage emerges from the human and the natural world.

Let us now take a look at the environmental harm caused by wars. Unfortunately, like today so also during past years and decades (centuries), serious military conflicts have broken out and give us plentiful research material on this topic. E.g., there are studies on the environmental damage of World War II^[1] and since 2021 the UN has also started to deal more seriously with this issue in the UN General Assembly First Committee statement on the Protection of the environment in relation to armed conflicts.^[2]

War competes with infectious disease as a global cause of morbidity and mortality. In the 1980s, health experts’ concern about the effects of war on the environment^[3]  focused on the vast ecological consequences of nuclear weapons^[4]. In the 1990s, the Gulf War and the experiences of Kosovo also demonstrated the environmentally destructive capabilities of conventional weapons.^[5]

Specifically, the damage that arises from the development of the military industry and the application of weapons are^[6] the production and testing of nuclear weapons, air and naval bombings, land mines, dispossession, defoliation and toxic pollution.

Nuclear weapons technology continues to dominate concerns about possible dangers to the environment^[7]. Radioactivity, released into the environment during many production and testing processes, poses a serious threat to the health of biological species, including humans.

In addition to physical destruction, radioactive and other toxic materials (fuels, combustion products, metals, herbicides, carcinogens, teratogenics and others) cause serious problems: they enter the atmosphere, the water cycle and the soil. Both soldiers and civilian populations (sometimes even future generations) will have a high risk of various diseases of intoxication, cancers and malformations. Furthermore, harmful substances unfortunately remain for a long time in the affected territories, seas and lakes. It is enough to think of the example of the sunken ships of the World War II full of fuels that are still found in the seas.^[8]

According to an expert on the subject,^[9] future work to reduce the environmental effects of war must address four main issues: disseminating information, formulating the assessment of threat and of vulnerability, and employing the legal methods of international law. While these points indicate some remedies, the most definitive solution would be if wars were stopped.

If we look at the negative consequences of war, perhaps with the necessary distance of some time, they reveal to us shortcomings that doubly emphasize the opposite of war: the close relationship that connects a people to its territory and the constructive collaboration between peoples. It is not by chance that so much solidarity can be seen at times of war, showing glimpses of the desire to heal its profoundly experienced wounds.

References

^[1] Cf. Lawrence, Michael (2015). “The effects of modern war and military activities on biodiversity and the environment”. Environmental Reviews. 23 (4): 443–460.

^[2] https://ceobs.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/UNGA_1C_2021_PERAC_statement.pdf

^[3] Leaning J. War and the environment: human health consequences of the environmental damage of war. In: Chivian E, McCally M, Hu H, Haines A, editors. Critical condition: human health and the environment. Cambridge (MA): MIT Press; 1993. p. 123-37.

^[4] Barnaby F. The spread of the capability to do violence: an introduction to environmental warfare. Ambio 1975;4:178-244.

^[5] Finger M. The military, the nation state, and the environment. Ecologist 1991;21:220-5.

^[6] Leaning J. Environment and health: 5. Impact of war, CMAJ. 2000 Oct 31; 163(9): 1157–1161., https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC80251/

^[7] Renner M. Assessing the military’s war on the environment. In: Brown L, editor. State of the world 1991. New York: W.W. Norton; 1991. p. 132-52.

^[8] https://www.focus.it/ambiente/natura/i-pericoli-ambientali-dalle-navi-affondate-nella-ii-guerra-mondiale-123-37171

^[9] Leaning J. Environment and health: 5. Impact of war, CMAJ. 2000 Oct 31; 163(9): 1157–1161., https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC80251/

Zsuzsa Román is a specialist in public health and preventive medicine at the National Public Health Institute of Central Hungary in Budapest, member of EcoOne International and PhD student at Sophia University Institute, Italy.