The military's war on the Earth

Just a note to EVERYONE--go to the link and read the entire piece.

I always wondered about the consumption and use of oil-gas and the production of waste into the environment by our military forces-as horrifying as the numbers are- it is such a hard
line to see and weigh the out come of the waste generated or let out of control forces take more power and put more people in even more oppressive situations such has happened and continues to happen in the middle east right now.

yea.. when you think about all the ships sunk releasing oil into the ocean and all the atomic bombs detonated at sea and on our own soil spewing radiation on both. the amount of gas burned... the amount of species lost.... the giant sea of plastic....
its all about numbers and mother nature can do the math.

p.s. added to "Culture".

Unfortunately, the ROOT cause of this, the tribal hierarchical competitive nature of MAN,...when he forms societies in close quarters, is not about to change any time soon,....so talking about "military issues" in this way, is a lot like discussing "ending greed",....its loooooooong term,....and sort of a "good luck with that" problematic feature of culture.

Go to war, individual,....by individual,....in resistance to hierarchal social structures,.....and GET THAT BIRTH RATE DOWN !

Start there. If you empower the autonomous INDIVIDUAL, and....COLLECTIVELY "governmentally" INSIST on taking hold of the reins of birthing,....well,...a good first step I think.

( In any case, Individuals will ALWAYS try to hit each other with fists,....or clubs,....or grenade launchers,.....from TIME to TIME,...... till the end of TIME,....all of their own personal volition. That would be MY hunch. )

We just happen to be sort of a nasty monkey, with a few redeeming features and some smarts. Its not really smart to expect more of the critter than it has within it.

Vierotchka, thank you for your post,

American military might is contaminating the earth faster than environmentalists can take efforts to cleanup and save it. People need to stop being zombies and demand that America cease its endless campaign of wars.

Vierotchka this was a wealth of info that was useful and eye opening.

"One Abrams tank gets 0.2 miles to the gallon. One aircraft carrier consumes 100,000 gallons a day when stationed on a coast. Half of that fuel goes to the aircraft on the ship."

I found this paragraph pretty funny. Would love to know what this magical carrier the US now has that consumes 50,000 gallons of JP-5 a day in operation...

Also. while 0.2 MPG sounds bad (also...that is not the correct MPG but who really cares), if you factor in the weight of an M1 Abrams, its MPG is actually better than some cars. Also interestingly, as it is a gas turbine, it consumes basically the same amount of fuel idling as going at full speed.

The article fails to mention some of the positives of war in terms of the environment. The largest continuous animal preserve in Southeast Asia is the DMZ between North and South Korea. Similar also to the preserved natural beauty of Gitmo compared to the rest of the coast line of Cuba. I could start listing off locations around the world where the presences of a military base prevents civilian development and preserves natural environments.

Mr. Sander's notion of "Banning War" is...cute. We in America have a very sanitized view of war. Our soldiers, at least officially, do not target just civilians. The killing is relatively clean...easy to protest against as its not in our backyards.

War, for most of the planet, is more akin to what is happening in Mexico between the government and the Narcos and in Africa between the ethnic and religious tribes than anything in Iraq and Afghanistan. Its brutal and horrific, with more people getting hacked to death with machetes and than the bullet. Some white dude in the middle of the US is not going to stop Burma and Thailand from killing each others' civilians over a boundary no one can find or even recognize in some jungle.

Oh...and last thing...the US military has been pushing for environmental studies and specifically green tech since the late 80's as the Persian Gulf has been seen as a security liability for decades. Its the civilian leadership that doesn't want to annoy voters that has pretty much prevented any change in US energy policy.

http://www.mlive.com/opinion/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2011/04/viewpoint_how_war_and_m...

Viewpoint: How war and militarism affect our environment
Published: Tuesday, April 19, 2011, 9:35 AM

By the Kalamazoo Nonviolent Opponents of War

We celebrate Earth Day on April 22. As we celebrate, we are grateful for all that our earth and its natural environment give us, and we commit ourselves to striving in as many ways as we can to preserve the planet on which we and our descendants must live. We can best do this by honestly recognizing the ways in which war and the preparation for war damage the earth.

