Larry Glass, NEC Board President
Caroline Griffith, NEC Executive Director
As we watch militarized actions in Gaza, Ukraine, and elsewhere ramp up, we are reminded of the saying popularized by Jewish artist Lorraine Schneider during the Vietnam War: War is not healthy for children and other living things. We’ll take that a step further and say that war is an unmitigated disaster for people, communities, nations and the environment. And that is when nations are abiding by international law. When they’re not, it demands our immediate attention, compassion and action. While some of these violations are very obvious and there are some mechanisms and institutions to investigate them and offer possible recourse, others are not so apparent. One example is environmental war crimes.
We are just starting to see the full extent of the current wars’ impact on air, water and the environment; on soils and agriculture; on energy and water infrastructure; and ultimately, on public health and safety. The challenge is that much of this is hidden and is not being sufficiently studied, so it is likely that the victims of this less visible side of war may be far greater than we ever imagined.
Even before the first bombs drop, war and militarism have had an environmental impact. Heavy metals and fossil fuels are extracted to make and fuel tanks, planes and weapons, and chemicals are synthesized to make munitions. Lockheed Martin, which is the top military contractor globally, has been sued by workers at its US factories and adjacent facilities who have been exposed to high concentrations of dangerous chemicals that they say were improperly stored. US military contractors like Lockheed Martin, RTX (formerly Raytheon), and Northrup Grummond all have locations spread across the country and world, so the environmental justice impacts of manufacturing weapons are distributed around the globe.
Once the shelling starts, the environmental impacts change. Where there are crumbled buildings, there is often deadly asbestos and silica dust dispersed into the air. Where there are landmines and unexploded ordnance, or damaged industrial sites, there may be leaks of heavy metals and other toxic pollutants, some of which last for generations. Where lakes and farm fields are poisoned, food security suffers. The recent destruction by Russian forces of Ukraine’s largest dam – Kakhovka – led to the flooding of industrial sites and reportedly released 150 tonnes of toxic industrial lubricants, along with contaminants from sewage pits, fuel stations, and agrochemical and pesticide stores, as well as dislodged landmines.
In Gaza, impacts to waterways are also a prime concern. It has been reported that within the first few weeks of the current war every single one of Gaza’s wastewater treatment plants lost power, resulting in sewage overflows. Add to this the fact that much of the population has been displaced to refugee camps that lack basic sanitary services and are grossly overcrowded, and the wastewater treatment issue has been magnified.
And then there is the greenhouse gas impact of war. The Guardian reported at the beginning of 2024 that, “the planet-warming emissions generated during the first two months of the war in Gaza were greater than the annual carbon footprint of more than 20 of the world’s most climate-vulnerable nations.” Much of these emissions comes from aircraft missions, tanks, making and exploding bombs, as well as US cargo planes delivering military supplies to Israel. Data on greenhouse gas emissions from the war in Ukraine follow a similar pattern.
Although we know (roughly) the human impact of these wars, the impact on wildlife is often less visible. Ukraine has always been known for its rich biodiversity and many areas set aside for wildlife and plants, but this brutal war waged by Russia has destroyed many of these areas. Important rivers and streams have been polluted with toxic chemicals, as well as the fertile soil in this country known as the breadbasket of the world. Forests are pockmarked with craters from artillery rounds. Fires have been started by munitions and others have been intentionally set. To add insult to injury it has been reported that about one third of Ukraine’s land base is contaminated with landmines and unexploded ordnance, which can leach lead and other toxic chemicals that have a grave effect on wildlife throughout the food chain.
In both Ukraine and Palestine, advocates are starting the process of documenting and analyzing the environmental impacts of the current invasions in the hopes of pursuing accountability. Both Ukraine and Palestine have asked the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to begin environmental assessments while looking into the legal mechanisms available to hold perpetrators accountable for crimes against the environment, or ecocide. One of the challenges of this is the danger of gathering data during wartime. Early in the war in Ukraine, the website EcoZagroza was launched to allow Ukrainians to monitor certain environmental quality indicators and to report environmental crimes being committed in the name of war. It remains to be seen what will happen with these investigations, but Ukraine’s determination to pursue charges in the International Criminal Court could set a precedent for prosecuting environmental war crimes.
Environmental crimes often fade into the background when compared to the human suffering that we see on a daily basis on the news, but as we know, humans and the environment are inextricably linked so environmental harm is also harm to people and other living things. As with nearly everything else that we write about in these pages, we want to point out that with this harm also comes immense profit for certain people and corporations. And always, it’s those with the least power that are harmed the most.