Much of the global conversation about Iran revolves around security, conflict, and nuclear risk. What is less discussed is an environmental collapse already unfolding, with consequences that extend well beyond its borders. In recent weeks, as US and Israeli strikes have targeted the Islamic regime’s military infrastructure, public attention has also turned to vast underground tunnel networks used to house missile systems, some carved deep into mountains over decades. As Iran’s environmental crisis deepens, these networks reveal the scale at which the regime has mobilized land, resources, and engineering capacity for its military agenda rather than for environmental protection or public infrastructure.
This points to a broader reality: Iran’s environmental strain is not only the result of neglect or mismanagement, but also of deliberate policies that have redirected natural and economic resources toward militarization at the expense of long-term sustainability. These policies have pushed the country’s water resources, ecosystems, and air quality to the edge of collapse. In recent years, millions of Iranians have lived without reliable access to clean water or breathable air. Aquifers have been depleted, rivers have dried, and major cities face hazardous levels of air pollution.
The recent military action by the United States and Israel comes against a regime that has systematically exploited Iran’s resources in pursuit of military and ideological goals, with lasting consequences both inside and beyond its borders. These developments have already weakened a regime that has long been a major source of global instability, but what comes next will shape not only Iran’s political trajectory but also the future of its landscape, and with it, regional stability. If the Islamic Republic remains in place, regardless of how it is presented, the outcome is not difficult to predict; the current trajectory points toward environmental collapse.
Over more than four decades, the regime has demonstrated neither the capacity nor the willingness to
preserve the country’s resources or to ground its governance in science. Under political and economic pressure, such systems tend to reinforce existing patterns rather than pursue meaningful reform. The result is an environmentally exhausted state facing water scarcity, uninhabitable regions, toxic air, and accelerating ecological decline.
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