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environmental effects of the )ulf War seven years earlier"

What the team found was very different from the surreal

inferno of %urnin oil wells that had %een the scene in

1991 a -uiet desert, reen with wavin rasses" #s theteam wrote in its report, however, .other pro%lems are

literally %elow the surface and one needs only to scratch the

desert to find the remains of the continuin environmental

damae./for e!ample, spilled oil that continued to

percolate throuh the porous soil and threaten +uwait0s

meaer freshwater a-uifers"

everal recent wars in varied environments and different

parts of the world reveal that the ecoloical conse-uences

of war often remain written in the landscape for many

years" ut the story is not always straihtforward or clear"

'nstead, the landscape is li$e a palimpsest/a parchment

written on, scraped clean, and then written over aain/on

which the ecoloical effects of war may %e overlain %y

postwar reeneration or development" 3et loo$in carefully

and in the riht places can allow the history of past humanconflicts to %e read in the landscape"

4f course, wars are not the only events that leave their

sinature on the land" .This is essentially true of all impacts

on ecosystems,. says 5ohn 6art, a conservation scientist

%ased in the Democratic Repu%lic of the *ono/floods and

hurricanes, for e!ample" .o it really puts conflict into the

conte!t of natural history".till, warfare is not the same as other distur%ances that

%uffet natural ecosystems, and there are reasons to %e

concerned a%out the lonterm ecoloical effects of war,

particularly of the modern variety" 7or one thin, there is


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incredi%ly destructive, %ut not without precursors". 'n fact,

the 8"" sprayin proram was inspired %y an earlier

ritish effort to -uell an insurrection in alaya %y

chemical sprayin to destroy ?unle crops planted %yre%els"

#nd the environment has %een war0s victim, %oth deli%erate

and incidental, at least since the %einnins of recorded

history" 7ive thousand years ao, warrin esopotamian

city/states %reached di$es to flood the fields of their

enemies =a tactic that resonates with recent events in that

part of the world>" The 6e%rew i%le records in the oo$

of 5udes that +in #%imelech salted the fields of

hechem@ the Romans did the same after they sac$ed

*arthae"

3et the scale and destructiveness of the 8"" proram =code

named 4peration Trail Dust %ut %etter $nown as 4peration

Ranch 6and, which referred specifically to the #ir 7orce

component> was larely unprecedented" #n estimated AB

percent of southern ;ietnam0s inland hardwood forest was

sprayed at least once" ome areas/those %orderin roads

and rivers, around military %ases, and alon the forested

transport route $nown as the 6o *hi inh Trail/were hit up

to half a doCen times"

Two to three wee$s after %ein sprayed with defoliants, the

trees would drop their leaves, enerally remainin %are for

several months after" That was a %oon to the 8"" military%ut a disaster for these tropical forests, where the canopy

holds the reat reservoir of %iodiversity plants rowin on

plants, thousands of $inds of insects, hundreds of %irds"

7orest ecoloist #rthur Westin, who was instrumental in


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drawin pu%lic attention to the ecoloical conse-uences of

the ;ietnam War, wrote in 19


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would have e!pected hundreds of %irds representin

perhaps (& species" The only other verte%rate they saw was

a lone crocodile on a mud %an$" Ffeiffer later recalled .a

vast ray landscape, littered with the s$eletons ofher%icide/$illed manroves".

y some estimates, half of southern ;ietnam0s manroves

were $illed %y defoliants" 3et ironically, some of the

tareted forests owed their e!istence to an earlier conflict,

says environmental historian David is of the 8niversity

of *alifornia/Riverside" 'n the 8 inh pecial #rea of the

southwestern e$on Delta, e!tensive drainin and

clearin of manrove swamps had ta$en place in the early

decades of the twentieth century, as 7rench colonial

authorities carved out immense rice plantations" When the

;ietnamese strule for independence ot under way after

World War '', ;iet inh uerrillas esta%lished a %ase in the

area" They %reached di$es, reflooded the swamps, and

planted palms and manroves to provide them with cover"

