After the Wars in #Iraq, ‘Everything Living is Dying’

Decades of war, poverty and fossil fuel extraction have devastated the country’s #environment and its people.

By Lynzy Billing, December 29, 2021

"As far back as 2005, the United Nations had estimated that Iraq was already littered with several thousand contaminated sites. Five years later, an investigation by The Times, a London-based newspaper, suggested that the U.S. military had generated some 11 million pounds of toxic waste and abandoned it in Iraq. Today, the country remains awash in hazardous materials, such as depleted #uranium and #dioxin, which have polluted the soil and water. And extractive #industries like the KAR oil refinery often operate with minimal transparency. On top of all of this, Iraq is among the countries most vulnerable to climate change, which has already contributed to grinding water shortages and prolonged drought. In short, Iraq presents a uniquely #dystopian tableau—one where human activity contaminates virtually every ecosystem, and where terms like '#ecocide' have special currency.

"According to Iraqi physicians, the many overlapping environmental insults could account for the country’s high rates of cancer, birth defects, and other diseases. Preliminary research by local scientists supports these claims, but the country lacks the money and technology needed to investigate on its own. To get a better handle on the scale and severity of the contamination, as well as any health impacts, they say, international teams will need to assist in comprehensive investigations."

#BirthDefects #DepletedUranium #IraqWar #EndlessWar #Nuclear #NuclearWaste #Toxic #WaterPollution #WaterIsLife #FossilFuels #FossilFuelExtraction
Read more:
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/29122021/iraq-ecocide/