Most obvious are the ways in which the violence of war destroys the lands where war is fought. Thousands of tons of explosives crater landscapes and pollute the air and water. Incendiary weapons damage soil and water and entire ecosystems. (And, though controversial, there is evidence that the depleted uranium we use in weapons enters the air and increases rates of cancer and birth defects.) Forests and oil fields burn. Jungles are sprayed with defoliants that are toxic to human and animal life. (The use of Agent Orange in Vietnam is a tragic example.) Farmland is left unusable by land mines, which also threaten wildlife.

In these and many other ways, the destructive forces of our weapons are destroying people, animals and plant life long after the conflicts in which the weapons were used are over.

Less obvious, but equally tragic is the economic cost of war and of preparation for war. Billions of dollars are spent for weaponry, leaving us less able to afford the cost of dealing with climate change and other environmental crises (as well as, of course, leaving us less able to pay for education, health care and other social needs). Think of the economic costs of the development, production, testing, storage, transport and disposal of weapons.

Moreover, military bases, training exercises and the production of weapons consume valuable resources and pollute our land, air and water. For instance, two-thirds of the EPA polluted Superfund sites are abandoned military facilities or production sites. And, according to the Environmental Health Policy Institute of the Physicians for Social Responsibility, the U.S. military generates more toxic waste material annually than the five largest U.S. chemical companies combined. In addition, nuclear and biological weapons have been developed whose deliberate or accidental use is possibly the greatest threat to humans and to the earth.

For more data on the environmental consequences of our military system, see "The Green Zone" by Barry Sanders. He concludes that, by giving little attention to pollution and resource consumption and destruction by the military, environmentalists are ignoring the single greatest threat to the environment, ignoring an institutionalized system that negates all our individual attempts to conserve and protect our planet.

The United States is currently fighting two wars (three if we count Libya) and maintaining military bases in more than 100 countries. In the last 20 years, we have intervened with our army, navy, and/or air force in at least 15 different foreign conflicts. The United States, even in its current economic crisis, spends close to $900 billion a year on war, preparation for war and the lingering costs of previous wars, more than 10 times as much as any other nation in the world, in fact as much as the next 15 nations in the world put together. We think of this as "defense," though often our military approach to problems make us less rather than more secure, producing more enemies than friends.

We need, as a nation, to demonstrate that we can lead the world in finding non-violent, non-destructive solutions to the conflicts among the peoples who must share this planet. We must recognize the environmental costs of our present emphasis on "defense" policies and we must change our ways. If we really want to defend our earth and the web of life of which we are a part, if we really want to defend our children and grandchildren, we need to work harder to find alternatives to war and militarism.

We are grateful for another Earth Day, which reminds us of our responsibilities as stewards of the earth and as the human members of the interdependent family of life.

http://www.peacecouncil.net/pnl/02/714/714Bounce.htm

"Violence Bounces":

48 Reasons to Oppose the US Invasion of Iraq

Ed Kinane

e.e. cummings' maxim, "violence bounces," may be the pithiest critique of war we have. But the reasons to oppose war are legion (count the victims). Reasons to oppose this particular war are legion and then some.

In late September, SPC sponsored an organizing meeting at the Westcott Community Center. To start our session, about 70 of us brainstormed why we oppose the US invasion of Iraq.

Most of the following reasons were voiced at that meeting.

Why We Oppose War Generally

1. killing is immoral

2. killing civilians is cowardly

3. aerial warfare is cowardly

4. war machines squander the earth's scarce resources

5. war pollutes and otherwise damages the environment

6. war corrupts; wars of aggression corrupt absolutely

7. violence breeds violence: war is contagious

8. war is destabilizing and tends to escalate beyond control

9. war cheapens and brutalizes a people and their culture: domestic abuse increases as soldiers return home

10. using violence to "solve" international problems sets an example for our children; the violence trickles down to our own streets

International law violated

11. wars of aggression make a shambles of national sovereignty and violate international law and the UN charter

12. violations of international law _ especially those by the only superpower _ undermine the foundations of global security

13. the first casualty of war is truth: war leads to censorship and managed news; it leads to the stifling of dissent and the erosion of civil liberties

14. financing war is used as a pretext to scale back social programs essential to the quality of our lives and of our communities

15. US citizens and taxpayers finance war while the weapons manufacturers and other corporations cash in

16. Benito Mussolini told us: fascism is the merger of the corporations with the government; war cloaks and consolidates fascism

