The Land Burns: Heat, Acid Rain, and Atmospheric Collapse

By Cliff Potts, CSO, and Editor-in-Chief of WPS News

Baybay City, Leyte, Philippines — May 26, 2026

When the Permian–Triassic extinction event reached the continents, the outcome was already constrained by what had happened in the seas. With oceans warming, oxygen-poor, and in places toxic, Earth’s atmosphere had become unstable. What followed on land was not a mirror of oceanic collapse, but its consequence.

Life on land did not simply die. It was stripped of the conditions that made survival possible.

A Rapid Rise in Heat

Volcanic gases released during the Siberian Traps eruptions accumulated over long periods. Carbon dioxide drove sustained warming that reshaped continental climates. Temperature increases of several degrees were enough to push many regions beyond the tolerance limits of plants and animals adapted to earlier conditions.

Heat stress affected physiology directly. Large-bodied animals struggled to regulate temperature. Plants lost moisture faster than they could replace it. Seasonal cycles became erratic, undermining reproduction and food availability.

Unlike oceans, land offered some refuges—but far fewer than expected.

Acid Rain and Soil Failure

Sulfur dioxide released during prolonged volcanism combined with atmospheric moisture to form acid rain. This precipitation did not simply damage leaves or bark. It altered soils at a chemical level.

Nutrients leached away. Root systems weakened. Forests that had stabilized ecosystems for millions of years began to thin and then collapse. As plant cover disappeared, erosion increased, further degrading habitats.

Once soils failed, recovery became unlikely even if temperatures stabilized. Land ecosystems depend on soil chemistry as much as climate.

Atmospheric Instability

The atmosphere itself became hostile. In addition to carbon dioxide and sulfur compounds, volcanic activity released halogens and other trace gases. These likely contributed to ozone depletion, increasing ultraviolet radiation at the surface.

Higher UV exposure stresses plants, damages DNA, and reduces photosynthetic efficiency. For animals already weakened by heat and food shortages, this additional pressure proved lethal.

The land was not facing a single threat. It was facing many at once.

Why Distance Did Not Save Anyone

One of the defining features of the Great Dying is that even regions far from volcanic activity experienced collapse. Continents on the opposite side of Pangaea show evidence of forest loss and vertebrate extinction.

This was not because lava reached them. It was because the atmosphere connects the planet. Heat, gases, and precipitation patterns do not respect geography. Once the atmospheric system shifted, no landmass remained isolated.

This explains why extinction on land was nearly global despite localized eruptions.

Survivors in the Margins

As on the oceans, survival favored organisms that were small, adaptable, and tolerant of harsh conditions. Burrowing animals found shelter from heat and radiation. Opportunistic feeders survived where specialists starved.

Large herbivores and apex predators disappeared in disproportionate numbers. Complex food webs collapsed into simpler, temporary systems dominated by generalists.

The land did not empty completely—but it lost its structure.

The End of an Old World

By the height of the extinction, forests had vanished from many regions. River systems changed as vegetation loss altered runoff patterns. What remained was a hotter, harsher planet with limited capacity to support complex life.

The Great Dying on land was not a sudden apocalypse. It was a drawn-out failure of climate, soil, and atmosphere acting together.

The next essay will examine why extinction extended even into regions untouched by lava—and how planetary feedback loops ensured that nowhere remained safe.

For more social commentary, please see Occupy 2.5 at https://Occupy25.com

This essay will be archived as part of the ongoing WPS News Monthly Brief Series available through Amazon.

References

Beerling, D. J., & Berner, R. A. (2002). Biogeochemical constraints on the end-Permian mass extinction. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 99(7), 4172–4177.
Retallack, G. J. (1995). Permian–Triassic life crisis on land. Science, 267(5194), 77–80.
Self, S., Thordarson, T., & Widdowson, M. (2005). Gas fluxes from flood basalt eruptions. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 235(1–2), 17–30.

The Destruction of Nature is a Cost of War

by Ci Davis

We have become accustomed to seeing the human impacts of war, from starvation in Sudan to the almost 100,000 killed in Gaza, but most people will be less familiar with the environmental impacts. On February 28th, another Middle East war broke out when the US and Israel launched an attack on Iran. In the first few hours, the Supreme Leader was killed, followed by the bombing of a school, killing 150 Iranian schoolgirls, and soon after, columns of smoke began to rise from targeted hits on petrochemical infrastructures.  

Over the past three weeks, oil refineries, gas fields, tankers, nuclear facilities, desalination plants, oil storage tanks, air bases, and industrial areas have all been attacked. The water, marine and toxic-air pollution are a consequence of the smoke from the multiple infernos, from the widely dispersed toxic fragments, and from the many chemicals and heavy metals that escape into the soil and water, caused by thousands of bomb and missile strikes

The human and environmental costs of another war prompted two protests in Sheffield. On 21st March, 150 people demonstrated outside the Town Hall to call for an end to the war on Iran and also made connections with other current conflicts, including Gaza, Lebanon, Sudan, Ukraine and Cuba.  

Our media tends to represent the environmental impacts of war as collateral damage, an unfortunate side effect, but really, they are a deliberate and targeted means of disrupting the lives of people by making their connection to land fragile or even untenable.  No clearer example exists than the use of Agent Orange to defoliate the forests of Vietnam that left millions of Vietnamese and hundreds of thousands of US veterans with multigenerational health disorders and birth defects. Environmental harm is one of the ways that war impacts lives that can last many decades.

