Oil, Satellites and Iraq

Despite being one of the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, the world’s military forces are not currently counted in most countries’ annual emissions targets. In addition, we know very little about the climate footprint of military conflicts. The digital investigative journalism group Bellingcat used satellite data to visualise the environmental impact of an attack on the Al-Mishraq Sulphur Plant in Iraq. The fire from the attack created a plume of sulphur dioxide that stretched from Kenya to the Arctic Circle and from Algeria to Japan. This is just one example of the immeasurable and invisible impact that conflict brings but that emerging technologies can help capture.