.The re%els didn0t have any sort of Western conservationistattitude towards that environment/instead it was more of an

enineer0s attitude,. is says" 3et the result was the

dense tanle of native veetation that later %ecame the

taret of #ent 4rane"

#fter the departure of 8"" troops in 19


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always clear, and sortin out what environmental effects of

the war persist more than three decades later can %e

complicated"

'n many areas the invasive rasses and %am%oo thic$etsthat replaced inland hardwood forests are still present" #

mid/19(&s study %y ;ietnamese ecoloists documented ?ust

2E species of %irds and B species of mammals present in

sprayed forests and converted areas, compared to 1EB/1

5ohn ac+innon, a conservation scientist who has wor$ed

e!tensively in ;ietnam and elsewhere in #sia, says post/

war activities are to %lame .'n all cases the failure to

recover is %ecause there Jhave %eenK continued fires,

raCin, and wood harvestin that prevent proper

reeneration". 4n the other hand, clwee arues that

there are some areas where .it0s pretty clear that a chane in

forest composition is a direct result of the war,. citin ase!amples the a Da forest near 6o *hi inh *ity, where

the typical pattern of forest interrupted %y scru%%y %am%oos

and invasive rasses persists despite relatively little recent

slash/and/%urn ariculture, and the hard/hit # Luoi ;alley


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of central ;ietnam" .ome areas that were heavily sprayed

continue to %e very deraded in terms of the veetation,.

she says"

The picture is similarly comple! in the manrove forests"#n estimated 1&B,&&& hectares of manroves were lost to

defoliants durin the war" The ;ietnamese undertoo$

e!tensive restoration efforts durin the 19(&s, %ut many of

the replanted areas/a%out 1&1,&&& hectares, or one/third of

the manroves0 total e!tent/have recently %een cut down for

the development of a-uaculture enterprises" 'n other words,

the effects of the war ?ust a few decades ao are already

overlain %y multiple layers of ecoloical chane"

3et a new investiation %y ;ietnamese forester Fhun Tuu

oi offers some clarity" 6e has analyCed recent satellite

photos of ;ietnam, and found that imaes from %oth

hardwood forests and manrove areas show areas of altered

veetation/in lon, straiht strips that correspond precisely

to the fliht paths of the */12A caro aircraft that did most

of the sprayin" .There is no way all these veetation

chanes could %e attri%uta%le to locals settin fires or

cuttin forests iven these striped patterns,. clwee says"

Collateral Damage

Li$e the ;ietnam War, a ma?ority of conflicts worldwide in

recent decades have involved uerrilla forces, who may not

%e numerous or well/e-uipped %ut who find an advantae

in remainin invisi%le to their enemies, whether %y meltin

into the civilian population or %y ta$in cover in, for

e!ample, dense forests" 'n turn, the places where uerrillas

ta$e cover draw fire" o while scorched/earth tactics in the

ancient world fre-uently were directed aainst croplands,


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199E, %ecause of armed conflict"

'n a world already heavily shaped %y human hands, the

forests and other landscapes that can offer cover to uerrilla

roups often represent remnants of natural ecosystems, mayhave protected status, and fre-uently har%or endanered

species" That raises the sta$es when war %rea$s out, 5ohn

6art says .Frotected areas can %e depleted, species driven

to e!tinction, etc"""" #s conservationists, our Mvictories0 are

only temporary"""" ut our losses loom definitive"""".

The ;irunas represent all of these trends" The reion0s

forests/islands of natural ha%itat in one of #frica0s mostdensely settled reions and one of the last %its of a once/

vast forest ecosystem that %lan$eted mountains from the

Red ea to southern #frica/were used %y %oth reular army

units and re%el roups throuhout the recent conflicts in

Rwanda and the DR*"

#nd in turn, that made the forests a taret of military

attac$" 'n 1991, the Rwandan army cleared a swath ofveetation up to 1&& meters wide alon a $ey trail throuh

%am%oo forest, in order to reduce the threat of am%ush %y

re%el roups" 4n the *onolese side, in 1999 the army of

the DR* clear/cut a corridor alon the main road %etween

)oma and Rutshuru, which runs throuh ;iruna :ational

Far$" #lthouh carried out on a much smaller scale, these

events were motivated %y the same concerns as the 8""

her%icide proram in ;ietnam to deny cover to a forest/%ased enemy"

When civilian populations are swept up in and displaced %y

armed conflict, the effects on the environment can %e as

reat as those of direct military activities" 7or two years


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%einnin in late 199E, for e!ample, a%out


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painful series of events that are still unfoldin these days".

