We all know about the oil slick that was caused by Israel bombing a power plant. Now an Israeli NGO tells us that it was up to 30,000 tons of heavy fuel oil that may have escaped and endangered the coast line. This is a quite bit less then the 115,000 figure and the invocation of Exxon/Valdez that were mentioned by the UN, but clearly quite an event nevertheless.
We all kept hearing about that spill from the Spokesman for the UN Secretary-General. I also asked about those damages, but the main questions came from political journalists that I bet have very little interest in the environment but a lot of interest in finding some more stuff they could use to needle the Israelis with. The UN complied with this latter interest.

Having watched on TV the Katjushas falling on the forests in Northern Israel, and the resulting fires, I asked on several occasions about those damages but the UN did not seem to have an interest in damages sustained by the Israeli side. I even asked about the old growth forrest stands in the Tsfat area, and as well in those in Lebanon - no information available. OK - now I am getting some information and would like to publish these damages also.

First from Gidon Bromberg, an Australian living in Israel and the head of Friends of the Earth Mediterranean, known to us here at the UN as a regular participant at the UN CSD meetings.
Then Paul Ginsberg, the director of the JNF forestry unit of Northern Israel - both describing the damage at large - touching not only Israel but also the Lebanese terrain and the sea.

Following that we have a Reuters News Release of August 28, 2006, that once more shows us that the UN statements, as usual when it comes to the Middle East, were exaggerated in describing the situation so that it looked more damning Israel as it really should have been - oh! well! we learned that this is plain UN reality.

So, the truth is that 20,000 acres of Israeli-planted woodland was destroyed outright; only ants and tiny lizards seem to have survived - thus gone are “the gazelle, wild boar, quail, tortoises, nesting birds, and maybe jackals.” There will be loss of topsoil “which will increase the risk of flooding and mudslides when rains come this winter.” 700,000 to 1 million trees were burned outright and it is likely that another one million trees will not survive the winter - their leaves and needles are yellow now. Further, as so many objects were destroyed, cars burned, houses burned, refrigerators and radiators have to be disposed off, and clearly there will be additional serious damages as we are reminded by looking at the Katrina outcome,
and the financial losses are large.