This digital magazine on environmentalism will support you with information and inspiration. We'll give you free access to a range of creative outlets and conversations all about the climate crisis.
1. US and IRAN
At the heart of the US-Iran conflict are fossil fuels. Both the driver and the consequenc e of this action is oil. I'm sure you've already heard of the Strait of Hormuz, where 85 tankers carrying unimaginable li- tres of oil is trapped in the Persian Gulf. If a spill were caused by the attack on a single tanker, marine ecosystems in the Gulf could be damaged beyond repair. This includes the loss of coral reefs, mangroves and seagrass meadows. Not only would local communities suffer, but communities both hu- man and biodiverse could be affected further ashore. Fossil fuels play a key role in the power struggles that make war more likely in the first place. Trump, for example - yeah, him again - took military action against Venezuela after he de- clared the US should be "very strongly involved" in their oil industry (Venezuela has the largest crude oil reserves in the world - go figure).
Russia's war on Ukraine has made the environmental costs of war more visible than ever before. Greenpeace, with the Ukrainian company Ecoaction, examined 900 cases and 30 examples of satellite imagery to create a map of damage caused by Russia's illegal invasion. The war itself has numer- ated emissions equal to the annual output of France.
It was estimated that during the first 120 days of the war more than half a million tonnes of carbon dioxide was released. Greenpeace MENA found that the conflict had severely damaged water and sanitation systems as well as cropland and fishing areas. As if ongoing war wasn't enough, the environmental devastation will likely survive beyond the conflict and any agreements to a ceasefire. Palestine's climate is one that has become politically and environmentally inhabitable through this war, with the de- struction not only collapsing infrastructure but also pollut- ing vital natural resources.