War's Terrible Impact Upon the Environment

by Kevin Beck

War, and the lack of ameliorative governmental action, are huge barriers to a cleaner, more healthy environment which extends beyond flora and fauna, animals all the way to humans. One example of war's devastating effects on a country is in the Former Yugoslavia in Bosnia-Hercegovina where the war years of 1992-1995 saw massive death and destruction not only of cultural and human elements but of the physical environment as well.

A United Nations estimate shortly after the end of the war in 1995, estimated that Bosnia contained 3 million landmines which would then proceed to injure and maim over a thousand people, in later years, even after hostilities had finished. Munitions and weapons both contain substances that are harmful to the physical as well as human environment.

The issue of depleted uranium artillery shells being used during the closing days of the war has supported the idea that many birth defects of children in the impoverished nation are related to depleted uranium shells being "disguarded" during the military actions that took place. The war in Bosnia also damaged and destroyed not only many factories that had no supervision for their dangerous chemical by-products or for a regular monitoring of dangerous levels of chemical in water sources, lakes and drinking water.

Factories and industrial use of chemicals are very large and produce many tons of by-products that are harmful to the soil and harm not only land but animals, the food chain, and then humans. Thus, War harms more than just the battlefield injuries, but also generations, and is not only psychological, but both physical and environmental in the damage to Human Development.

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