Introduction Although there are a myriad of motivations for going to war, wars have serious repercussions that need reconsideration before any country declares war against another country. In most cases, the damage done by war is so extensive that the reasons for declaring the war itself are not justified. For instance, the attack by America on the Hiroshima and Nagasaki towns of Japan has affected a number of generations of people living there. There are many cases of cancers in these areas, and the effect of the bombing was so great that, decades later, children are still born with deformities due to the effects of gene mutations caused by the bombings. These effects are experienced after wars, regardless of the number of people who died in the war itself and the infrastructure that was destroyed during the war. With this kind of discussion, it is apparent that the effects of war are far reaching, and they have adverse effects on all realms of a country’s welfare. That is, the country is affected in terms of its economy, health, international relations, etc. Of more concern, and the reason why the effects of war remain for centuries is the fact that all wars have adverse effects on the environment, which in turn affects several aspects of the people living in the affected environment. For instance, the use of nuclear bombs in wars may have effects on both the environment of the attacker and the attacked parties in the war. This reasoning is from the fact that when a country is attacked with an atomic bomb, high volumes of radioactive materials are left in its atmosphere for a period that is almost equivalent to the age of the earth. These materials have adverse effects on the population and they can be easily transported by water and the wind to other parts of the globe. On the other hand, people living in the vicinity of nuclear plants in the country that is attacking its enemy will also be exposed to stray radiation. This is because securing the environment, around a nuclear plant, against radioactive materials is a difficult task, and in most cases, mistakes are committed. This makes people living close to radiation plants susceptible to radioactive pollution, leading to development of respiratory problems, cancers, and other health problems. How wars affect the environment As discussed in the introduction, wars have profound environmental effects that last for decades, or even centuries. A battlefield is clearly distinguishable from other regions that have not been affected by war. This is to say that the environment surrounding a battlefield is different from other environments, and thus it depicts the activities that once took place in it. The worst environmental damage, with regard to the activities of war, has, perhaps, been caused by the manufacture and testing of weapons of mass destruction like the nuclear bomb. The latter is itself a complex mixture of environmental contaminants. In all countries that have ever attempted to develop the nuclear bomb, there is usually a sub-set of the population, especially those living near the nuclear plants, developing complicated medical problems. This is usually due to the pollution of the environment with nu