{"id":85577,"date":"2026-08-28T09:45:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T07:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/?p=85577"},"modified":"2026-08-28T10:51:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T08:51:22","slug":"six-months-iran-war-human-environmental-economic-fossilflation-costs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/story\/85577\/six-months-iran-war-human-environmental-economic-fossilflation-costs\/","title":{"rendered":"The human, environmental and economic cost of the war on Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Six months after the US-Israeli war on Iran began, civilians, ecosystems and households far beyond the battlefield are still paying its price. The costs appear in lives lost and displaced, polluted seas and air, and higher bills driven by a fossil fuel-dependent energy system.<\/p>\n\n

The human cost of the war on Iran<\/h2>\n\n

It is difficult to have an exact, up-to-date figure, but various records indicate that more than 8,000 human beings have lost their lives <\/strong>and around 50,000 have been injured as a result of the war:<\/p>\n\n

\u25cf In the first 40 days of the war<\/a> alone, more than 3,500 people were killed in Iran.<\/p>\n\n

\u25cf More than 750 US soldiers wounded<\/a> and 18 killed, according to the Pentagon (the same institution that has recently hidden figures<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n

Every life is sacred and the human suffering of this and any war should be reason enough to stop the bombing.<\/p>\n\n

\"09
09 April 2026, Lebanon, Beirut: Israel carried out heavy strikes on Lebanon since the conflict with pro-Iranian Hezbollah broke out last month, as the group resumed rocket attacks on northern Israel after a brief pause under the two-week US-Iran ceasefire.
\u00a9 Marwan Naamani \/ dpa \/picture alliance via Getty<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

The environmental cost of the war on Iran<\/h2>\n\n

War ruins life in all its forms. Even relatively small oil spills can have a strong environmental impact and lasting consequences for marine ecosystems.<\/p>\n\n

The impact of oil spills is so severe that some of them are now visible from space. One example is the spill stretching for more than eight kilometres south of the Iranian island of Qeshm<\/a>, after a vessel was damaged in waters near the Strait of Hormuz. Despite clean-up efforts, this has put mangroves, coastal habitats and the people whose livelihoods depend on the sea at risk.<\/p>\n\n

But sadly, this is not the first oil spill caused by war, and it certainly won’t be the last. In May, for example, the Iranian Navy frigate IRIS Dena was torpedoed and sunk by the U.S. Navy in the Indian Ocean. Three days after it sank, an oil slick appeared<\/a> near the coast of Sri Lanka, showing that transporting oil safely is just as impossible as cleaning up an oil spill.<\/p>\n\n

\"Greenpeace
September 1991: Greenpeace survey of Gulf War oil pollution in Iran. Paul Brown, environmental journalist for The Guardian, looking at tar on a beach, South Iranian coast.
\u00a9 Greenpeace \/ Jim Hodson<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Also in May, an oil spill,<\/a> allegedly caused by attacks on a refinery, reached the shores of Shidvar Island, one of Iran’s most important protected nature reserves and a refuge for coral reefs, endangered sea turtles, dolphins and birds, which were trapped in the tar.<\/p>\n\n

And as if that weren’t enough, this is compounded by the contamination of drinking water, the air, and food. In the first two weeks of the war on Iran alone, 5 million tonnes of CO\u2082<\/a> were emitted. Attacks on oil installations have caused “black rain”<\/a> (a mixture of oil and precipitation) and thick plumes of toxic smoke, while the bombing of military installations spreads dangerous pollutants.<\/p>\n\n

It is in this way that war not only takes lives, but also destroys the systems that make life possible<\/a>: water networks, sewage treatment works, farmland, ports, fuel depots and the electricity infrastructure, amongst others.<\/p>\n\n

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A post shared by Greenpeace International \ud83c\udf0d (@greenpeace)<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n