When assessing the costs of war, attention is typically directed toward human suffering, economic loss and geopolitical instability. Yet another major cost often goes unnoticed: the massive environmental destruction that conflicts unleash. War degrades ecosystems, accelerates climate change and leaves toxic legacies that continue damaging both nature and the people who depend on it.

From nuclear devastation in Japan to the use of Agent Orange in Vietnam, the ecological toll of wars can be catastrophic and long lasting. Even smaller scale conflicts leave scars: with water wells poisoned, crops burned, forests felled, soils contaminated and animals killed to gain a military advantage. In fact, many conflicts are driven by competition over natural resources, ranging from timber and gold to fertile land and water. Such resource-driven disputes are also twice as likely to recur, as seen among pastoralist and farming communities across the Sahel, for example.

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