Speak for the Earth: Poisoned Perils of an Iraq War

Clear skies at home, toxic attacks on Iraq. This sums up the US environment policy: Maximise the quality of life for America, never mind what happens to the rest of the world. Not the least Iraq and surrounding areas, people, animals, birds, insects and entire ecological systems. Never mind also that the region includes parts of Mesopotamia, once the cradle of ancient civilisations, and today the centre of several valuable archaeological research projects.
With 200,000 American soldiers already in the Gulf region, another 60,000 on their way and president Bush''s complete disregard for the UN, full-scale military aggression is only a footfall away.Evidently Mr Bush thinks that raining terror and devastation on Iraq and its people will miraculously leave the US and its allies unscathed. He couldn''t be more wrong. For, a deluge knows no geographical boundaries. According to Greenpeace, an allied invasion of Iraq would kill more than 250,000 civilians. The figure would jump to four million if nuclear weapons are used.
War is the greatest environmental cata-strophe of all. If this is true of all wars waged throughout history, why must this war be treated as even more of a disaster? To be sure, today''s wars are more focused; experts will argue that precision bombing and the like have reduced greatly the possibility of huge casualties. And yet, it is the same technological advance that has, in fact, made today''s war so much more lethal and its effects more far-reaching and longer lasting. Consider the sheer variety of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) available: Killer-satellites, particle beam weapons, lasers, neutron bombs, Cruise missiles and a whole range of chemical, biological and nuclear options - one human error can literally cost us the earth. Which is why this war should be averted at all costs. Mr Bush claims to speak for his nation and others. But, as Carl Sagan so poignantly asked: "Who speaks for the human species? Who speaks for Earth?"
Take the 1991 Gulf War. At least 320 million grams of depleted uranium, a nuclear waste product, was used during Desert Storm. Much of it got converted into cancer-producing radioactive aerosol. Serious health risks and birth defects will affect generations. The Gulf War Syndrome continues to plague soldiers who executed the operation. Violation of fragile coastal bio-systems has affected precious animal and bird life. Thousands of migratory birds who survived the war could not escape the oil slicks. Large numbers of birds died, trapped in the oil spills - mistaking them for water. Oil fires and jet fuel emissions released nearly half a billion tonnes of ozone-depleting carbon dioxide, aggravating global warming.
The horrifying list of worst-case post-war scenarios with regard to the environment would understandably seem tame compared to its effect on human lives, chiefly women and children. Yet, who can forget the touching story - reported by our correspondent who was in Belgrade during the NATO bombings - of the tiger in the local zoo who was so traumatised that he began to eat his paws? This is not a stray case. Repeated Israeli bombings in the West Bank close to Qalqilya - the tourist destination that boasted the only extensive zoo in the area - traumatised the animals so much that only a handful have survived. The rest have been stuffed and displayed in the zoo''s museum, making it the only zoo in the world where dead animals outnumber the living.
Birdlife International, a global alliance of national conservation NGOs, has identified seven risks to the environment, biodiversity and local people should a war break out in Iraq. These include physical destruction and disturbance, toxic pollution, radiological, chemical or bio-toxic contamination of natural habitats of international importance and wildlife. The physical destruction resulting from increased human pressure caused by mass movements of refugees will include water and air pollution, cutting down trees and hunting wildlife. Burning wetland and forest vegetation will degrade forest cover and upset natural balances. Desertification will be exacerbated by military vehicles and weapons use. Several endemic species or subspecies of plants, animals and birds could become extinct.
Post-war Afghanistan suffers from cumulative environmental degradation, resulting from long years of conflict. Polluted water and hazardous waste are only two of some of the most immediate and dangerous legacies the Afghan people are living with.
Few agreed with Mr Bush - whom environmental groups promptly named the ''Toxic Texan'' - when he declared that for him, and by extension for the US, no environmental issue was more important than US economic interests. His rejection of the Kyoto Protocol was premised on the same argument. Mr Bush''s alternative to the Protocol was a ''Clear Skies'' plan that would clean up pollution in America while protecting domestic economic growth.
No one was convinced. Increasing regulation of vehicular pollution in the US is being nullified by unabated polluting industrial activity. The US is the world''s single largest emitter of carbon dioxide - yet it continues to allow coal-fired power plants to operate without pollution control devices, rejecting the "polluter-pays-principle". ''Clear Skies'' instead encourages trade in pollution credits - maintaining or even increasing prevailing levels of pollution, diluting the very spirit of the earth summits.
George Dubya Bush, we are told, has a grand vision of reshaping the Arab world. Posterity, how-ever, might only remember him as the man who went against the world to cause the most damage to its peoples and environment.