The impact of wars on climate change: Case of the Second World War

The world has been following a continuous cycle of warming and cooling since its existence. Although this cycle at times harms the life of the living, it continues as a part of the order that exists and the livings have managed to keep up with these changes. This cooling and warming cycle on Earth has taken place over centuries. However, due to human factors, the situation given as global warming, has developed rapidly in a very short time. In this case, it is obvious that the existing global warming is not caused by the natural cycle of the world but by human factors in a hazardous way. Among these are excessive industrialization and the use of fossil fuels, which are the most well-known for many reasons, increasing the rate of greenhouse gases, causing global warming and climate change accordingly. At this point, why are not wars considered enough as the most important cause of global warming? Wars cause both the increase in industrialization and use of fossil fuels, as well as the combination of many elements such as conventional, nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons technology, armies, war tools and equipment which all create a large amount of greenhouse gas emissions into the air, while polluting both the air, soil, and sea. Wars not only destroy the livings that exist, but also endanger future lives. While the methods of reducing the greenhouse gas effect are discussed and many measures are implemented in the climate agreements, there is not enough study on the prevention of wars and war technologies among these measures. Our world, which has survived two world wars, has received major wounds due to the weapon technologies. Especially during the Second World War, many military vehicles, equipment, nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons caused a release of large number of harmful gases into the air, while polluting the soil and sea. Additionally, wars caused the defense industries to increase and accelerate their production of weapons, paving the way for major environmental disasters. The present study focuses on the abovementioned war technologies and their effect on climate change. Keywords: Global Warming, Environment, Climate Change, War