The face of the climate activism movement, Greta Thunberg, has lost the media’s fervor since her fame hit fever pitch back in 2019. 

But over the past few weeks, Thunberg briefly returned to the media limelight. The world turned to watch as she set sail on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, with 11 other activists, trying to bring humanitarian aid to Palestinians (and ultimately kidnapped and detained by Israel). Some were confused by her perceived ‘pivot’ from climate activism to a ‘fixation’ on Gaza. 

What does the genocide in Gaza have to do with the climate crisis?

In the time that mainstream media largely removed Thunberg’s activism from its coverage, she has devotedly continued her work. Thunberg has made no concessions along the way or narrowed her scope. She didn’t pivot away from climate. In fact, her understanding of the climate issue has only gotten clearer. She sees the interconnectedness of Palestinian liberation and climate collapse, and acts accordingly.

How are the liberation of Palestinian people and the climate crisis connected?

Increased climate vulnerability

First of all, Gaza as a region is already extremely vulnerable to negative climate impacts, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). In the Mediterranean Basin, which holds Palestine and Israel, temperatures are rising 20% faster than anywhere else in the world. Israel’s own studies confirm the Eastern Mediterranean as one of the most climate-vulnerable places on the planet. 

As a result, Gaza is highly susceptible to:

• more frequent and worse cold snaps in the winter, 
• more erratic and decreased rainfall (20% less than today by 2050), 
• reduced agricultural productivity, and 
• sea level rise threatening lives, infrastructure, coastal erosion, and any remaining potable water by way of saltwater intrusion into the water aquifer. 

Israel’s destructive actions on Gaza over the many years, especially over the past 1.5 years, have exponentially increased Gaza’s existing climate vulnerability. 

Ecocide reduces climate resilience

In addition to the glaring humanitarian atrocity of genocide underway, Israel is actively committing ecocide. What does that mean? Ecocide is, simply, deliberate destruction of the environment (with the knowledge of a high likelihood of severe or long-term damage to it). Ecocide worsens climate vulnerability and reduces resilience.

For a long time now, Israel has been degrading Palestine’s environment. Much of it has to do with Israel’s manufacturing of a water crisis. Gaza has had a water treatment plant bombed by Israel, causing it to leak raw sewage into the sea. Israel has flooded Gaza’s tunnels with seawater. Doing so further contaminated Gaza’s aquifer, and that salt can ruin the soil and the foundation of buildings. Without fuel or electricity, Gaza’s wastewater treatment plants can’t operate, so raw sewage continues to flow into the sea daily. Due to these actions and more, Gaza’s groundwater is 97% undrinkable and water-related diseases are now rampant there.

Beyond water, Israel has extensively damaged the region’s ecosystem. Israel has previously destroyed farmland in Gaza and poisoned soil so Gaza’s historically agrarian society cannot operate. More than 95% of Gaza’s agricultural land is now unusable. In addition to starving the people of Gaza, Israel has starved animals. Israel’s bombs pollute the air and soil with toxic chemicals. Bombing also releases carbon into the atmosphere, contributing to climate change. Israel’s targeting of hospitals is obviously a disgusting war crime, one which means disaster for the air and ecosystem, too. Bombing hospitals disperses biohazardous waste across the region. 

Israel’s climate adaptation innovations and efforts do not extend to Palestinian communities in occupied territories. Palestinians in Gaza have no agency over their land. Furthermore, one cannot build climate adaptation infrastructure while lacking what’s needed for basic day-to-day survival – clean drinking water, hospitals, food, electricity, etc. Under international humanitarian law, the natural environment is protected. Thus, ecocide is a war crime. 

Halting climate progress

Israel’s actions are setting back climate progress across the whole Middle East

Climate initiatives across the Middle East are already fragile, and the genocide serves as a huge disruption to climate progress. The majority of Middle East countries have not met their Paris Climate Agreement commitments. Fossil-fuel production continues to increase in oil-rich Middle Eastern countries. The climate crisis is a global problem that requires a ton of collaboration between states. And collaboration is inherently a bit more difficult in times of war. Despite Israel’s previous climate diplomacy efforts in the region, committing a genocide tarnishes one’s reputation for groupwork. Who wants to collaborate with a genocidal state?

Israel is also undermining the global energy transition. War creates economic instability because it brings uncertainty of trade and resource distribution. One outcome of this instability is increased oil prices, and spikes in energy prices induce energy security concerns. History shows that tends to put the renewable energy transition on the backburner. We recently saw this pattern happen in the earlier days of the Russo-Ukrainian war. Another effect of higher oil prices could be making wealthier nations less willing and able to fund climate action in poorer states – though that is not morally acceptable. 

