When oil burns, everything does

Black rain fell on the Iranian capital of Tehran on March 7 and 8, 2026. It is not science fiction. Bombings of oil reservoirs and fuel depots caused fires that released vast amounts of soot and sulphur compounds, nitrogen oxides and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons into the atmosphere. All these and a low-pressure meteorological system that was formed above the city were returned to the ground, in the form of an oily and acidic rain. The World Health Organization gave respiratory health warnings. The government encouraged 10 million citizens to remain home. The deputy health minister of Iran admitted that the soil and water supply in the capital area was already contaminated by the rain.

The war which was started on February 28, 2026, created this. As of March 10, the Conflict and Environment Observatory had documented more than 300 environmentally important incidents in Iran, Iraq, Israel, Kuwait, Jordan, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Cyprus and Azerbaijan. These hardly got any attention compared to missile counts.

There are serious and well-documented health consequences that citizens are facing immediately. Microscopic soot infiltrates the tissue in the lungs and the heart muscle. Toxic hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides generated during big oil fires are very damaging to respiratory organs. The powder fallout of the explosions pollutes water and land. The Iranian Red Crescent Society issued a warning that rain going through smoke columns becomes so corrosive that it may burn the skin on direct contact. Children faced the maximum risks. The aged and individuals with pre-existing respiratory disorders are also at risk. Strikes have not only been directed at oil infrastructure in densely populated Tehran but also residential areas and commercial buildings, crushing the construction materials of their own accord, emitting toxic compounds into the atmosphere.

The pollution is not confided to Tehran. The Persian Gulf is a shallow and confined basin. It does not flush out quickly. The heavy metals and poisonous chemicals that settle in marine sediment do not spread as they do in the open ocean. The Gulf is equally among the most environmentally pressured seas in the planet. It has been heating relatively quicker than nearly any equivalent body of water. Already the coral reefs, sea grass meadows and mangrove forests which act as nurseries to commercially valuable fish species are beginning to face severe pressure due to the rising sea temperatures. The stress is now compounded by oil pollution and the darkening of the skies with smoke. In late March, a Kuwaiti oil tanker in the waters off Dubai was hit by drone fire, raising immediate concerns of a spill. Dugongs and green turtles are particularly sensitive species since they are dependent on sea grass beds.

The last time something similar took place was in 1991, when Kuwaiti oil wells were burned in a move that created a local environmental disaster. It took years to mitigate the damage caused by that disaster. The deposition of toxic sulphur dioxide and PAH led to soil acidification, chronic exposure to carcinogens and respiratory disease among downstream populations. The burning of the Qayyarah oil fields during the war against the Islamic State in Iraq resulted in what observers called a ‘dark winter’: a weeks-long total blackout of sunlight in nearby areas, with a disastrous effect on agriculture and air quality. The war in Iran is creating its own variant to date and is already geographically bigger than either precedent.

Iran is already a water-stressed country. The availability of freshwater has already decreased further in many areas of the country due to decades of drought, poor irrigation, and the depletion of aquifers. Conflict pollutants cause contamination of soil and groundwater and add to a structural crisis. In the Gulf countries, tens of millions of people drink water that is produced in hundreds of desalination plants across the Gulf states. These have become possible targets in a war where both sides have threatened civilian infrastructures. Burning a desalination plant in a desert state is not simply a military tactic. It is a long-term water crisis.

None of this is accidental in the structural deeper sense. Iran has approximately nine per cent of global oil deposits. The conflict hit its South Pars gas field which is one of the largest globally. Officials of the Trump Administration enumerated the acquisition of Iranian natural resources as one of the reasons behind the war. The military industry worldwide, including during periods of peace, contributes 5.5 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. This number increases significantly when industrial facilities are burnt and fuel is used during wartime. The environmental cost of this war cannot be covered by any post-conflict reconstruction plan.

A complaint of ‘ecocide’ has been submitted to the UN Secretary-General in relation to this conflict. Implementation of international law for environmental protection during wartime is still insufficient. Such law is poorly enforced and poorly prioritised on peace negotiations. Cessation of environmental destruction is not manifested in ceasefires. It usually does not feature in reconstruction agendas. It is the politically and economically useful infrastructure, power infrastructure, roads and state buildings that are rebuilt. The polluted water, the toxic estuary, the cluster of cancer in a low-income area that emerges five years after the war ceases, are put under the category of ‘chronic issues’, which are under-funded and ultimately normalised.

The rule of law is important in this case not as a procedural issue but as an ecological one. In the context where military force is used without any justifiable legal framework, without Security Council authorisation, and in the middle of a negotiation process, the lack of accountability extends to environmental damage just as much as to civilian victims.  Existing systems cannot compel the parties involved in the Tehran oil fires to clean up the polluted soil beneath them. There is no court that will demand compensation for the Gulf’s fishing communities because their livelihoods will be affected by marine pollution they had no role in creating.

We are thirty days into a war and it is already affecting air, water, soil, and sea. The effect of this will stay longer than any political settlement ever achieved. That is the story about the environment. It ought to be in the very place we are reading this conflict and not somewhere in the fourteenth paragraph.

Himadri Sekhar Mistri is a researcher at the Centre for the Study of Social Systems, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

Views expressed are the author’s own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth