While the human cost of war is undeniable and profound, the environment also suffers immense and often-overlooked consequences. Beyond the immediate destruction, conflicts disrupt ecosystems, deplete natural resources, pollute the environment, and jeopardize the health of our planet for generations to come.

Furthermore, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has found that over the last 60 years, at least 40 percent of all internal conflicts have been linked to the exploitation of natural resources, whether high-value resources such as timber, diamonds, gold and oil, or scarce resources such as fertile land and water. Conflicts involving natural resources have also been found to be twice as likely to relapse.

The United Nations attaches great importance to ensuring that action on the environment is part of conflict prevention, peacekeeping and peacebuilding strategies, because there can be no durable peace if the natural resources that sustain livelihoods and ecosystems are destroyed.

On 5 November 2001, the UN General Assembly declared 6 November of each year as the International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict (A/RES/56/4).

On 27 May 2016, the United Nations Environment Assembly adopted resolution UNEP/EA.2/Res.15, which recognized the role of healthy ecosystems and sustainably managed resources in reducing the risk of armed conflict, and reaffirmed its strong commitment to the full implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals listed in General Assembly resolution 70/1, entitled “Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.”

From contaminated lands and polluted waterways to the release of toxic substances and greenhouse gases, the environmental toll of war is immense and far-reaching. According to a study by Scientists for Global Responsibility and the Conflict and Environment Observatory, militaries account for an estimated 5.5 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Recognizing this impact is the first step towards mitigating harm, promoting environmental remediation, and ultimately, preventing future conflicts.

The MIT School of Science launched the MIT Center for Sustainability Science and Strategy (CS3) in the year 2024 with the aim to to advance knowledge and computational capabilities in the field of sustainability science, and support decision-makers in government, industry and civil society to achieve sustainability goals.

Aligned with the Climate Project at MIT, researchers at CS3 are appointed in the MIT Energy Initiative; the MIT Institute for Data, Systems and Society; the MIT Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences; and other MIT departments, labs and centers. CS3 succeeds, while adding new capabilities, to both the MIT Center for Global Change Science and the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change.

The computational power required to train generative AI models that often have billions of parameters, such as OpenAI’s GPT-4, can demand a staggering amount of electricity, which leads to increased carbon dioxide emissions and pressures on the electric grid.

This article published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology in Volume 87, May 2023 discusses spiritrual views about nature across different countries. Mathew I. Billet and colleagues employed eight samples from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Singapore, with representation from multiple religious backgrounds, we sought to investigate the relationship between ecospirituality and moral concern for nature.

They found that ecospiritual beliefs were common, even across religious and political divides. The idea that humanity and nature are spiritually connected is prevalent across cultures and throughout time. The particpiants used principle-based reasoning (rather than cost-benefit) when making decisions about nature. Such a study may have implications for decisions involving industrial development and political voting.

Extreme weather events, such as droughts, floods and extreme heat, are becoming more frequent and more intense. These have often impacted countries experiencing new or escalating conflicts.

Without urgent adaptation, mitigation and measures to address loss and damage, climate change impacts are expected to increasingly, and disproportionately, affect climate vulnerable States and communities, including forcibly displaced people. The report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reveals that almost 3 in 4 forcibly displaced people were living in countries with high-to-extreme exposure to climate-related hazards.

This specialization taught by the University of Colorado through Coursera, an online learning platform starts with an in-depth look at the physical geography of the Arctic and its key climate features--ocean's floating sea ice cover; the Greenland Ice Sheet; and patterns of temperature, precipitation, snow cover and permafrost. It explains inter-related changes taking place in the Arctic environment, including their cascading impacts on terrestrial and marine ecosystems. In addition to this, it highlights the growing economic, strategic, and geopolitical importance of the Arctic in the context of observed environmental changes in the region.

This Resource Book makes the case for Integrated Water Resources Management Planning (IWRM) approach for Small Island Developing States (SIDS). It includes guidelines specific to SIDS, and argues that unlike traditional models, SIDS desiring to implement IWRM need not start with expensive and time consuming institutional reforms. The pragmatic approach towards sustainable water management promotes co-ordinated development and management of water, land and related resources without compromising the sustainability of vital ecosystems.

The world’s Small Island Developing States (SIDS) - located in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Oceans - have unique ecological, geographical, hydrological, economic and cultural characteristics. SIDS are renowned for their natural tropical beauty, and a good number of SIDS’ economies are built around tourism, a major consumer of freshwater. Typically with small land masses, small populations and a narrow base of livelihood options, most SIDS lack the economic, institutional and human-resource capacity of larger countries with broadbased economies. SIDS are also particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, which include extreme weather and sea-level rise. Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM)—the systematic process of sustainably developing, allocating and monitoring the use of water resources in the context of social, economic and environmental objectives is key to development in SIDS. Successful IWRM approaches for SIDS must take into account these special characteristics, as well as local cultural and social contexts.

This publication will complement existing IWRM initiatives in SIDS. It will serve as an inspiration and practical guidance tool for those concerned with water planning and management, including coastal zone management practitioners; representatives of public-sector agencies in the water sector; organizations dealing with watersheds and catchments; and community groups interested in improving the quality and quantity of water in their locality.

Loss of pristine tropical forests slowed last year — but the world is still falling far short of a global goal to end deforestation by 2030. The findings, from an analysis of the interactive satellite data released this week by the Global Forest Watch, highlighted the need to improve conservation of tropical forests to protect biodiversity and slow climate change. It found that in 2023, the tropics lost 3.7 million hectares of primary forest — areas of natural, mature forest cover that have not been recently cleared and regrown.

“Those tropical primary forests in particular represent some of the most important ecosystems to protect in order to avoid carbon emissions and biodiversity loss,” said Mikaela Weisse, director of Global Forest Watch at the World Resources Institute (WRI), an environmental think tank in Washington DC, at a press briefing. The WRI conducted the study with researchers at the University of Maryland in Riverdale.

By analysing satellite data on tree cover, Weisse and her colleagues found a 9% reduction in the loss of primary tropical forests last year, compared with 2022.

This reduction is mostly down to shifts in political leadership in Brazil, which saw a 36% decrease in primary-forest loss, and Columbia, where there was a 49% decrease, according to Weisse. But the researchers found that this progress was largely counteracted by increases in loss of tropical primary forest in countries including Bolivia, Laos, Nicaragua and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Globally, loss of tree cover owing to both natural and human causes — in plantations as well as natural forests — increased by 24% from 2022 to 2023. This global rise was driven entirely by a fivefold increase in fire-related loss of tree cover in Canada. In the rest of the world, tree cover loss declined by 4%.

The researchers also found that the world is on track to miss a goal to halt and reverse forest loss due to human activity, or deforestation, by 2030. This goal was agreed in 2021 by more than 145 countries and territories that, between them, are home to 90% of the world’s forests.

To be on track, we need at least a 10% annual reduction in deforestation, but the persistence of the deforestation rate indicates we are far from this target,” says ecologist Dolors Armenteras at the National University of Colombia in Bogotá (see ‘Falling behind’). Meeting it will require stronger political will to tackle deforestation, along with greater international cooperation and more financial incentives to conserve existing forests, she adds.

The interactive world map cited in the study can be accessed through its official website.