Why We Oppose this War

17. Iraq provides no credible threat to US security

18. diplomatic options have yet to be explored adequately

19. despite the hype, this is a war of naked aggression _ not of self defense

20. this war is really about greed _ oil and world domination

21. it's also about power _ bending other nations to the US imperial will

22. Bush and most of his hyper hawks have no direct experience of war; during the Viet Nam War they managed to avoid any personal risk

23. "pre-emptive war" sets a deadly precedent … and certainly one which may one day be used against the US

24. thousands, possibly millions, of Iraqis will die

25. infrastructure essential to civilian life will be targeted and destroyed

26. as in this past century's other wars, innocent civilians will surely be the majority of victims

27. thousands of US soldiers could die … or be maimed … or contract dread disease

28. a US invasion co-opts the choices of the Iraqi people

29. war "for" the Iraqi people is racist and paternalistic; they didn't invite us to "liberate" them

(continued below)

http://www.envirosagainstwar.org/know/read.php?itemid=596

Why Environmentalists Oppose War and Militarism

1. War Kills People
2. War Destroys Nature
3. War Devastates Society
4. War Consumes Resources
5. War Pollutes
6. War Is Costly
7. Militarism Undermines Peace
8. Militarism Weakens Democracy
9. Militarism Distorts Science
10. Militarism Promotes Racism
11. Militarism Threatens Human Survival

Why Environmentalists Oppose War and Militarism

1. War Kills People
War is humankind’s deadliest activity. From 500 BC to AD 2000 there have been 1,022 major documented wars. Between AD 1100 and 1925, around 35.5 million died in European wars alone. In the 20th Century, an estimated 165 wars were responsible for the deaths of 165 million to 258 million. Military conflicts caused the deaths of as many as 6.25 percent of all the people born during the 20th century. Approximately 8.4 million soldiers and 5 million civilians died in WW I. WW II claimed the lives of 17 million soldiers and 34 million civilians. Seventy-five percent of those killed in modern war are civilians. War disproportionately kills and injures women, children, the elderly, minorities and the poor.

2. War Destroys Nature
War destroys wildlife, disrupts native habitats and contaminates the land, air and water. The damage can last for generations. The US dropped 25 million bombs and 19 million gallons of Agent Orange herbicide and other chemical weapons on the forests, fields and farms of Vietnam. Millions of acres from Russia’s Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean have been contaminated by military chemicals and radioactive wastes. In Cambodia, 1,300 square miles are salted with several million mines that continue to kill wildlife and humans. Angola’s environment is burdened with more than 10 million landmines. Cluster bombs, thermobaric explosions, chemical and biological weapons and projectiles made with radioactive depleted uranium are indiscriminate weapons of mass destruction.

3. War Devastates Society
War destroys villages, farmland, and urban infrastructure. Wars destroy irreplaceable cultural artifacts, ancient landmarks and archeological sites. The US dropped 88,000 tons of bombs on Iraq in 1991, destroying 9,000 homes, water systems, power plants, critical bridges and four major dams. The resulting health emergency contributed to the deaths of 500,000 Iraqi children. In 2002, the US dropped a quarter-million cluster bomblets on Afghanistan. In 2003, the US dropped 28,000 rockets, bombs and missiles on Iraq. In the past 25 years, war has devastated cities and villages around the world leaving lasting damage in such diverse countries as Sudan, El Salvador, Mozambique, Angola, Lebanon, Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Afghanistan, Liberia, Uganda, Colombia, Somalia, Congo, Iraq, Burundi, Iran and Ethiopia.

4. War Consumes Resources
A vast global military empire must be maintained to feed the world’s oil-based economies. Waging war requires burning vast stores of oil and generates significant spikes of greenhouse gasses. WW II consumed from 6-9 billion barrels of oil. Desert Storm: 45 million barrels. The Pentagon consumed 134 million barrels in 2001. The world’s armies consume nearly 2 billion barrels of oil annually. The Pentagon is the largest consumer of oil, chemicals, precious metals, paper and wood.

