The document discusses the environmental impacts of several wars and conflicts from the 20th and 21st centuries. It describes how the Rwandan civil war in 1994 led to over 2 million refugees, putting pressure on the country's limited resources and destroying gorilla habitats. It also discusses how the Somali civil war encouraged overfishing that was unsustainable and harmed local ecology. The Vietnam War involved extensive bombing and use of toxic Agent Orange that polluted soil, water and vegetation, resulting in health issues for humans and wildlife.

1. Made by :
John Titov
Jack Dogalev
Alexander Kopitsa
Alexander Belawtsev

2. “Warfare is inherently destructive of sustainable development.
States shall therefore respect international law providing
protection for the environment in times of armed conflict and
cooperate in its further development, as necessary.” – 1992 Rio
Declaration
The application of weapons, the destruction of structures and oil
fields, fires, military transport movements and chemical spraying
are all examples of the destroying impact war may have on the
environment. Air, water and soil are polluted, man and animal are
killed, and numerous health affects occur among those still living.
This page is about the environmental effects of wars and
incidents leading to war that have occurred in the 20th and 21st
century.

5. Rwanda civil war - Between April and July 1994
extremist military Hutu groups murdered about 80,000-
1,000,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in Rwanda. Over
2,000,000 people lost their homes and became refugees.
Rwanda has a very rich environment, however, it has a
particularly limited resource base. About 95% of the
population lives on the countryside and relies on agriculture.
Some scientists believe that competition for scarce land and
resources led to violence prior to and particularly after the
1994 genocide. It is however stated that resource scarcity only
contributed limitedly to the conflict under discussion. The
main cause of the genocide was the death of the president
from a plane-crash caused by missiles fires from a camp.
The many refugees from the 1994 combat caused a biodiversity
problem. When they returned to the already overpopulated
country after the war, they inhabited forest reserves in the
mountains where endangered gorillas lived. Conservation of
gorilla populations was no longer effective, and refuges
destroyed part of the habitat. Despite the difficulties still
present in Rwanda particularly concerning security and
resource provision, an international gorilla protection group is
now working on better conditions for the gorillas in
Rwanda.Somalia civil war – A civil war was fought in Somalia
1991. One of the most striking effects of the war was over
fishing. The International Red Cross was encouraging the
consumption of seawater fish to improve diets of civilians. For
self-sufficiency they provided training and fishing equipment.
However, as a consequence of war Somali people ignored
international fishing protocols, thereby seriously harming
ecology in the region. Fishing soon became an unsustainable
practise, and fishermen are hard to stop because they started
carrying arms. They perceive over fishing as a property right
and can therefore hardly

7. Vietnam war – The Vietnam War started in
1945 and ended in 1975. It is now entitled a proxy
war, fought during the Cold War between the
United States and the Soviet Union to prevent
the necessity for the nations to fight each other
directly. North Vietnam fought side by side with
the Soviet Union and China, and South Vietnam
with the United States, New Zealand and South
Korea. It must be noted that the United States
only started to be actively involved in the battle
after 1963. Between 1965 and 1968 North
Vietnam was bombed under Operation Rolling
Thunder, in order to force the enemy to
negotiate. Bombs destroyed over two million
acres of land. North Vietnam forces began to
strike back, and the Soviet Union delivered anti-
aircraft missiles to North Vietnam. The ground
war of US troops against the Viet Cong began.
The United States would not retreat from
Vietnam until 1973, and during those years
extremely environmentally damaging weapons
and war tactics were applied.

9. The application of 72 million litres of chemical spray resulted in
the death of many animals, and caused health effects with
humans. One chemical that was applied between 1962 and 1971,
called Agent Orange, was particularly harmful. Its main
constituent is dioxin, which was present in soil, water and
vegetation during and after the war. Dioxin is carcinogenic and
teratogenic, and has resulted in spontaneous abortions,
chloracne, skin and lung cancers, lower intelligence and
emotional problems among children. Children fathered by men
exposed to Agent Orange during the Vietnam War often have
congenital abnormalities. An estimated half a million children
were born with dioxin-related abnormalities. Agent Orange
continues to threaten the health of the Vietnamese today.