During the 1991 Gulf war, the snowy-white peaks of Iraq's northern mountains turned black. Soot from burning oil created a biblical rain that stained everything from houses to mountainsides. In Afghanistan, a country devastated by more than a quarter of a century of warfare, people still fish with rocket launchers. It seems obvious that military conflict takes a dreadful toll on the environment. Yet previous wars suggest that the connection is not so obvious as one might suppose. The main environmental problems that conflict in Iraq may bring are the pollution of water by sewage, the felling of trees to meet energy shortages, the physical degradation of the land, and pollution from materials such as oil. The seriousness of any of these problems will depend largely on the length and severity of the war, and on how quickly aid agencies can get in afterwards.
展开▼
