Israel Is Iran’s Latest Excuse for Its Pollution Crises
Amidst a pollution crisis sparked by rampant use of substandard fuels and poor industrial infrastructure, Iran’s government has found a new scapegoat for Tehran’s toxic air: the June 2025 conflict with Israel. On July 13, 2025, Iran’s Department of Environment claimed that Israeli airstrikes on two fuel depots in Tehran on June 15 released “47,000 tons of greenhouse gases” and that this was responsible for the capital’s air pollution crisis. But the science does not add up. Pollution from a fuel depot explosion might linger for a few days, possibly a week in extreme cases, but not a full month. More importantly, Iran is among the world’s top polluters. According to the Global Carbon Project and BP’s energy data , Iran emits over 800 million tons of carbon dioxide annually from fossil fuels, making it the sixth-largest emitter globally. To put that in perspective, the government’s cited 47,000 tons represents less than one-thousandth of Iran’s monthly...