War and the Environment is a six-week online course exploring how war, preparations for war, and militarism affect the climate and environment — and what can be done to reduce these harms and build more peaceful and sustainable alternatives.
War’s environmental footprint extends far beyond the battlefield. It begins before fighting starts and can continue for generations afterwards. Military bases, weapons production and testing, training exercises, resource and energy use, nuclear weapons, armed conflict, toxic contamination, and the destruction of land, water, infrastructure, and ecosystems all carry environmental costs. At a time of growing climate and ecological pressures, understanding these connections is increasingly urgent.
Across six modules, participants examine why wars happen, what wars do to the Earth, the environmental costs of preparing for war, nuclear weapons and their legacies, why many of these harms remain hidden and sustained, and what can be done in response. Combining evidence, examples from different parts of the world, discussion, reflection, and practical application, the course connects understanding with action across peace, anti-war, climate, and environmental work. No prior specialist knowledge is required.
Register below to join the course.
Course Summary
Format: Online Course
Start Date: Monday, 5 October 2026
End Date: Sunday, 15 November 2026
Duration: 6 Weeks
Time Commitment: Approximately 3–6 hours per week
Cost: Standard fee: $100. Sliding-scale places start at $25 according to ability to pay. Those able to contribute beyond the standard fee are welcome to do so, helping support access for participants who would otherwise be unable to attend..
Certificate: Participants who complete the weekly assignments will receive a certificate of completion. The assignments are optional for participants who do not require a certificate.
Register below.
About The Course
Much discussion about climate change and security asks how environmental pressures may contribute to conflict. This course looks at the relationship from another angle.
A key question running through the course:
What changes when war and militarism are understood as part of the climate and ecological problem, rather than environmental harm being treated as an unfortunate side effect of war?
Much peace and security work focuses primarily on relationships among people. The course also invites a wider, world-centred perspective on peace, asking participants to consider how war affects people, places, ecosystems, other living beings, and the wider conditions that sustain life.
This means looking beyond what happens on the battlefield. Environmental harm can begin long before fighting starts through military infrastructure, weapons production, training, extraction, and resource use. It can intensify during armed conflict and continue afterwards through contamination, unexploded weapons, destroyed infrastructure, displacement, reconstruction, and long-term ecological damage.
Throughout the course, participants are invited to ask:
- What is happening, and why?
- Who and what are affected?
- Who benefits, who bears the costs, and whose experiences are least visible?
- What ideas about peace and security are operating?
- What could prevent, reduce, repair, or transform the harm?
The course has two main components:
- Six online modules, completed at times that work for you
- Three optional live Zoom sessions for discussion, reflection, and exchange
Each week combines online materials, multimedia, examples and case studies from different parts of the world, reflective questions, peer-to-peer discussion, and an optional assignment.
Course Modules
Module 1: Where Wars Happen and Why
Explore where wars happen and why they happen. Examine how political, economic, strategic, environmental, and resource-related factors interact with armed conflict, and critically consider claims about the relationships between climate change, environmental pressures, resources, and war.
Module 2: What Wars Do to the Earth
Examine the consequences of armed conflict for land, water, air, ecosystems, biodiversity, human health, livelihoods, and other living beings. Consider immediate destruction alongside environmental, social, and intergenerational harms that can continue long after fighting has ended.
Module 3: Preparing for War: The Environmental Costs of Militarism
Look beyond active war zones to examine environmental harm associated with preparing for war. Explore military bases and training, weapons production and testing, military supply chains, land use, resource and energy consumption, pollution, toxic substances, and contamination, alongside questions of environmental justice and who bears these costs.
Module 4: Nuclear Weapons, People and the Planet
Explore the environmental and human consequences of nuclear weapons across their lifecycle — from uranium extraction and weapons production to testing, deployment, radioactive contamination, waste, continuing environmental legacies, and the potential consequences of future nuclear war.
Module 5: How War’s Environmental Costs Are Hidden and Sustained
Examine why many environmental consequences of war and militarism remain poorly understood, underreported, weakly regulated, or absent from public debate. Explore military secrecy, environmental and emissions reporting, law and accountability, political and economic interests, dominant ideas about security, and the systems that allow environmental harm to continue.
Consider a wider question: what becomes invisible when security is understood mainly in military terms?
Module 6: What Can Be Done?
Move from understanding to action.
Explore ways to prevent and reduce environmental harm, strengthen monitoring and accountability, support recovery, advance demilitarization and policy change, and build more peaceful and sustainable alternatives.
Consider opportunities for stronger cooperation between peace, anti-war, climate, environmental, environmental justice, and other movements, and how the learning might be applied in your own work, organization, community, or context.
Format and Time Commitment
The course is fully online, and weekly materials can be completed at times that work for you.
Estimated time commitment:
- Reviewing weekly content: approximately 1–2 hours per week
- Participating in online discussions: approximately 1–2 hours per week
- Completing optional weekly assignments: approximately 1–2 hours per week
How deeply you engage is up to you. Participants can follow the core materials or take a more active role in discussions and assignments.
Participants who wish to receive a certificate of completion will need to complete the weekly assignments.
Live Zoom Sessions
The course includes three optional live Zoom sessions of up to 90 minutes for discussion, reflection, and exchange.
