Nabamart: This creates millions of tons of trapped gas. World war accelerates climate crisis: Sufyan Al-Bali

A new study Thursday found that the three-year-old war in Ukraine is significantly accelerating the consequences of the climate crisis, releasing millions of tons of trapped gases since it broke out on February 24, 2022.

Trapped gases left behind from the war in Ukraine include carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and sulfur hexafluoride, which are considered most harmful to the climate. According to experts, this emission is equivalent to driving 90 million gasoline cars for a year, and exceeds the individual emissions of countries such as the Netherlands, Venezuela, and Kuwait in 2022.

The war in Ukraine is not the only armed conflict accelerating the risk of a climate crisis in a world where such conflicts are on the rise, adding to the direct bloody toll of death, injury and destruction, with human consequences that could cause suffering to many. It happens. We live in a time where there is no mechanism to hold those responsible for such damage accountable. .

War accelerates climate crisis

Exhaust emissions from military vehicles, forest fires, flight path changes, forced migration, and leaks from bombing fossil fuel infrastructure, according to a report released by the Eco Action Center, which brings together several organizations that study environmental issues in Ukraine. There is this. Ukraine had higher emissions. Of the 175 million tons of gas that has been trapped since the outbreak of war.

Aviation fuel consumption has increased significantly, with European and American commercial aircraft companies banned from entering Russian airspace and Australian airlines and some Asian countries changing routes as a precaution. This additional distance resulted in at least 24 million tons of carbon dioxide.

Add to this the climate costs of rebuilding war-torn countries, which could result in an estimated 56 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. Other studies have raised estimates for reconstruction emissions of trapped gas to 200 million to 400 million tons.

“The carbon emissions from conflict will be large-scale and felt around the world,” said Lennard de Klerk, lead author of the report. “Ukraine and countries in the Global South will suffer the most from climate damage,” he said.

The war in Ukraine is not the only conflict causing huge amounts of carbon emissions. A study published in late January found that more than 281,000 tons of greenhouse gases were emitted in the first two months of Israel’s offensive on Gaza.

A study conducted by British and American researchers found that the war Israel launched after the October 7 attacks generated emissions equivalent to burning 150,000 tons of coal in the first 60 days.

The Guardian newspaper suggested that the study’s conclusions may be much lower than what actually exists because they relied on analysis that monitored only a small number of carbon-intensive activities.

A British newspaper quoted Benjamin Naimark, a senior lecturer at Queen Mary University, as saying: “This study is only a fragment of the larger carbon footprint of war, and a partial picture of the massive carbon emissions and wider toxic pollutants that will remain long after the war. “The fight is over.”

Overall, the military is responsible for 5.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions, which is a higher percentage than countries that emit annual emissions such as Russia and Japan, and ranks fourth in terms of national emissions after India, the United States, and Japan. And China.

Other environmental impacts

In addition to emissions, wars cause enormous and catastrophic damage to the environment, especially in the areas where they occur. An example of this is what is happening in Gaza, where Israeli aggression has resulted in various forms of harmful environmental impacts. The most important of these is that the bodies of martyrs continue to pile up beneath the rubble. This threatens the spread of infectious diseases and diseases.

As corpses decompose in affected areas, there is a risk of infection with blood-borne viruses such as tuberculosis and hepatitis B and C, gastrointestinal infections such as cholera and E. coli, diarrhea due to rotavirus, salmonellosis, dysentery and typhoid fever.

In addition to these dangers is the incredible destruction that has befallen the Strip. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) website, the accumulation of building debris causes serious health problems for residents, including asbestos poisoning, which causes pulmonary fibrosis and several types of cancer, including lung, laryngeal, and ovarian cancers. Asbestos poses long-term contamination risks, according to a report from Action Against Armed Violence (AOAV).

According to the aforementioned report, the bombing in Gaza destroyed the sewage network, which could have led to contamination of groundwater, surface water, and seawater in the Gaza Strip. As an example of this pollution, Israeli bombing during the 2008 war destroyed a treatment plant basin in the Al-Zaytoun area, causing the leakage of 100,000 m3 of wastewater and the contamination of approximately 55,000 m2 of agricultural land.

Gaza’s Ministry of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene estimates that about one million residents have been directly affected by the destruction of water and sewage networks during the 2021 war, with contaminated water discharged into streets, fields, water tanks and the Mediterranean Sea.

Additionally, as Ukrainian environmental expert Bohdan Kuchenko told TRT, the war in Ukraine “destroyed only 3% of the forest cover in the first year, and the forests were completely destroyed by burning, cutting down trees, and building military fortifications.” .” .

Kuchenko added that extensive damage was caused to soil and water “due to the toxic substances seeping into the soil and groundwater from the millions of spent shells, not to mention the contamination from landmines and unexploded ordnance.” “It is not safe to use this land.” “For decades.”