🌍 War and the Environment: The Long Shadow of a Silent Catastrophe
Analytical Feature | By Gre Malobi Dutta
When we think of war, images of bloodshed, clashing weapons, and violated borders come to mind. But beyond this immediate violence, war leaves behind deeper and more enduring scars—etched into the heart of nature itself.
Forests are felled, rivers disrupted, mountains scarred, wildlife decimated, and human livelihoods destroyed. War is, in many ways, a silent execution of the environment—its consequences felt for generations.
💣 The Eco-Destructive Power of Modern Weaponry
War is no longer confined to cannons and rifles. Today, conflicts are waged with chemical, biological, nuclear, and advanced technological weapons. These weapons not only harm human life but also poison entire ecosystems.
Consider the Vietnam War: the U.S. military sprayed vast areas of forest with the toxic defoliant Agent Orange, leading to massive loss of vegetation, biodiversity, and generations of genetic disorders in humans.
Similar patterns of ecological damage have been observed in Iraq, and more recently, in the Russia-Ukraine war.
🌳 War-Induced Deforestation and Land Degradation
An analysis of 193 armed conflicts from 1914 to 2023 reveals that forests (34%) and land (23%) were the most affected natural systems. Explosives and chemical weapons didn’t just destroy trees—they obliterated entire ecosystems.
The natural cycles of soil and water were disrupted. Vital resources like rivers, wetlands, and hills disappeared under the burden of war.
As a result, local communities lost agricultural productivity, fishing grounds, and forest-based livelihoods.
🔥 The Overlooked Link Between War and Climate Change
For too long, policymakers have ignored the fact that war is a major contributor to climate change. Military operations produce enormous amounts of greenhouse gas emissions through weapons, vehicles, and logistics. At the same time, war destroys forests and other natural carbon sinks.
This creates a double-edged crisis: climate disasters intensify, while the natural systems needed to mitigate them are simultaneously dismantled.
🧬 Public Health and Environmental Crisis: Gaza and Ukraine
In just three months of Israeli airstrikes on Gaza, over 179,000 children under the age of five suffered acute respiratory infections, and 136,000 were afflicted with severe diarrhea directly linked to war-related environmental contamination.
The World Wildlife Fund reports that over 3 million hectares of forest in Ukraine have been damaged since the war began, including 1 million hectares of protected forest. Thousands of wild species have lost their habitats.
Dr. Bohdan Vykhor commented, “We have lost parts of nature that will never return.”
🧠 Existential Perspective: War Against Nature
Greek philosopher Zeno once said, “The goal of life is to live in agreement with nature.” Modern nation-states and militant groups disregard ancient wisdom, causing ongoing aggression towards each other and the natural world.
Alessio Mamo, a photographer for The Guardian and two-time World Press Photo award winner, has taken striking images from war zones in West Asia, the Balkans, and Ukraine. He put it starkly:
“War is the ultimate form of human violence against nature.”
His lens shows not just the human casualties—but the death of the environment itself.
🕊️ Conclusion: Peace Must Include the Planet
There is growing global advocacy for peace. But true peace will remain elusive unless it also honors the interconnectedness of humans and nature. War is not only a political, diplomatic, and humanitarian crisis—it is an ecological disaster.
Any anti-war movement, and every message of peace, must carry within it a commitment to protect the planet. To ensure a livable Earth for future generations, we must prioritize a partnership between nature and humanity over war.
Original writer – Malobi Dutta, Journalist and Article writer, Kalkata and Published on Anodabazar.com in Bangla on 2nd May, 2025.
Translated by Deepak Kumar Kundu, Acting Editor/ Green Page.
