Blood, Mud, and Pixels
At least four deadly landslides have devastated the M23-controlled Rubaya mines in early 2026, burying hundreds of casual miners. While the DRC government and Rwandan-backed rebels trade propaganda and fake satellite data to secure narrative dominance, global tech supply chains continue to quietly absorb coltan extracted from an institutional vacuum.
Read Bellingcat’s DRC’s Coltan Belt: Verifying Deadly Landslides at Mines Under M23 Control.
Trump Says US Will Get Iran’s Uranium
The Ecology of Attrition
On March 7, 2026, coordinated US and Israeli airstrikes targeted major oil depots and refineries surrounding Tehran, blanketed the city of 10 million in highly toxic smoke, and triggered oil-laden acid rain. The resulting exposure to benzene, sulfur oxides, and fine particulate matter posed immediate risks of cardiovascular disease, cognitive impairment, and strokes.
This attack forms part of an increasingly normalized global pattern where combatants deliberately target critical energy, fuel, and gas networks. Historical and contemporary parallels include the 1991 Kuwaiti oil fires and recent drone strikes on Russia’s Tuapse refinery, which contaminated local rivers and marine ecosystems.
Beyond energy, warfare has directly degraded life-sustaining water infrastructure. This is evidenced by the destruction of nearly 90% of Gaza’s water and sanitation systems, alongside recent strikes on vital desalination plants across Iran and Gulf states like Kuwait, which relies on desalination for up to 90% of its water supply.
As strikes on basic utility networks intensify, the distinction between “civilian” and “environmental” casualties entirely collapses. Poisoned aquifers, ruined agricultural topsoil, and destroyed utilities represent long-term, multi-decade assaults on civilian survival. The international scientific community must track these ecocidal impacts and that global bodies strictly enforce prohibitions against targeting critical infrastructure.
Read Nature Sustainability: The long environmental shadow of war.