The Hindu Business Line : ‘Modern warfare damages ecosystems’

At Bali, a large gathering of representatives from 190 countries discussed global warming and climate change, debated ways and means to reduce the environmental impact of economic activity and agreed to a roadmap of fighting climate change.

At the heart of most discussions was the pervasive use of fossil fuels and the damage they cause to the world’s environment. A large number of thermal power plants (coal-fired) and widespread use of mineral oil by the transportation sector are widely seen as contributing to environmental pollution.

Developing countries have been put under pressure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, while developed countries are ready to sell the technology developed for the purpose. This growth versus environment debate calls for a lifestyle change.

In this heated debate, if there’s one critical contributor to unprecedented environmental damage that seems to have been largely overlooked, it is modern warfare. Writing in the latest issue of World Watch (January-February2008), Ms Sarah DeWeerdt, author of War and the Environment, says modern warfare tactics as seen in the American war in Vietnam, the Rwandan and Congolese civil wars, and the current war in Iraq, have greatly increased the capacity to destroy the natural landscape and produce devastating environmental effects on the planet.

Calling the deliberate destruction of the environment by the military as ‘ecocide’, the author says the sheer firepower of current weapons technology, especially its shock-and-awe deployment by modern superpowers is unprecedented. The involvement of guerrilla groups in many recent wars draws that firepower towards the natural ecosystem — often circumscribed and endangered ones — where those groups take cover.

While the long-term ecological effects of the current war in Iraq remain to be seen, if the Gulf War provides any guide, scientists point to the physical damage of the desert, particularly the millimetre-thin layer of micro-organisms that forms the crust on the topsoil, protecting it from erosion.

Analysis of the area affected by the Gulf War has already shown an increase in sandstorms and dune formation in the region. One study suggests that desert crusts might take thousands of years to fully recover from the movement heavy vehicles. “Warfare is likely to have the most severe, longest-lasting effects on protected areas that harbour endangered species, and slow-to-recover ecosystems such as deserts, leaving enduring scars,” says Ms DeWeerdt.

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