(C) Common Dreams
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Iraq’s perfect storm – a climate and environmental crisis amid the scars of war [1]
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Date: 2021-07-19 13:26:50+02:00
What images come to mind when you think of war in Iraq? A city razed to the ground. A family in mourning. Soldiers patrolling streets.
What about scores of dead palm trees? Or a barren marshland? Perhaps not what you would immediately associate with war.
Yet they are indicative of the ruinous damage that conflict has inflicted upon the environment in southern Iraq.
“War can weaken the environment and upturn lives long after the guns have fallen silent,” said Igor Malgrati, ICRC’s regional water and habitat advisor.
“In southern Iraq, you have an environment that has been damaged by years of conflict, poor environmental management and weak governance. When you add climate change into the mix, you have the perfect storm.”
A scarred landscape
The Iraqi marshlands are a wetland with a unique ecosystem at the junction of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers.
In the early 1990s, these marshlands were intentionally dried up as a means of retaliation against a population considered to be rebellious.
By 2001, an estimated 90 per cent of the marshlands had disappeared (UNEP), leading to a loss of biodiversity and large-scale displacement.
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[1] Url:
https://www.icrc.org/en/document/iraqs-perfect-storm-climate-and-environmental-crisis-amid-scars-war
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