Sessions usually include around 60 minutes of facilitated discussion and participant exchange, followed by up to 30 minutes for practical questions about the course, assignments, and online platform, as well as further informal conversation.
- Zoom Session 1: Introductions and opening reflections
Tuesday, 13 October 2026
2:00 pm UK / 9:00 am US Eastern / 6:00 am US Pacific - Zoom Session 2: Mid-course reflections and exchange
Tuesday, 27 October 2026
2:00 pm UK / 10:00 am US Eastern / 7:00 am US Pacific - Zoom Session 3: Course reflections and next steps
Tuesday, 10 November 2026
2:00 pm UK / 9:00 am US Eastern / 6:00 am US Pacific
Check the session time in your location:
https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html
The Zoom sessions are optional. The main course materials can be completed in your own time.
If there is sufficient interest from participants in other regions, we may also offer an additional session at a different time.
This course is designed to help you:
- Understand how war and militarism affect the environment before, during, and after armed conflict
- Examine how these impacts affect people, communities, ecosystems, other living beings, places, and future generations
- Explore connections between war, militarism, climate change, resources, colonialism, imperialism, inequality, and environmental justice
- Critically examine relationships between climate change and conflict, including how environmental challenges can become militarized
- Understand why many environmental costs of war and militarism remain hidden, underreported, weakly regulated, or normalized
- Explore responses ranging from prevention, protection, monitoring, accountability, and recovery to demilitarization, policy change, and stronger cooperation between peace and environmental movements
Participants are encouraged to connect the course with their own work, organization, community, or context.
Each of the six modules is supported by a facilitator with relevant knowledge and experience.
During their module week, facilitators engage with participants through the optional assignment space. Discussion forums are primarily designed for peer-to-peer exchange, although facilitators may also contribute where useful.
We are currently confirming the 2026 facilitator team. Names and biographies will be added here as they are confirmed.
Date: 5–11 October 2026 Host/Facilitator: Dr. Phill Gittins Phill Gittins, PhD, is Education Director at World BEYOND War. He is an educator, practitioner, researcher, and author with over 20 years’ leadership, programming, and analysis experience in the areas of peace, education, psychology, youth, and community development. He has lived, worked, studied, and travelled in over 60 countries, taught in schools, colleges, and universities around the world, and trained thousands of practitioners and activists on peace, security, and social change-related issues. Phill has led and supported a wide range of education programmes, research initiatives, and multi-stakeholder collaborations across civil society, public institutions, and international networks. He is a Rotary Peace Fellow, Kathryn Davis Fellow for Peace, and Positive Peace Activator and Global Peace Index Ambassador for the Institute for Economics and Peace. Phill holds a PhD in International Conflict Analysis, an MA in Education, and a BA (Hons) in Youth and Community Studies, and serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Peace Education. Phill can be reached at phill@worldbeyondwar.org |
Module 2: What Wars Do to the Earth Date: 12–18 October 2026 |
Module 3: Preparing for War: The Environmental Costs of Militarism Date: 19–25 October 2026 |
Module 4: Nuclear Weapons, People and the Planet Date: 26 October–1 November 2026 |
Module 5: How War’s Environmental Costs Are Hidden and Sustained Date: 2–8 November 2026 |
Module 6: What Can Be Done? Date: 9–15 November 2026 |
This course is for people who want to better understand the connections between war, militarism, climate change, environmental destruction, peace, and sustainability — and what can be done about them.
It is especially relevant for:
- Peace and anti-war organizers interested in the environmental dimensions of war and militarism
- Climate and environmental activists interested in connecting environmental work with questions of war, peace, security, and demilitarization
- Educators and facilitators looking for perspectives, examples, and resources they can bring into their work
- Campaigners, advocates, and communicators working on peace, climate, environmental justice, sustainable development, or related issues
- Researchers, students, practitioners, and policymakers interested in war, peace, security, climate change, environmental protection, or sustainability
- Civil society organizations, grassroots movements, and engaged citizens working toward more peaceful, just, and sustainable societies
No prior specialist knowledge is required.
Whether you are new to these issues or already active in the field, the course offers opportunities to deepen your understanding, encounter perspectives from different parts of the world, make connections across fields, and connect learning with action.
How to Register
You can register for the course using the registration form below.
To register by check:
- Email education@worldbeyondwar.org and say you would like to register for War and the Environment.
- Make the check out to World BEYOND War and send it to:
World BEYOND War
513 E Main St #1484
Charlottesville, VA 22902
USA
Accessing the Course
Before the course begins, registered participants will receive instructions on how to access the online course platform.
Weekly materials can be completed at times that work for you, and participation in the three live Zoom sessions is optional.
Certificate
Participants who complete the weekly assignments will receive a certificate of completion. The assignments are optional for participants who do not require a certificate.
Further information about assignments, facilitator engagement, and certificates will be provided in the course Welcome module.
Cost
Standard fee: $100. Sliding-scale places start at $25 according to ability to pay.
Those able to contribute more are welcome to do so, helping support access for participants who would otherwise be unable to attend.
Registrations are non-refundable.
Questions
Contact education@worldbeyondwar.org.