In the days after the first airstrikes of the war in Iran, residents of Tehran reported seeing an eerie black rain falling from the sky. Dr. Akshay Deoras, a research scientist at the University of Reading, told The Guardian that on March 9, the bombing of Iran’s oil depots created a cloud of soot, sulfur, and smoke particles from the debris of the facilities, which mixed with a rainstorm moving towards the city. The resulting cloud brought in a slew of health risks, with Tehranis reporting difficulty breathing, as well as headaches and burning sensations in their eyes and throats. This toxic rainfall is only one example of the environmental damage caused by the conflict, as the war’s destruction of industrial infrastructure has released dangerous pollutants into the air, soil, and water across the region.
Scholars have argued that the war should be perceived as an ecological disaster that can take years to recover from. Doug Weir, director of the Conflict and Environment Observatory (CEO), has said his institute has recorded more than 400 environmentally concerning incidents related to the war. However, much is still unknown due to delays in satellite imagery and an internet blackout in Iran. He told the Associated Press that attacks on oil and gas-related sites risk releasing toxic chemicals through spills and fires. This pollution degrades land and sea used for agriculture, fishing, and irrigation, devastating the region’s health and economy. Another major disaster in the war has been a recent oil slick threatening to contaminate one of the Middle East’s most important wetlands, the Hara biosphere reserve, located in the Strait of Hormuz. The Shahid Bagheri, a drone vessel originally struck by the U.S. on March 6, began leaking heavy fuel oil that mixed with sediment washed in by rainfall. The spill created a toxic current that impacts hundreds of bird and fish species, as well as the communities that depend almost entirely on the sea for their livelihoods.
The issue is compounded by the fact that bombings have destroyed infrastructure that helps alleviate some of these environmental concerns. Iran’s desalination plants and water pipes have been increasingly targeted by the U.S, while Iran has also targeted similar projects located in the Gulf. Kevin Mandani, an Iranian scientist and U.N. official, told the LA Times that people in the region “struggle with having access to clean drinking water, even in peacetime. Any damage to water infrastructure can have long-lasting impacts.” According to the World Resources Institute, damaged infrastructure can push vulnerable water supplies from bad to worse in already water-stressed regions like the Middle East. Scarcity leads to increased internal conflict, as groups fight for resources to survive in a failing state. This problem is exacerbated by food insecurity stemming from reduced food production in agricultural areas affected by environmental destruction. Unemployment and weak governance also result in greater desperation, as more funds are diverted from systems that promote stability. Additionally, once a conflict escalates, it becomes difficult to implement meaningful interventions, such as upgrading and promoting sustainable infrastructure, to combat environmental degradation, because new infrastructure is vulnerable to destruction.
Due to the logistical difficulties of intervening in conflict-affected regions, any intervention must first stabilize the conflict before we can pick up the pieces and repair any environmental damage. Widespread strikes on energy, water, and industrial systems have made access to damaged areas extremely difficult while simultaneously worsening environmental risks. A Reuters report says the war has caused up to $58 billion in damage to oil, gas, power, and desalination infrastructure, highlighting both the scale of destruction and the difficulty of immediate recovery, as economic output that could help fund reconstruction efforts has also declined.
An internationally enforced “Environmental Ceasefire Zone” may be a crucial solution to this problem of intervention. This agreement can be accomplished by designating critical civilian infrastructure, as well as infrastructure that may pose more severe ecological and human risks if destroyed, as protected areas that can be monitored by neutral actors using satellite surveillance and AI-based pollution tracking. This technology can be facilitated by organizations such as the CEO, which has already recorded hundreds of environmentally harmful incidents and reports areas where irreversible damage should be targeted and prevented. The creation of this zone necessitates global collaboration to ensure transparent reporting of environmental data. Open-access data collected through international partnerships would ensure accountability for these monitoring systems.
Once stabilization is achieved, more environmental response units could be deployed to rapidly rebuild infrastructure and clean up hazardous materials from environmental disasters, such as oil spills. This effort is particularly urgent given evidence from the Atlas Institute showing that contamination in the Persian Gulf, particularly from oil spills, can persist for decades due to limited water circulation- meaning pollutants accumulate rather than disperse. Militaries and law enforcement could be repurposed into these roles, as they already possess the logistical and engineering capacity required to operate at the necessary scale and speed in unstable environments.
The images of black rain and mangroves covered in oil slick are more than just haunting symbols of environmental destruction; they are warnings of the kind of future the conflict in Iran is creating. Without functioning ecosystems that include clean water and arable land, communities cannot rebuild their economies, and peace cannot hold as groups compete internally for resources. The system further escalates and does not recognize borders, and its effects will continue to spread long after the bombs stop falling. The interdependency of our extractive economies means that if one country’s ecosystem is threatened, another country’s resource supply also declines. This requires solutions that shift our thinking in how the conflict should be understood and managed as an environmental disaster, not just a human one. Protecting environmental infrastructure must become as urgent as protecting civilians, because they are, in reality, inseparable. Stabilization should not just mean silencing weapons, but also preventing irreversible damage to the systems that sustain life.