The lastin conse-uences of war in the ;irunas reion

may %e more su%tle, not necessarily alterin the ecosystem

as a whole %ut affectin the animal species in it,particularly lare mammals" The deforestation alon the

)oma/Rutshuru road disrupted a $ey ecoloical corridor

that crosses the road and lin$s two sectors of ;iruna

:ational Far$" mmanuel de erode, chief e!ecutive of

Wildlife Direct, says, .The clearin was not on a lare

scale, %ut the corridor is critical to elephant and other lare

mammal movements, such as %uffalos". 'n turn, disruption

of the elephants0 usual movement patterns %y deforestation

and other military activities has led to .increased tree cover

in the emli$i ;alley and on the Rwindi Flains".

Foachin %y armed roups, refuees, and local residents

around the par$ may also have lastin effects on a num%er

of mammal species" The daner is manified %y the fact

that armed conflict, especially civil conflict, leads to the

widespread possession of automatic weapons, which are

vastly more efficient and devastatin than traditional

huntin weapons such as snares and spears"

4ver the course of two months at the end of 199H, for

e!ample, ayi/ayi re%els $illed almost the entire

population of hippopotamus on the Rutshuru and Rwindi

Rivers" #ccordin to de erode, as a conse-uence of this

and other poachin episodes, .There has %een a massivechane in veetation assem%laes around La$e dward".

6e cites the collapse of the hippo population as one of the

most sinificant war/related events for the lonterm

ecoloy of the ;irunas reion, notin that it could lead to


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irreversi%le veetation chanes, ma?or declines in fish

production, and a conse-uent %low to the fisheries/

dependent economy of the DR*0s :orth +ivu reion"

ecause automatic weapons tend to remain in circulationafter hostilities end, poachin may continue and sometimes

even increase" 6art says that in the DR*, .the Mpost

conflict0 conte!t is provin even more of a challene to the

environment than the open declared period of war". 7or

e!ample, while the mountain orilla population in ;iruna

:ational Far$ emered larely unscathed from a decade/

plus of war, at least nine orillas have %een $illed in 2&& of nearly 2&& industrial

plants that had spewed effluent into the Tiris and

uphrates, he concludes, .)enerally spea$in"""this war0s

effect on the environment has %een positive".

What scientists $now a%out other environmental effects of

the current conflict in 'ra- remains larely speculative at

this point, and mostly %ased on studies of the 1991 )ulf

War, which involved similar actors, munitions, and

environments" The most vivid imaes of environmental

destruction durin that previous conflict came from

sa%otae of +uwaiti oil fields" Retreatin 'ra-i troops set

HA& oil wells aliht, eneratin a plume of to!ic %lac$

smo$e several hundred $ilometers wide and lon" .3ou0d

o to places downwind and it would %e covered with

spec$s of oil and car%on,. recalls atthew :aud, then an

environmental consultant wor$in on contract with the 8""

nvironmental Frotection #ency who spent si! wee$s in

audi #ra%ia and +uwait in 1991" oot and oil dropletscovered 9BA s-uare $ilometers of desert, damain the

fraile veetation and leadin to widespread deradation of

ranelands in audi #ra%ia"

:aud, who was also a mem%er of the )reen *ross


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'nternational team, recalls that in heavily oiled areas of the

+uwaiti desert .there wasn0t much sin of life. in 199(" 'n

less affected areas, where annual desert rasses had larely

recovered, perennial plants were still mostly a%sent" #ndwhere saltwater was used to put out the flames, native

veetation has %een replaced with salt/resistant coastal

species" .y impression is that damae to arid

environments is often loner lastin, simply %ecause of the

fact that plant reeneration is so slow,. Gahler says" .The

effects can last for decades and decades" *enturies".

