A window into what we’re reading at the Stimson Center’s Environmental Security Program

As Gulf Conflict Widens, So Does Its Environmental Footprint  (Dialogue Earth)

The Conflict and Environment Observatory identified at least 120 incidents of environmental harm across 11 countries since the start of U.S. and Israelis began attacks on Iran, as both sides have made oil infrastructure, military facilities, and strategic sites primary targets. The burgeoning conflict poses nuclear, chemical, and long-term carbon risks, as strikes on refineries, tankers, and storage sites degrade air quality, contaminate water contamination, and harm marine ecosystems. And other serious catastrophes loom as the war develops. The IAEA warns that any radioactive release from strikes that target nuclear sites could require evacuating areas the size of major cities.

Beyond direct battlefield pollution, the ongoing conflict is driving major emissions increases. Military operations consume enormous amounts of fossil fuel. Any shipping rerouted around Africa produces up to 70% more carbon per trip, and airspace closures force longer flight paths. The environmental harms now occurring echo the catastrophic oil spills and well fires of the 1991 Gulf War, which devastated sea turtle populations and created coastal damage which lasted for decades. Even after the war concludes, the post-war period is unlikely to prioritize ecological recovery, which risk long-term instability in a region already strained by climate change and resource scarcity.

READ | The New Middle Eastern Wars: To Protect Civilians, Protect Environmental Infrastructure

Trump Administration Terminates Final Staff Member of Development Bank Watchdog  (Mongabay)

The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) recently terminated Mehrdad Nazari, who was the first and only director of its Independent Accountability Mechanism (IAM). The watchdog office is mandated by the U.S. Congress, and Nazari was its only employee. While DFC lawyers informed Nazari that the Trump administration plan to appoint a new director, advocates criticized the present lack of any functioning mechanism to field or investigate complaints about environmental, labor, or human rights harms linked to DFC investments.

The DFC has a $40 billion portfolio, and Nazari’s removal comes as the IAM investigates serious complaints against corporate investments. These inquiries included both allegations of sexual assault at Bridge schools in Kenya, as well as the potential forced resettlement of 10,000 people tied to ExxonMobil’s natural gas project in Mozambique. Policy experts and watchdog groups expressed alarm that the IAM director’s dismissal signals a retreat from independent governance of DFC-funded projects.

READ | Plotting the Future of U.S. Foreign Aid

As Mexico’s Final Glacier Dies Off, Downstream Communities and Ecosystems Are at Risk (Dialogue Earth)

The Jamapa River in Mexico is fed by glacial meltwater as it supplies water to over 500,000 people across 34 municipalities on its 368 kilometer journey to the Gulf of Mexico. But a 2024 UNAM study concludes the extinction of the Jamapa Glacier on Citlaltépetl is inevitable by the end of this decade. Between 2019 and 2024 alone, the glacier shrunk from 0.46 to 0.37 square kilometers.

The glacier’s decline marks a broader signal of environmental collapse across the entire connected ecosystem. Researchers warn that without the glacier, the Jamapa river will become purely seasonal and dependent upon rainfall. The change in the river’s supply will force communities to pump water from streams and drastically rethink their consumption. Illegal logging in the surrounding national park has compounded the imminent crisis by accelerating erosion and landslides. Scientists warn that the glacier’s disappearance also will reduce the nutrient flow from the Jamapa River into a coral reef system in the Gulf of Mexico for roughly 10,000 years, thus disrupting ecological conditions necessary for the reefs to survive.

READ | No Water, No Food – Glacier Loss Threatens US and Chinese Agriculture