This is an interesting question. Humans
certainly have a major impact on the environment.
Wars can be particularly destructive, not only to
our societies, but to our environment. Wars have
been fought in different regions by many different
methods, so there are many different ways that
they have affected the environment. I will
highlight a profound example that comes to mind.
One example of the environmental impact of war is
the use of a chemical known as agent orange in the
Vietnam War. Agent orange was an herbicide mixture
that was used to kill the vegetation of dense
forests in Vietnam. This was intended to expose
the Vietcong and North Vietnamese Army forces that
used the thick jungles to conceal movement. It was
also used to destroy food crops that the US and
Republic of Vietnam forces thought were used to
supply the “enemy”. The chemical mixture was
sprayed over the jungles and paddies of Vietnam at
a rate that was 10 times greater than it was used
in the US for farming purposes (Stellman et al.,
2003). Between 1961 and 1971, 2 million hectares
(20%) of the forests of South Vietnam were cleared
with agent orange (Westing, 1971). That is a very
Stellman, J.M. et al., 2003. The extent and
patterns of usage of Agent Orange and other
herbicides in Vietnam. Nature, 422, 681–687.
Westing, A.H., 1971. Ecological effects of
military defoliation on the forests of South
Vietnam. BioScience, 21, 893–898.
I don't think anybody really knows, although it
depends on the nature of the war. Wars in which a
lot of indiscriminate bombing and use of toxic
chemicals (e.g. World War I, the Vietnam War)
cause significant damage. War at sea resulting in
sinking ships releases a lot of oil onto the
ocean. Small-scale wars probably don't matter so
much. Nobody really knows what the effect of
nuclear war would be on the environment, but
lessons learned from Chernobyl tell us that
radioactivity is far more dangerous to humans than
it is to the environment itself.
The effect of war on the environment is
dependent on what happens in the war. The social
environment is the most beaten up, such as when
whole communities are destroyed. Then all the
destroyed homes, shops and other buildings have to
be cleared away and new ones built.
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