Despite fears that widespread oil/well fires would occur

durin the current conflict, ?ust nine well/head fires in

'ra-0s southern Rumallah oil fields were identified in the

early days after the 8"" invasion" 6owever, oil/filled

trenches set aliht in ahdad to interfere with satellite

surveillance and taretin of laser/uided munitions would

create the same sort of contamination %y soot and oil mist

in ecosystems downwind" #nd sa%otae of pipelines and

other oil infrastructure %y insurents would lead to oil spillssimilar to those that now threaten +uwait0s a-uifers"

Ferhaps a reater worry is physical damae to the desert,

particularly the millimeter/thin layer of microoranisms

that forms a crust at the top of the soil, protectin it from

erosion" .'f you don0t distur% that, the amount of dune

formation is limited,. e!plains :aud" .#nd what you learn

-uic$ly is if you have tan$s and truc$s and vehicles li$ethat drivin all over a desert, you0ve %ro$en up this crust".

Remote sensin analyses led %y 7arou$ l/aC of oston

8niversity showed that the )ulf War resulted in an increase

in sandstorms and dune formation in the reion" l/aC


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reports that today .sand continues to accumulate on dunes,

which also continue to move down/wind". 'n fact, the

effects of physical disruption of the desert can %e a lot

loner lastin than that trac$s from World War '' tan$s arestill visi%le in some areas of the :orth #frican desert, and

one study in #riCona suested that desert crusts miht ta$e

a thousand years to fully recover from the movements of

heavy vehicles"

5effrey c:eely points out that warfare is li$ely to have

the most severe, lonest/lastin effects on protected areas

that har%or endanered species, and slow/to/recover

ecosystems such as deserts" ven in the most fraile

environments, sometimes nature/and people/can surprise

us, as the esopotamian marshes0 recovery shows" ut turn

and loo$ in another direction and you are li$ely to see

warfare0s endurin scars" #ccordin to l/aC, dust storms

and sand dune formation, similar to what occurred in the

wa$e of the )ulf War, are also li$ely effects of the

movements of military vehicles throuh the desert durinthe current 'ra- war" 4f the dunes, l/aC says, .These

would continue to move for as lon as the wind %lows".

!uclear Weapon Effects

:uclear detonations are the most devastatin of the

weapons of mass destruction" To ma$e this point one

need only recall the pictures from 6iroshima or the

international furor over the accidental %ut enormous

radiation release from the *herno%yl power plant" The

contamination from *herno%yl was sinificantly


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larer than would have %een e!pected from a nuclear

detonation of a%out 2& $T at round level, %ut was

compara%le in e!tent to what miht result from a small

nuclear war in which a doCen or so weapons ofnominal yield were e!ploded at altitudes intended to

ma!imiCe %last damae"

# nuclear detonation creates a severe environment

includin %last, thermal pulse, neutrons, !/ and

amma/rays, radiation, electromanetic pulse =F>,

and ioniCation of the upper atmosphere" Dependin

upon the environment in which the nuclear de/vice is

detonated, %last effects are manifested as round

shoc$, water shoc$, %lueout, craterin, and lare

amounts of dust and radioactive fallout" #ll pose

pro%lems for the survival of friendly systems and can

lead to the destruction or neutraliCation of hostile

assets"

The enery of a nuclear e!plosion is transferred to the

surroundin medium in three distinct forms %last@

thermal radiation@ and nuclear radiation" The

distri%ution of enery amon these three forms will

depend on the yield of the weapon, the location of the

%urst, and the characteristics of the environment" 7or a

low altitude atmospheric detonation of a moderate

siCed weapon in the $iloton rane, the enery is

distri%uted rouhly as followsB&P as %last@

ABP as thermal radiation@ made up of a wide

rane of the electromanetic spectrum, includin

infrared, visi%le, and ultraviolet liht and some


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soft !/ray emitted at the time of the e!plosion@

and

1BP as nuclear radiation@ includin BP as initial

ioniCin radiation consistin chiefly of neutronsand amma rays emitted within the first minute

after detonation, and 1&P as residual nuclear

radiation" Residual nuclear radiation is the haCard

in fallout"

