Eco-Wars :: essays research papers

     In recent years, a new force has been introduced to the struggle for environmental protection. The worlds military looms as an ominous threat above our fragile eco-system. Even during years of peace, the militarys havoc is wreaked "not in some remote sandbox or sea lane, unless within the heart of a rapidly unraveling planetary ecology, whose intricate web of intertwined lives, often trigger complex feedback processes." (Thomas). The greatest crime perhaps is the slow slaughter of the planet. The world has suffered more ecological damage in the past fifty years, than ever before. Oil spills, toxic dumps and nuclear testing, plague the worlds resources. The majority of these originating from the worlds protectors. The greatest victim of all our wars, is Earth. Her sufferings coming from toxic dumping, chemical warf are and nuclear testingPerhaps the best example of a dumpsite would be Subic embayment in the Philippines. Since the end of the Viet Na m conflict, 4,000,000 gallons of untreated waste have been dumped into the bay each day. As Pentagon official David Berteau summarized "If any one nation bears the brunt of the U.S. militarys practice overseas, it may come up be the Philippines". It is estimated that this dumping has destroyed thousands of kilometres of coastline, and a valuable eco-system. Though this is not to imply that the Philippines are the sole victim of military dumping, indeed there are hundreds of such dumpsites across the globe. As is clearly seen in map 1.1Indeed the weapons of war do more harm to Gaia than to any foreign soldier, chemic warfare & High-tech weaponry of the 90s may turn out to be what eventually lays Mother Earth to rest. Chemical Warfare was introduced by German soldiers during WWI. Since then, dramatic increases in chemical weapons have put Earth on the verge of collapse. It is estimated that 240 pounds of Agent Orange, a defoliant, was dropped over S. Viet Nam during the 1 960s. This may not sound standardized much, but to put it in perspective, two ounces of the substance, placed in New York Citys water supply, would kill every inhabitant. (Day, 208). And it will remain in the environment for centuries to come. Not so far away, more havoc was being wrought on the environment, this time due to the space race, the liquid fuel used by Soviet era missiles and rockets -- unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (UDMH) -- is both highly toxic and hard to remove from the environment once leaked.