Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Potential impacts of an Israeli attack on Iran

Times Article

While this does not directly address the environment and how it may be impacted by an Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear facilities. I do not know the details of nuclear radiation, nuclear power, and precision airstrikes but it seems as though this could create some major problems. Would there be a more serious explosion if a location with nuclear research going on? It seems as though this could be dangerous because of the unknown potential affects of this action, and any possible reprisals by the Iranians or other Islamic countries of the area.


And while it does not really apply to this week's topic this blog is quite interesting

Iran-Iraq War & Waterway Claims

http://www1.american.edu/ted/ice/iraniraq.htm

This article talks about the role that the Shatt-al-Arab waterway played in the Iraq/Iran war. Since an ambiguous "The Peace Treaty of 1639" between the Persians and the Ottoman empire, this waterway has been disputed. Although we often think of the Iran/Iraq war as war about religion, this article talks about the main role that the waterway played in its initiation and both countries perseverance.

The article also talks about how although their was a lot of potential for the environmental damage during the Iran/Iraq war, relatively little actually occured (compared to the potential).

So I guess ultimately this post isn't about the environemnal impacts of war, but rather the environmental causes.

http://www1.american.edu/ted/ice/iraniraq.htm