*onsidera%le variation from this distri%ution will

occur with chanes in yield or location of the

detonation"ecause of the tremendous amounts of enery

li%erated per unit mass in a nuclear detonation,

temperatures of several tens of million derees

centirade develop in the immediate area of the

detonation" This is in mar$ed contrast to the few

thousand derees of a conventional e!plosion" #t

these very hih temperatures the nonfissioned parts ofthe nuclear weapon are vaporiCed" The atoms do not

release the enery as $inetic enery %ut release it in

the form of lare amounts of electromanetic

radiation" 'n an atmospheric detonation, this

electromanetic radiation, consistin chiefly of soft !/

ray, is a%sor%ed within a few meters of the point of

detonation %y the surroundin atmosphere, heatin it

to e!tremely hih temperatures and formin a%rilliantly hot sphere of air and aseous weapon

residues, the so/called fire%all" 'mmediately upon

formation, the fire%all %eins to row rapidly and rise

li$e a hot air %alloon" Within a millisecond after


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detonation, the diameter of the fire%all from a 1

meaton =t> air %urst is 1B& m" This increases to a

ma!imum of 22&& m within 1& seconds, at which time

the fire%all is also risin at the rate of 1&& mQsec" Theinitial rapid e!pansion of the fire%all severely

compresses the surroundin atmosphere, producin a

powerful %last wave"

#s it e!pands toward its ma!imum diameter, the

fire%all cools, and after a%out a minute its temperature

has decreased to such an e!tent that it no loner emits

sinificant amounts of thermal radiation" The

com%ination of the upward movement and the coolin

of the fire%all ives rise to the formation of the

characteristic mushroom/shaped cloud" #s the fire%all

cools, the vaporiCed materials in it condense to form a

cloud of solid particles" 7ollowin an air %urst,

condensed droplets of water ive it a typical white

cloudli$e appearance" 'n the case of a surface %urst,

this cloud will also contain lare -uantities of dirt andother de%ris which are vaporiCed when the fire%all

touches the earth0s surface or are suc$ed up %y the

stron updrafts afterwards, ivin the cloud a dirty

%rown appearance" The dirt and de%ris %ecome

contaminated with the radioisotopes enerated %y the

e!plosion or activated %y neutron radiation and fall to

earth as fallout"The relative effects of %last, heat, and nuclear

radiation will larely %e determined %y the altitude at

which the weapon is detonated" :uclear e!plosions are

enerally classified as air %ursts, surface %ursts,


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su%surface %ursts, or hih altitude %ursts"

Air "ursts" #n air %urst is an e!plosion in which a

weapon is detonated in air at an altitude %elow A& $m

%ut at sufficient heiht that the fire%all does notcontact the surface of the earth" #fter such a %urst,

%last may cause considera%le damae and in?ury" The

altitude of an air %urst can %e varied to o%tain

ma!imum %last effects, ma!imum thermal effects,

desired radiation effects, or a %alanced com%ination of

these effects" urns to e!posed s$in may %e produced

over many s-uare $ilometers and eye in?uries over a

still larer area" 'nitial nuclear radiation will %e a

sinificant haCard with smaller weapons, %ut the

fallout haCard can %e inored as there is essentially no

local fallout from an air %urst" The fission products are

enerally dispersed over a lare area of the lo%e

unless there is local rainfall resultin in localiCed

fallout" 'n the vicinity of round Cero, there may %e a

small area of neutron/induced activity which could %ehaCardous to troops re-uired to pass throuh the area"

Tactically, air %ursts are the most li$ely to %e used

aainst round forces"

