Notes for a Lecture by Stuart Parkinson, SGR, for CCE seminar ‘The War on Terror’, Sussex University on 5 July 2003
Structure of lecture:
- Environmental roots of conflict
- Direct environmental impacts (eg Iraq, Afghanistan)
- Indirect environmental impacts
- Tackling the environmental causes of conflict
Environmental roots of conflict
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Scarce resources, eg water (eg Middle East); land for agriculture, population growth
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Abundant resources, eg oil (1991 Gulf war; civil war in Sudan; unrest in Nigeria); minerals (diamonds in civil wars in Sierra Leone and Angola; metal ores in civil war in Democratic Republic of Congo); timber (eg unrest in Indonesia)
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‘War on Terror’ - Iraq/ Afghanistan wars - control of oil resources was a factor
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Other foreign natural resources and their processing operations which the West relies on could also become terrorist targets, eg gas fields/pipelines, timber/ paper plants, uranium mining/ refining
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Direct environmental impacts
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Eg 1991 Gulf war
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Damage to infrastructure allowed disease and ill-health to spread - tens of thousands of Iraqi's died of the health effects of the war
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Damage to water purification facilities (and related electricity supplies) caused major shortages of clean water
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Chemical/ biological/ nuclear weapons plants bombed - toxic/ radioactive releases may be a cause of Gulf War syndrome
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Damage to sewerage plants caused serious pollution
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Oil well fires - more than 600 wells set ablaze, some burning for 9 months - smoke blocked sun - temperature fell by 10C; approx 1000 people died due to acrid smoke; 300 million tonnes CO2 released contributing to Climate Change
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Oil polluted groundwater - 60 million barrels leaked into ground poisoning 40% of groundwater (Kuwait has less water per head than any other country)
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Oil spills into sea - at least 6 million barrels of oil leaked into sea causing largest ever oil slick - devastated local bird, mammal, fish populations - prawn fisheries decimated
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Landmines and other unexploded ordnance (UXO), eg cluster bombs - 1.6 million landmines laid by Iraqi forces in Kuwait; approx 5% of bombs do not explode on impact (higher % in desert) - many people killed/ injuries
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Depleted Uranium (DU) - super-dense metal used in armour piercing weapons - approx 290 tonnes spread across Gulf - source of low-level radioactivity and toxicity
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Damage to desert ecology - obvious bomb damage, but also movements of armoured vehicles broke up fragile soil surface - approx 50% of Kuwait's land area damaged
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References: UNEP, 2003; Additional info from: New Scientist, 2003; FOE 2003; Medact, 2002
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2003 Iraq war - preliminary assessment made in UNEP 'desk study' (UNEP, 2003)
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Damage to water purification (and related electricity supplies) leading to major shortages of clean water
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Damage to sewerage plants and lack of waste collection leading to increased disease risk
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Oil fires - only 9 wells set ablaze, but many oil-filled trenches around Baghdad (trying to fool incoming missiles) - causing high levels of air pollution in local area, and groundwater contamination
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Water desalination systems damaged, causing salt water damage to fields
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Chemical plants again targets - causing toxic releases
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UXO (including cluster bombs), DU again used by Allied forces (US has refused to accept DU is problem and hence won't assist in clean up)
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Further damage to local ecology, especially southern wetlands - internationally important wintering area for hundreds of thousands of birds
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Afghan war (New Scientist, 2002)
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Many similar issues to Iraq
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Since end of war, major deforestation by refugees for fuelwood; migratory birds down by 85%; rare species (eg snow leopard) killed for valuable fur etc
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Indirect environmental impacts
- Iraq/ Afghanistan wars allow continued reliance on oil, accelerating Climate Change
- Maintaining very large armed forces
Tackling the environmental causes of conflict
- Annual world military spending is nearly $800,000,000,000 - US budget alone is nearly 50% of this (approx $400bn); UK budget is approx $40bn (£25bn)
- Spending some of this money on environmental and social issues could prevent many conflicts, eg clean water (6000 children die every day from lack of clean water/ poor sanitation), renewable energy (eg solar, wind) would reduce dependence on oil, sustainable agricultural practices would prevent soil erosion/ deforestation and hence provide food security.
- Extra cost of universal education, halving poverty and cutting child deaths by three quarters is estimated at $25bn per year (UNICEF, as quoted in Independent 21/05/03)
References
(web links correct as of July 2003)
The Ecologist (2003) War on the environment. Vol. 33, no. 4, p44-45. May. http://www.theecologist.org/
Friends of the Earth (2003) War in Iraq: why Friends of the Earth is opposed. February, 13th. http://www.foe.co.uk/
Medact (2002) Collateral Damage: the health and environmental costs of war on Iraq. http://www.medact.org/
New Scientist (2002) Afghanistan faces an environmental crisis. January. http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991733
New Scientist (2003) Future looks bleak for Iraq's fragile environment. March 15th, p12-13.
UNEP (2003) Desk study on the environment in Iraq. United Nations Environment Programme. April. http://postconflict.unep.ch/