Por Joshua Frank
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When we talk about war, it’s usually in numbers. Innocents and soldiers killed. Bombs dropped. Money spent. We hear figures like 7.6 million and 37.5 billion. There are so many like this that they often feel meaningless, even with context. In this case, 7.6 million is the tonnage of bombs the US has dropped on Iran, and 37.5 billion, the cost of this illegal war.
Intentionally or not, large numbers like these obscure the reality of war’s toll.
The number of victims of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, for instance, doesn’t do justice to the violence Gazans have been forced to endure.
Likewise, the number of bombs dropped and dollars spent in an attempt to destroy Iran’s government says nothing about the true human and environmental costs of US/Israel aggression. It reduces these crimes to statistics that don’t accurately convey the horror on the ground, and so much of the ground in the Middle East is soaked with the pollution and blood of empire.
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The US has a long history of waging war on ecologies in the Middle East, dating back to at least Operation Desert Storm in 1991.
The aftermath of the US’s massive bombing campaigns in Iraq was tangible. Poisoned aquifers. Widespread contamination of soil with depleted uranium and other toxic metals. Air pollution from scorched oil infrastructure. Irreparable damage to marine ecosystems.
Saddam, too, was guilty of committing ecocidal acts. He deliberately drained the ecologically significant Mesopotamian marshlands in southern Iraq, and Iraqi soldiers set fire to oil fields as they fled Kuwait.
Yes, wars are inherently environmentally disastrous, and, on a global scale, the US is far more culpable than most – from nuclear detonations to Agent Orange. The US/Israeli bombardment of Iran today is a continuation of this belligerence.
We know, from Hegseth’s admission to Congress, how many targets have been hit and how much money has been spent. But what we don’t truly know, and perhaps won’t for many years to come, is what these bombs and munitions have inflicted on the people and land of Iran.
What we already can gather from the US bombing of Iran: The US and Israel have targeted oil infrastructure, releasing millions of tons of greenhouse gases, which in turn have created toxic, acidic rain clouds. Bombing near coastal regions has caused oil spills, and slicks are drifting into biologically important island ecosystems.
And, if Iraq serves as a guide, there’s sure to be severe soil and groundwater contamination that will plague Iranians for decades to come. It’s difficult to grasp the toll the US war machine continues to inflict, not only on people but also on the ecosystems we depend on for survival.
In their must-see film, Earth’s Greatest Enemy, Abby Martin and Mike Prsyner explore this toll beyond mere numbers. In an emotional and gripping narrative, they explain the scale of the US military machine and its ongoing destructiveness to our burning planet. Ed Rampell wrote a (well-deserved) glowing review for us last spring.
This week, they released a deleted scene from the film, which is now available to stream.
If you want to begin to understand just how devastating the US empire was and remains, I implore you to watch the film and share it with everyone who still believes in the version of America that Donald Trump wants taught in our schools.
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A startling study released in July reveals that the carbon footprint of metal production is 10 times higher than previously thought, largely because acid-laden runoff reacts with oxygen-rich surface waters and releases a large amount of carbon. This is sour news for those hoping we can mine our way out of this climate crisis.
As images of a horrific, deadly flood fill our news feeds, it’s becoming clear that our warming climate played a role in dislodging an enormous glacier, triggering a massive mudslide on the Nepal-Tibet border this week that killed hundreds. The deluge of rock and water registered as a 5.2 geological event, equivalent to 1,000 tons of TNT.
The Himalayas contain 15,000 large glaciers, and nearly all of them are receding fast, creating conditions in which huge amounts of ice can break off, essentially slicing off the sides of entire mountains. They are expected to lose 70% of their ice by 2100. Nepal emits less than 0.1% of global emissions but is one of the most vulnerable countries to the wrath of climate chaos as glaciers melt.
It’s almost certain that many natural disasters (if you can call them that) will occur in the Himalayas, crushing more communities as our climate continues to warm.
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In more upbeat news, rumor has it that Bad Energy is shipping ahead of its September release date, so grab yours, and it’s not too late to bundle with a cool “Data Centers are Disasters” t-shirt designed by Roger Peet. If your town is on this list, I’d love to see you.
JOSHUA FRANK is co-editor of CounterPunch and co-host of CounterPunch Radio. He is the author of Atomic Days: The Untold Story of the Most Toxic Place in America, and the forthcoming, Bad Energy: The AI Hucksters, Rogue Lithium Extractors, and Wind Industrialists Who are Selling Off Our Future, both with Haymarket Books. He can be reached at joshua@counterpunch.org. You can troll him on Bluesky @joshuafrank.bsky.social
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