Surface "urst" # surface %urst is an e!plosion in

which a weapon is detonated on or slihtly a%ove the

surface of the earth so that the fire%all actually touches

the land or water surface" 8nder these conditions, thearea affected %y %last, thermal radiation, and initial

nuclear radiation will %e less e!tensive than for an air

%urst of similar yield, e!cept in the reion of round

Cero where destruction is concentrated" 'n contrast


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with air %ursts, local fallout can %e a haCard over a

much larer downwind area than that which is affected

%y %last and thermal radiation"

Su#surface "urst" # su%surface %urst is an e!plosionin which the point of the detonation is %eneath the

surface of land or water" *raterin will enerally

result from an underround %urst, ?ust as for a surface

%urst" 'f the %urst does not penetrate the surface, the

only other haCard will %e from round or water shoc$"

'f the %urst is shallow enouh to penetrate the surface,

%last, thermal, and initial nuclear radiation effects will

%e present, %ut will %e less than for a surface %urst of

compara%le yield" Local fallout will %e very heavy if

penetration occurs"

$igh Altitude "urst" # hih altitude %urst is one in

which the weapon is e!ploded at such an altitude

=a%ove A& $m> that initial soft !/rays enerated %y the

detonation dissipate enery as heat in a much larer

volume of air molecules" There the fire%all is much

larer and e!pands much more rapidly" The ioniCin

radiation from the hih altitude %urst can travel for

hundreds of miles %efore %ein a%sor%ed" inificant

ioniCation of the upper atmosphere =ionosphere> can

occur" evere disruption in communications can occur

followin hih altitude %ursts" They also lead to

eneration of an intense electromanetic pulse =F>which can sinificantly derade performance of or

destroy sophisticated electronic e-uipment" There are

no $nown %ioloical effects of F@ however,

indirect effects may result from failure of critical


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medical e-uipment"

#lthouh some nuclear weapons effects =:W> such

as %last and craterin have analos in the effects of

conventional weapons, many :W are uni-ue tonuclear use" 'n addition, %last and other common

weapons effects are li$ely to %e much more powerful

in the nuclear case than in the realm of conventional

weapons" :W are so severe that com%inations of two

or more simultaneously =as in a real event> may not

add linearly, complicatin the desin and construction

of physical simulators or the writin and validation of

computer simulation codes"

#lthouh thermal radiation, F, and ioniCin

radiation from a nuclear %last are all damae

producin, at yields %elow a%out a meaton the %last

and shoc$ produced %y a nuclear weapon are the

predominant means of damain a taret" 7or some

tarets, such as underround %un$ers and missile silos,

%last and shoc$ are virtually the only effective

destructive mechanisms"

The intensity of thermal radiation decreases only as

the inverse s-uare of the distance from a nuclear

detonation, while %last, shoc$, and prompt ioniCin

radiation effects decrease more rapidly" Thus, hih/

yield weapons are primarily incendiary weapons, a%le

to start fires and do other thermal damae at distanceswell %eyond the radius at which they can topple

%uildins or overturn armored vehicles"

:uclear effects on electromanetic sinal propaation,

which affects command, control, communications,


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computers, and intellience =* E '>, are of concern to

countries e!pected to use nuclear weapons,

particularly those which intend to e!plode a weapon at

reat altitudes or those which e!pect to have to defendaainst such a nuclear attac$" *A' technoloy is

primarily affected %y hih/altitude nuclear effects that

could interrupt satellite/to/satellite communications,

satellite/to/aircraft lin$s, or satellite/to/round lin$s"

ost nations will hope that sinals from )lo%al

Fositionin ystem =)F> satellites and round/%ased

differential )F transmitters will %e usa%le shortly

after a nuclear e!plosion, as well as traditionalcommunications channels which must %e protected"

The electromanetic pulse enerated %y the detonation

of a sinle nuclear weapon at hih altitudes can %e a

threat to military systems located as much as a

thousand miles away" 6F can disa%le

communications systems and even power rids at

enormous distances from the %urst" This type of threatcould %e used %y a third world country that has the

capa%ility to launch a roc$et carryin a hih/yield

device =a%out 1 meaton or more> a few hundred

$ilometers into the upper atmosphere and a few

thousand $ilometers from its own territory =to avoid

damain its own systems>"


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