Aside from human casualties, war has a detrimental effect on the environment. In Lebanon, living conditions worsen each day. The country has suffered dramatic effects from missile attacks, the recent bombing of a power plant in Jiyeh and the largest oil spill ever in the Mediterranean region.

The environmental issues started with the five-week attack on thousands of Lebanese homes and buildings. The fires from the attacks caused large clouds of smoke that experts reported containing contamination with the potential to create hormonal and respiratory problems in humans.

The mid-July Mediterranean oil spill has been burning since. The oil gradually is spreading north to Syria and Turkey as well.

Sands of the beautiful beaches of Lebanon now are blackened and stained with debris from air raids and oil, and the coastal seas are proved toxic by dead fish and birds along the shores.

Further impeding the situation in Lebanon is that Israel is using weapons with depleted uranium. As evidence showed in Iraq, the damage of these weapons can cause long-term damage on future human gene pools.

Air raids have also caused forest fires and have damaged the water supply, making it almost impossible to live in many regions. The fires aren’t being put out because the country is trying to protect its people, not save its forests.

Although it is too late to protect Lebanon’s environment from the horrible effects of war, it isn’t too late to start thinking about the effects that all wars have on the ground and atmosphere in which they take place.

Other countries should be able to recognize the need for help in Lebanon. Simply keeping the oil spill and forest fire under control could save the future of the country of Lebanon for its many citizens to come safely home to.

The environmental affects the war has had on Lebanon could seal the fate of what was once a beautiful, tourist-filled country. The short and long-term damage has and will continue to affect the people, water, animals, and their breathing air.