Business
Experts Warn of Catastrophic Environmental Fallout From Iran War
By Haley Zaremba,
The war in Iran is sending shockwaves through global energy markets that will be felt for years to come. The conflict is causing the single biggest oil supply disruption in history, as the closure of the Strait of Hormuz has caused a nine-day disruption of 20 percent of the world’s oil transports, more-than doubling the previous record set during the Suez crisis of 1956. But the war and its energy market impacts represent much more than just economic chaos – they are also the harbingers of serious and lasting human and environmental impact across the region and the world.
The United States and Israel have been targeting Iran’s energy infrastructure in their ongoing attacks, with disastrous results for local lands and people. Monitors have admitted that they are so overwhelmed by the scale and breadth of environmental impacts from the war that they are “struggling to keep track of the environmental disasters arising from the widening war” according to The Guardian. Explosions at oil storage facilities have left fires burning for days as a black rain has fallen over the capital city of Tehran as it chokes on noxious smoke.
“To me, this black rain indicates toxic pollutants such as hydrocarbons, ultrafine particles known as PM2.5, and carcinogenic compounds called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) have made their way into the rain,” Gabriel da Silva, Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at The University of Melbourne, recently wrote for The Conversation. He added that this rain would also include heavy metals and inorganic compounds from all of the buildings and other materials set ablaze by the strikes. The resulting acid rain could be catastrophic for human, animal, and environmental health,