The environmental impacts of war cannot be separated from the environmental costs of the military machine itself, which is responsible for 5.5% of global greenhouse gas (GHGs) emissions, which rose by a staggering 9.4% in 2024. The US military is the largest institutional emitter of GHGs that are responsible for climate change, burning 270000 barrels of oil daily. Countries are not required to produce figures for the wartime emissions, but recently it is estimated that the war in Ukraine has produced 237 million tonnes of CO2, the Gaza conflict 32 million tonnes and in the first 5 days of the Iran war 5 million tonnes. At a time when all countries should be doing everything to reduce climate and environmental damage, the resort to war is escalating the harm. 

Apocalyptic images, showing clouds of black toxic smoke blocking out the sun over Tehran, following the bombings of local oil depots on 7th March, are haunting. The oily residues, soot and sulphur-laden smoke, combined with a rare rainstorm, produced acid rain, causing immediate respiratory impacts with a lasting health legacy. For people who had already experienced chemical weapons attacks during the Iran-Iraq war, this environmental warfare was experienced as chemical warfare again.

The Middle East is experiencing the climate crisis through water insecurity. The conflict in Syria, which displaced 1.5 million people between 2007 and 2010, was in part precipitated by drought.  There are clear parallels to Iran today. After six years of drought, the water supply to Tehran was at just 11% capacity, and the shortage of water to drink or to supply agriculture contributed to protests in January 2026. War is exploiting this suffering, with all parties having targeted water and sewerage systems that, if continued, threaten to displace people throughout the region, as well as causing severe health impacts.  

Most of us will be familiar with the skeletons of buildings and mountains of debris from TV images of Gaza. The 61 million tonnes of rubble are laden with asbestos, unexploded weapons, dead bodies, and untreated sewerage that has rendered the land unfit for agriculture. The clearance will take decades and burn through hundreds of thousands more tonnes of fossil fuel, and we are seeing the same thing being repeated across Iran and the Gulf.

Years after wars end, the land, air and sea will remain contaminated. Thankfully, the deliberate targeting of the environment is becoming recognised in International Law as a war crime or ecocide and can be punished under the ICC’s Rome Statute. If it is demonstrated that the military intentionally launched an attack, knowing that it will cause long-term severe damage to the natural environment, that is excessive to the military advantage anticipated, then prosecutions may follow. 

As the war drags on, it risks total destruction of the oil-fields, spillage of nuclear material, and depleted Uranium contamination. These huge environmental threats will have global impacts, experienced as economic shocks and agricultural losses, threatening food security.  War demonstrates our intimate connection with the land and the importance of environmental protection.

Most people oppose the war, the use of UK bases in support of it, and sending the military to the Middle East.  We should make our voices heard, calling upon world leaders to respond to our opposition and pull back from the brink, for the sake of people and the planet.

For more information on what you can do, contact: [email protected] 

References

Gayle, D. (2025, May 31). What is ecocide and could it become a crime under international law? The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/may/28/what-is-ecocide-and-could-it-become-a-under-international-law

Gayle, D. (2026, March 20). From black rain to marine pollution, the war in Iran is an environmental disaster. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/mar/19/down-to-earth-iran-us-israeli-war-environmental-destruction

Holmes, O., Gayle, D., & Ahmedzade, T. (2026, March 23). Tehran’s toxic cloud: Satellite images show oily fires burned for days. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/23/tehran-toxic-cloud-satellite-image-oil-fires

Meadway, J. (2026, January 15). How ‘day zero’ water shortages in Iran are fuelling protests. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/15/how-day-zero-water-shortages-in-iran-are-fuelling-protests

Moneer, Z. (2026, March 22). Water Infrastructure Has Become a Target in Modern Warfare. Earth.Org. https://earth.org/from-lifeline-to-strategic-weapon-how-water-infrastructure-becomes-a-target-in-armed-conflicts/

Neimark, B., & Mackintosh, K. (2025, November 4). How wars ravage the environment – and what international law is doing about it. The Conversation. https://doi.org/10.64628/AB.4yt3f6ys7

New data reveals the Military Emissions Gap is growing wider. (2025, November 6). CEOBS. https://ceobs.org/new-data-reveals-the-military-emissions-gap-is-growing-wider/

Palmer, M. G. (2005). The legacy of agent orange: Empirical evidence from central Vietnam. Social Science & Medicine, 60(5), 1061–1070. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2004.04.037

Photos: Dire water shortages pile misery on Gaza’s starving population. (n.d.). Al Jazeera. Retrieved 24 March 2026, from https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2025/8/4/unprecedented-water-crisis-in-gaza-amid-israeli-induced-starvation

The US-Israel war on Iran and how war and conflict are destroying the environment. (2026, March 19). Greenpeace International. https://www.greenpeace.org/international/story/82201/iran-lebanon-war-environment-climate-impacts/

Three days of Operation Epic Fury: Rapid overview of environmental harm in Iran and the region. (2026, March 3). CEOBS. https://ceobs.org/three-days-of-operation-epic-fury-rapid-overview-of-environmental-harm-in-iran-and-the-region/