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The genocide is contributing greatly to emissions

Genocides are not people-friendly (shocker), nor are they climate-friendly. Bombs emit carbon when they are created and when they explode, and carbon is emitted in the process of rebuilding. Israel’s genocide is undermining both Israeli and Palestinian commitments to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. According to TIME, Palestine has predicted a nearly 10% difference in its emissions reduction by 2040 depending on whether the Israeli occupation continues (17.5% emissions reduction if it does, 26.6% emissions reduction if the occupation ends). A genocide and occupation makes it much harder to reduce emissions.    

An emissions estimation study found that the emissions generated from the attacks during the first 120 days of this war were “greater than the annual emissions of 26 individual countries and territories. When factoring in war infrastructure built by both Israel and Hamas, the total emissions increase to more than those of 36 countries and territories.” An unbelievably staggering amount of emissions. And that estimate was for a period of just 4 months. The relentless attacks on Gaza have been going on for over a year and a half now. 

If you add in the prospect of rebuilding once the destruction ceases? The emissions associated with rebuilding Gaza are projected to be “higher than the annual emissions of over 135 countries, equating them to those of Sweden and Portugal.” (Queen Mary University of London). 

Wars contribute to global emissions (but aren’t accounted for).  

A 2022 report by the Conflict and Environment Observatory guessed that around 5.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions is attributed to militaries. This is quite possibly an underestimate because these emissions aren’t actually accounted for. Greenhouse gas emissions reporting from the military sector is voluntary. This means that few countries disclose these emissions to the UN, there is no standard framework for reporting them, and the ones that are reported are incomplete underestimates. The estimations that do exist tend to leave out emissions from military supply chains, the global weapons industry, and reconstruction post-conflict – all massive sources of emissions! The Military Emissions Gap project compares voluntarily submitted military emissions data from countries to independent estimates of the emissions, and finds that many are gross underestimates (Scientific American). 

It’s important to understand the big picture of how climate change and war are related.

Climate change makes wars worse and wars make climate change worse.

Climate change leads to more and worse conflicts. According to the UN, we are now experiencing the highest number of violent conflicts since World War II. Climate change plays a role in that. As much conflict as there is now, researchers predict that every half degree of global warming will bring a 10-20% increase in the likelihood of armed conflict. While never directly causing conflict, climate change can be understood as aider and abetter of war. The climate crisis contributes to the decimation of natural resources. Limited resources magnify tensions.

Some examples of conflicts that were exacerbated by climate change in recent years include  the Syrian Civil War, ISIS invasion of Iraq, Yemen Civil War, South Sudan Conflict, and the Libyan Civil War. Frequently, the role of climate change in war is through droughts that bring added economic pain and advance famine. 

They both displace and kill people.

If you are against the deaths and displacements of tons of innocent people, the connection between the climate crisis and the genocide in Gaza should already be clear. Since this latest war in Gaza began, Israel has killed more than 52,000 Palestinians. Though difficult to count, estimates approximate that at least hundreds of thousands of people die from climate change annually. The UN estimates that so far, this war has displaced at least 1.9 million people, which is 90% of the population across the Gaza Strip. In 2024, extreme weather events led to the displacement of 824,000 people (the highest number of new displacements since 2008). Displacement is a serious and growing issue that is exacerbated by both the climate crisis and wars such as the genocide in Gaza. The displacement of large amounts of people spreads more political instability and increases tensions.

So now what?

Understanding and acknowledging this connection is crucial. But it’s what we do with that knowledge that really matters. How can the interconnectedness of the Palestinian struggle for liberation and the struggle for climate justice be put to use?

Frame climate action as a peace solution, because it is. Climate change undermines peace. When countries have greater resilience against climate disasters and better resource management, conflict is less likely. Climate initiatives can and should be used to build community and collaboration in our increasingly tense, competitive world – such as through water-sharing agreements. Bolstering climate adaptation efforts fosters stability and security.

Emphasize peace as a climate solution. The answer to the military industry’s horrendous levels of emissions is not to decarbonize the sector – it’s to divest from it. To me, decarbonizing war sounds like a ridiculous oxymoron – how can one attempt to affirm life in the long-term while destroying it now? Fighting for a livable planet in which we don’t allow each other to live makes no sense – carbon-neutral weapons of war would still be murder weapons. Achieving climate justice and waging war are simply not compatible things to have on the to-do list. There is no room for war if you also want to properly address the climate crisis. 

Pressure the US – and other wealthy Western states –  to prioritize and increase climate adaptation funding for fragile states that are prone to conflict and highly vulnerable to climate impacts. War is costly and so is climate change. As we’ve explored, they’re also deeply connected. That means the solutions are deeply connected, too. You help one, you help the other. 

Urge the world to hold Israel accountable for this humanitarian crisis and ecocide to equal degrees. Join the calls for this ecocide to also be investigated as a war crime.Pressure the US to divest from this genocide. All throughout, the US has supported Israel unconditionally, enabling these atrocities to continue with no end in sight. Israel relies on US support, aid, and diplomacy for its egregious actions. The US must remove this support immediately. 

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