Ban Ki-moon, the UN General Secretary, has raised concern that not enough is done to protect and repair the planet during and after war.
"The environment has long been a silent casualty of war and armed conflict. From the contamination of land and the destruction of forests to the plunder of natural resources and the collapse of management systems, the environmental consequences of war are often widespread and devastating."
Taking the bombing of Iraq by the US during the first Gulf War. Containing depleted uranium, the US dropped 340 tonnes of lethal missiles during the conflict. The outcome is higher doses of radiation prevalent even today, and an increased rate of radiation-related cancers. In addition to cancers, children born with severe disabilities including cerebral palsy are being linked to the radiation levels.
Mac Skelton, researcher at John Hopkins University, and a host of other researchers, suggest that the weapons used in the Gulf War have contaminated the soil and water of Iraq and have made the environment "carcinogenic".
The UK Government, who took part in the conflict, refute these accusations, insisting "no comprehensive study has been done to establish or disprove the link between cancer and depleted uranium weapons."
Regardless of disagreements, some statistics cannot be denied. A report found that "the US military, with its tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles, used 190.8m litres of oil every month during the invasion of Iraq."
During the Rwandan civil war, nearly 750,000 people lived in camps on the edge of Virunga national park. Approximately 1,000 tonnes of wood was removed from the park every day for two years in order to build shelters, fuel cooking fires and create charcoal for sale.
Cedrec's take
The call for protective measures during war is a very important one. Whilst in the ideal world war would not happen anyway, the idea that conflicting nations would stop to consider environmental impact whilst warring with one another seems far-fetched.
Whilst it does help that the UN General Secretary himself has called attention to the issue, the UN's influence in recent months has been waning somewhat in light of several insular issues in various countries and areas.
The objective here would be to put an end to warfare in general, however our planet is a long way from seeing the day when no countries are engaged in some kind of dispute. Despite this rather pessimistic outlook, we can still hope that the warning is taken into consideration.
