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ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS OF WARFARE

This article explores the environmental impact of warfare, including the consumption of resources, use and disposal of toxic chemicals, and the dangers of munitions and nuclear contamination. It highlights the role of the world's armed forces as major polluters and examines specific incidents and their consequences.

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ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS OF WARFARE

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  1. ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS OF WARFARE Consumption of resources Toxic chemicals Munitions dangers Nuclear contamination

  2. The world’s armed forces are the number-one polluters on Earth

  3. In the Cold War, the U.S. and Soviet militaries rarely battled each other. Yet they killed thousands of their own soldiers and civilians through environmental contamination.

  4. CONSUMPTIONOF RESOURCES • Huge amounts of energy (8% in U.S.) • Large percentage of iron and steel, and other metals • Nearly half of Periphery’s debt is from importing of arms

  5. Military spending

  6. Our global priorities

  7. TOXIC CHEMICALS Chemical weapons use Chemical weapons disposal Military toxic wastes Agent Orange

  8. Chemical weapons use Iran, Iraq used gas in 1980-88 war; Iraq gassed Kurdish minority Gas attacks in World War I

  9. Chemical weapons use Moscow gas raid kills 121 hostages, 2002 U.S. experiments on military personnel and civilians, 1950s-60s Sarin attack in Tokyo subway, 1995

  10. Agent Orange defoliant 20 million gallons of herbicides sprayed in Vietnam War to deny Cover to guerrillas Also used by So. Africa

  11. Effects of Agent Orange (dioxin) Limited compensation to veterans for cancers, diabetes, birth defects U.S. veterans Vietnamese civilians and veterans

  12. Chemical releases in Gulf War? Detections of chemicals in air Bombing of Iraqi biochemical sites, 1991 Moral responsibilties of both sides?

  13. Chemical Bunkers In Iraq Detonation of Iraqi chemical/biological storage after end of Gulf War Possible exposure to troops?

  14. Kuwait oilwell fires, 1991 Set by withdrawing Iraqi forces; also spilled oil into Persian Gulf

  15. Draining ofsouthern Iraqmarshes, 1992 Area was haven for Marsh Arabs, Shi’a rebels

  16. Bombing civilian chemical plants Toxic cloud after NATO bombing of Pancevo plant in Serbia, 1999

  17. Chemical weapons testing and disposal 6000 sheep killed in Utah nerve gas test, 1968 Alabama protest against chemical arms incineration

  18. Toxic wastes left on bases U.S. military bases in the Philippines, Panama, Alaska Soviet bases in Eastern Europe

  19. Badger Army Ammunition Plant, Wisconsin Propellant plant, 1940s-70s. Groundwater poisoned with nitrates.

  20. Ironies of abandoned toxic bases Many military bases are Superfund toxic clean-up sites. Rocky Mountain Arsenal in Colorado was poisoned underground, but the surface is a wildlife haven.

  21. MUNITIONS Land mines Cluster bombs Depleted Uranium Gulf War SyndromeBombing rangesFlight ranges

  22. Old land mines explode every 22 minutes, claiming about 26,000 victims a year. Land mines Cambodia Sudan Kosovo

  23. De-MiningOperations1998 ban onplastic land mines Schoolyard in Laos

  24. Cluster bombs

  25. Cluster bombs Bomblets in Laos Nis, Yugoslavia market bombing, 1999

  26. Dense munitions to penetrate tanks, armor. Made from low-level reprocessing waste. Depleted Uranium (DU)

  27. Huge cancer rates in southern Iraq (387 tons of DU left behind) Depleted Uranium (DU) Releases radioactivity when explodes or burns, leaves behind dust DU tested on Vieques Island, Puerto Rico. Would cost $4 billion to clean Indiana base.

  28. Depleted Uranium (DU) DU also used in Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan 82% of U.S combat troops in Iraq came in contact with DU dust “Metal of Dishonor” video www.konscious.com

  29. Gulf War Syndrome “Agent Orange of the 1990s” A variety of illnesses reported by military personnel Increase in personnel cancers, 1991-97

  30. Gulf War Syndrome CAUSES? Depleted Uranium? Chemical releases? Oil well fires? Pesticides? A combination? Children of U.S. troops affected Iraqi civilians also affected: leukemia victim in Basra hospital.

  31. Vieques naval bombing range, Puerto Rico Explosions,.noise, affect on fishing, use of DU and chemical testing. Hidden undetonated explosives

  32. Opposition to Vieques bombing Rallies in San Juan and New York Fishermen blockade Navy ships, 1970s Christian camp after stray bomb kills guard, 1999. Navy agrees to gradual withdrawal.

  33. Low-level jet flights Practice for flying under radar. Effect on cattle, wildlife, horses, human stress Driven out of Europe. Went to Nevada, Canada, etc.

  34. Low-level flights in Canada Innu Indians in Labrador protest disruption of their hunting culture

  35. NUCLEAR WEAPONS Production, Use, Testing, Waste

  36. Uranium miningBegan duringManhattan Project 1940s Deaths of Navajo, Deneuranium miners

  37. Nuclear weapons production cycle Spent fuel from civilian energy industry can be used for bombs

  38. Military nuclear waste at Hanford, Washington Leaking tanks contaminated Columbia River

  39. Los Alamos Nuclear Labs, New Mexico Fires in 2000 endangered Los Alamos, Hanford

  40. Atomic bombing of Japan 220,000 died at Hiroshima and Nagasaki 280,000 more exposed to Radiation (Hibakusha)

  41. Nuclear Club Original: U.S., Russia, Britain, France, China Spread since 1970s: Israel, India, Pakistan, possibly North Korea Disarmed in 1990s: Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakstan, South Africa

  42. Weapons-grade uranium stockpiles

  43. Atomic Veteransand“Downwinders” 17,000 cancer cases in the U.S. alone

  44. Nuclear fallout fromNevada Test Site Reassuring government leaflet Atmospheric nuclear tests halted in 1963; continued underground

  45. Strontium-90 in milk

  46. U.S. tests in the Pacific 75% increase in cesium in islanders

  47. Evacuation of Islanders

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