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INTRODUCTION

OBJECTIVES

MATERIALS & METHODS

RESULTS

CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK

REFERENCES

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS & CONTACT

Investigating the Ecological Impacts of War

6 charts that show the state of biodiversity and nature loss - and how we can go nature positive. (2022, October 18). World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/10/nature-loss-biodiversity-wwf/

U.S. Military Spending/Defense Budget 1960-2024. (n.d.). MacroTrends. https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/USA/united-states/military-spending-defense-budget

Afghanistan data- https://ourworldindata.org/co2/country/afghanistan

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/30/climate/afghanistan-climate-taliban.html

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Particulate matterworldwide- https://www.statista.com/statistics/276629/global-co2-emissions/

Igini, M. (n.d.). Earth.Org. Earth.Org. https://earth.org/

Afghanistan Information-https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2018/country-chapters/afghanistan

War directly has a negative impact on humans and the environment through pollution, land destruction, and biodiversity

DISCUSSION AND LIMITATIONS TO THE STUDY

HYPOTHESIS

For centuries war has plagued our planet, with endless deaths and destruction. Today we will investigate at the impact that war and the military have on our planet.

While the invention of new weapons and vehicles has elevated the chances of winning battles, there are those who are caught in the middle of conflict. Trees are cut down, water sources are poisoned and as a result habitats are lost.

One example of this are submarine sonars disrupting the breeding and feeding patterns of whales and dolphins and can cause permanent hearing damage to a whale.

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  1. How does the U.S military contribute to CO2 levels?

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  • How does war affect pollution rates?

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  • How is wildlife affected by war ?

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  • What are the impacts of wars on the environment?

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  • What is the impact of war on humans?
  • Individual objectives were designed based on the overarching title and hypothesis proposed.
  • Reputable sources of raw data were sought in order to produce graphs and charts for analysis.
  • Graphs were analyzed independently in order to draw overall conclusions related to the objectives.
  • Limitations were considered and plans for future work are underway to combat these limitations.

An enormous thanks goes out to The York College Science and Technology Entry Program (STEP) program funded by the New York State Education Department (NYSED) initiative. This research grants made this STEM project possible. Special thanks to Professor Andrew Singh whose support was pivotal to the completion of this poster.

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Contact: keenanramnauth@gmail.com

  1. The Military contribute to higher CO2 levels through emissions produced by vehicles and nuclear weapons that destroy the environment.�
  2. War affects pollution rates by increased particulate matter concentrations, increased CO2 fumes and noise pollution produced by vehicles and artillery. �
  3. Wildlife is affected by war in many, some of which are deterrence of natural behaviours, damaged senses and habitat loss.

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  • The impacts of war on the environment as seen by the examples given would be a spike in CO2 levels, Deforestation, loss of human and animal lives, pollution and higher temperatures.

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  • War, in the physical sense results in mass dying and population reduction. It has resulted in health complications and improper living conditions in countries under attack.

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By way of conclusion: wars do directly and cause damage to the environment, loss of human lives, and contribute to pollution, land destruction and habitat loss in one way or another.

RAMNAUTH, Avishai, Queens Gateway to Health Sciences, 160-20 Goethals Ave, Queens, NY 11432 (keenanramnauth@gmail.com)

SINGH, Andrew, Earth and Physical Sciences, York College of CUNY, 9420 Guy R Brewer Blvd, AC-2F09, Jamaica, NY 11451-0001

Figure 1: illustrates an orca being influenced by a submarine’s sonar.

Figure 3: Displays the mangrove population in vietnam before and after the war. (mongabay.com, 2024)

Figure 2 : CO2 levels in Afghanistan during the war, in kilotons from 2001 to 2020. (Macrotrends, 2024).

Figure 4: Compares the hearing capabilities of various animals and humans to the sound produced by an F-35 jet. (LSU.edu, 2017)

Figure 6: Contrasts the land destroyed and number of human deaths in the vietnam war of 1965 and the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World war II (INDEPENDENT, 2006).

Figure 5: Graph by Earth.org shows the Particulate matter concentration across the globe. (Earth.org 2024)

Figure 3 during the vietnam war 57% of the mangrove population were destroyed during the war. before the war there were around 408,500 mangrove trees. After extensive cutting down and uprooting by soldiers there were only 245,100 trees left after American forces retreated from Vietnam. This is an example of how war influences biodiversity.

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In Figure 4 it compares the noise produced by an F-35 fighter jet (in Hertz) to the hearing capability of various organisms. this example of noise pollution has a negative effect on animals because it interferes with communication, mating behaviour and foraging behaviour.

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Figure 5 was sourced from earth.org. The graph shows particulate matter concentration across the globe as of 2021. As we can observe on the graph, particulate matter is most concentrated in the Middle East and North Africa. which as of recent are also the most war concentrated areas.

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According to Figure 6, in the vietnam war 2 million people were killed. The bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima killed in total 105,000 innocent people, with Hiroshima having 70,000 deaths and Nagasaki losing 35,000 lives. Temperatures in Hiroshima got up to 7200*F. All infrastructure, Flora and Fauna were destroyed almost instantly due to the high temperatures. This graph contrasts the effects of these two wars on the environment. These effects would be deforestation and an imbalance of nutrients into the ecosystems due to the increase of death to humans.