The Atmospheric and Climate Sciences Journal, a peer-reviewed and classified international scientific journal registered in America and managed in the Chinese city of Wuhan, published a research entitled “The Impact of Current Military Bombing on Global Warming and Climate Change” prepared by Professor Wahib Al-Nasser, Professor of Applied Physics at the Arabian Gulf University, Kingdom of Bahrain, And Professor Mounir Nayfeh, Professor of Physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA.
The research dealt with the relationship between the recent military conflicts, specifically the war on the destruction of Gaza, the Russia-Ukraine war, and the mutual bombing between Israel-America and Iran, and that these destructive military practices have caused the temperature of the planet to rise by 0.0013°C (degrees Celsius), and this increase in the temperature of the planet is equivalent to the heat released by the detonation of about 106,000 nuclear bombs. The volume of carbon emissions has reached 1.8% of the current amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (53 billion tons) – that is, 9.10 tons (1 billion tons) of heat-trapping gas pollution has been released – and that heat has caused the randomness in the atmospheric system to reach 5.3 x 1015 J/kg (joules per kilogram).
According to the research, the amount of heat resulting from these destructive military practices amounted to 2.93 Its value is equal to 4.2 x 109 J (joules), which means that the amount of explosive material from these military practices amounted to 700 million tons of TNT.
The following is a summary of the most important topics covered in this study:
– Impact mechanism: Research shows that bombing and explosions release greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide resulting from the rapid combustion of carbon-rich organic compounds found in explosives such as TNT.
– Total emissions: The amount of carbon dioxide equivalent emitted from bombing in the four conflicts is estimated at about one billion tons, which represents about 1.8% of the current annual amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (53 billion tons).
Temperature rise: Rough calculations in the research find that the increase in global temperature resulting from carbon dioxide emissions from these conflicts is 0.0013 degrees Celsius.
– Entropy (randomness or disorder): The paper discusses the broader implications of increasing temperature, including increased randomness (nonorder) climate disturbance and entropy, leading to more extreme weather events. The approximate change in entropy was estimated to be 5.3 x 1015 J/kg (joules/kg).
– Nuclear equivalent: The total heat emitted from the explosives was estimated at about 2.9
Action point: The research indicates that emissions from military operations are often not included in annual national climate reports or in reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
According to recent studies, wars contribute significantly to global warming, as estimates indicate that global military activity is responsible for approximately 5.5% of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions. This figure puts military emissions on par with large industrial sectors such as the cement industry.
Among the mechanisms of the effect of wars on temperature rise are the following:
1. Increased greenhouse gas emissions: Military operations rely heavily on fossil fuels to power vehicles, aircraft, and warships, emitting massive amounts of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
2. Destruction of ecosystems: Wars lead to the destruction of forests and natural areas, which are natural carbon pools or reservoirs. Bombing operations and setting fires in disputed areas, such as oil well fires, release huge amounts of carbon into the atmosphere and reduce nature’s ability to absorb it.
3. Impact on environmental governance: Armed conflicts lead to the collapse of environmental institutions in affected areas, allowing polluting and unsustainable practices to spread unchecked.
4. Directing resources away from climate action: Wars divert attention and resources away from climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts. This leads to a weakening of environmental agreements and programmes.
– Conclusion:
Wars do not cause a direct and immediate rise in atmospheric temperature, but their contribution comes through the continuing accumulation of greenhouse gas emissions and the environmental destruction they cause over time, which exacerbates the global warming trend. The problem is that these military emissions are often exempt from international climate agreements.
