Skip to main content

Warfare ruins the environment – and not just on the front lines

 


On the morning of December 6 1917, a French cargo ship called SS Mont-Blanc collided with a Norwegian vessel in the harbour of Halifax in Nova Scotia, Canada. The SS Mont-Blanc, which was laden with 3,000 tons of high explosives destined for the battlefields of the first world war, caught fire and exploded.

The resulting blast released an amount of energy equivalent to roughly 2.9 kilotons of TNT, destroying a large part of the city. Although it was far from the front lines, this explosion left a lasting imprint on Halifax in a way that many regions experience environmental change as a result of war.

The attention of the media is often drawn to the destructive explosions caused by bombs, drones or missiles. And the devastation we have witnessed in cities like Aleppo, Mosul, Mariupol and now Gaza certainly serve as stark reminders of the horrific impacts of military action.

However, research is increasingly uncovering broader and longer-term consequences of war that extend well beyond the battlefield. Armed conflicts leave a lasting trail of environmental damage, posing challenges for restoration after the hostilities have eased.


Read the full article here!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

  Carbon   catch-22 : the pollution in our soil Bad behaviour doesn’t usually have good consequences but our fossil fuel and fertiliser habits may have had some “good” environmental side-effects.  Our new research  suggests that the last 200 years of pollution have increased the carbon stored in soils across natural ecosystems in Britain. And this locking in of carbon in soils provides an offset for some of our carbon emissions. But the catch-22 is if we kick our polluting habits, this carbon is at risk of returning to our atmosphere, contributing to climate change. Read the rest of the article  here!

A Retrospective Overview of Factors that Influence Guinea Worm Epidemic in Northern Region of Ghana

This article retrospectively examines the factors which caused Guinea Worm Disease (Dracunculiasis) to spread to epidemic levels, so as to serve as the basis for formulating a national preventive agenda to reinforce the preventive measures which have been put in place to prevent the disease from re-emerging. The hybrid conceptual framework of disease diffusion and disease ecology was used. The mixed method research design was used to collect data from a total of 11 administrative districts. Primary data was obtained from a total of 860 respondents. To achieve a representative distribution of respondents, they were proportionately selected with respect to the populations of their respective districts. A key Informant interview was conducted. Download the full article for free  here!

NEA – Sampling and Data presentation

No doubt you have by now spent considerable time considering the different methods you will use to collect data. This is valuable and important as methods are the salient factor in determining the accuracy of the data and subsequent conclusion therefore weaknesses in the methods reduce the certainty of the conclusions. The blog post  here  looks at some techniques you may wish to use to present your data amongst other important pieces of information.  There are also further pieces of information to be found below:  Barcelona Field Studies Centre Field studies council General data presentation