Thousands of human losses, unfortunately, but the war in Ukraine also has very high costs for the environment and the ecosystem. Little or nothing has escaped the Russian bombing of an area that produces wheat, corn, vegetables, exported all over the world, alongside natural parks, water reserves, natural basins. "Not just there ecological devastation in Ukraine has an unprecedented scale in modern Europe, but over the long term, we already know it will affect the rest of the planet» wrote Lisa Signorile, biologist, scientific popularizer and author of several books. You have published a study on the ecological and environmental impacts of the war in the journal «Il Tascabile».
In fact to a year since the invasion it is still not possible to make a faithful balance of the environmental costs. At least 2 cases of ecological damage had been registered up to October, with a cost of 36 billion euros. La Signorile interviewed scientists and scholars to recount the disasters of the Russians in cities and villages. By now it is the opinion of all «the ecologists interviewed that it is too early to be able to make a real estimate of the damage, because no scientist can go along the front line and touch it with their hands. Furthermore, we have no idea how long the war will continue and by what means it will be fought» writes Signorile. The study is today's testimony for repairing tomorrow the damages caused by air, water and soil pollution, rebuilding dams, de-mining the fields. Years and years of reconstruction work that could have other negative impacts on the ecosystem if not planned and controlled.
War will have health consequences
Ukraine is one of the most fertile territories in Europe with a widespread industrial structure. Electricity and water infrastructures have been repeatedly bombed to make the population suffer from hunger, lack of water and electricity. The people resist but it is not even possible to take into account the spread of diseases to the respiratory system due, precisely, to the unhealthy air. There are other health emergencies to manage. The air is polluted by explosions of bombs and missiles, fires, burning fuel depots, exhaust fumes from military vehicles. A Russian-made T-80 tank, for example, discharges 10 kg of CO2 per km into the atmosphere. Everything has consequences new emissions of CO2 and fine particles affecting mainly the elderly and children. In many areas of the country the air contains particles of nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, sulphur, dioxins, formaldehyde, which once on the ground compromise the soil. "Nature will somehow recover, but the trauma caused by this event will remain for entire generations, we don't know to what extent" reports Signorile. Everywhere there are heavy metals that cause cancer. Biodiversity, cared for in national parks and controlled by national and international bodies until last February, is another scourge that the Ukrainian people will have to heal.
Who will pay for environmental damages?
Will war damages be claimed for pollution after the war? It's too early to tell, but Volodymyr Zelensky last November at Cop 27 he expressed his concern for the environmental and naturalistic consequences, as well as having described the massacres and cruelties of the occupation. In short, an ecocide. There are cetaceans in the Black Sea. But the Russians have placed a fleet of submarines and warships there that would have caused the death of 50 cetaceans, according to experts. Under water, underfoot, in the atmosphere: in the first seven months of the war they went in the atmosphere31 million tons of CO2 more than the averages monitored by the Ministry of the Environment in Kiev. No international authority has so far managed to establish how much radioactive dust there is in the air after the bombs dropped near the nuclear power plants of Chernobyl and Zaporizhzhia. Just remember what he said Rafael Grossi, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) after the inspection of the Zaporizhzhia plant: "the situation is worrying". Other experts speak of medium-range effects. About 10 million hectares of luxuriant forests where protected animal species live are not immune to alarms. It will take tens of years to get back a country with acceptable environmental conditions. Moreover, it cannot be excluded that the reconstruction with Western capital is related in some way to the general principles of the European New Deal with low environmental impact technologies and investments. In any case, the survivors will have to deal with very serious illnesses and pathologies that no aggressor, in any war, has ever cured. Vladimir Putin he couldn't not know.
