ABSTRACT

In 1991, Iraq released oil into the Persian Gulf to prevent a landing of US ground forces, severely damaging the marine ecosystem, curtailing fishery, threatening a desalinization plant and thus potable water sources. The impact of military conflicts on the environment can be intentional or unintentional. One of the most devastating examples of environmental warfare occurred during the Second Sino-Japanese War, when the Chinese army destroyed the Huayuankow dike on the Yellow River in an attempt to stop the Japanese invasion. According to Sagan and Turco, a global nuclear conflict would not only destroy our physical environment through its blast, fire, and radioactive fallout; it would also have an adverse effect on the Earth’s climate, reducing temperatures and destroying human activity. Causal relationships between environmental scarcity and conflicts remain contested, as is the role of climate change as a threat multiplier.