5. War Pollutes
Bombs, missiles, shells, bullets, and military fuels poison our land, air and water with lead, nitrates, nitrites, hydrocarbons, phosphorous, radioactive debris, corrosive and toxic heavy metals. Unexploded ordnance lies scattered over more than 15 million US acres. The world’s armies are responsible for as much as 10 percent of global air pollution. The 1991 Gulf War generated 80,000 tons of global-warming gases. On any given day, more than 60,000 US troops are engaged in operations or military exercises in about 100 foreign countries. The Pentagon is the world’s largest polluter, generating 750,000 tons of hazardous wastes each year. US military bases have polluted communities in Canada, Germany, Great Britain, Greenland, Iceland, Italy, Panama, the Philippines, South Korea, Spain and Turkey. There are more than 14,000 contaminated military sites in US, many located near low-income neighborhoods and communities of color.

(continued below)

From 2003:

http://www.envirosagainstwar.org/know/read.php?itemid=745

War Pollutes: It’s Time for a "Green Geneva Convention"

November 5, 2003
Gar Smith

War is humanity's deadliest -- and most polluting -- pastime. That's why the Nations Resolution has designated November 6 the International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict..

The daily barrage of bloody headlines from Iraq reminds us that war is humankind’s deadliest activity. From 500 BC to AD 2003 more than 1,000 major wars have burned their way into the pages of recorded history.

As many as 258 million people died in the 165 wars that ravaged the Twentieth Century. But for each of the 17 million soldiers who fell in WWII, two innocent civilians also died. Today, the major victims of modern warfare (75 percent) are civilians.

But there is another overlooked casualty of war -- the environment. In 2002, United Nations Resolution 564 created the International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict. The first anniversary of the UN's "Green Day Against War" falls on November 6, 2003.

UN Environment Program Executive Director Klaus Toefer explains the need for this special day of reflection: "The environment and its natural resources are all too often forgotten as the long-term casualty of war…. Environmental security… must no longer be viewed as a luxury but needs to be seen as a fundamental part of a long-lasting peace policy."

Blackened Skies and Oil-soaked Seas
The world still recoils at the images of the 1991 Gulf War, when lakes of oil poisoned land and sea and the soot from 700 flaming wells darkened the skies. Thousands of seabirds, sea mammals and fish died in the aftermath.

War exterminates wildlife, disrupts habitats, contaminates the land, air and water, destroys villages, farmland, and urban infrastructure. In Vietnam, the US dropped 25 million bombs and 19 million gallons of chemical weapons on forests and fields. In 1991, the US dropped 5,000 tons of bombs on Iraq, destroying 9,000 homes. In 2003, the US hit Iraq with 28,000 rockets, bombs and missiles, many containing potentially toxic depleted uranium.

War Pollutes
To put it simply: war pollutes. Bombs, missiles, shells and bullets flood the environment with lead, nitrates, nitrites, hydrocarbons, phosphorous, radioactive debris, corrosive and toxic heavy metals. Military exercises and military bases also damage and despoil the environment. With 247,000 soldiers stationed at 752 bases in 130 countries, the Pentagon is the world's biggest military polluter.

Toepfer notes that "tens of millions of explosives remain scattered around the world in former conflict areas like Afghanistan, Cambodia, Bosnia and on the African Continent." Unexploded landmines and clusterbombs prevent farmers from returning to their land, frequently forcing them to clear-cut forests to plant new crops.

The world’s armies burn nearly 2 billion barrels of oil annually and generate as much as 10 percent of global air pollution. The 1991 Gulf War produced an estimated 80,000 tons of climate-warming gases.

While international clashes are devastating, even internal conflicts can wreak environmental calamity. Civil war has eliminated 90 percent of the wildlife in Angola's national parks and reserves and has triggered the felling of an estimated five million trees in Sri Lanka.

Pollution and Peril: At Home and Abroad
The environmental damage is not confined to foreign lands. Unexploded ordnance now lies scattered over more than 15 million acres in the US. The US is home to more than 14,000 contaminated military sites, many located near low-income neighborhoods and communities of color.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell has wisely remarked: "Poverty, environmental degradation and despair are destroyers of people, of societies, of nations. This unholy trinity can destabilize countries, even entire regions".

Global spending on the military now stands at around $16.2 billion a week. The cost of one $1.5 billion Trident submarine could immunize the world’s children against six deadly diseases and prevent 1 million deaths a year.

It's Time for a 'Green Geneva Convention'
As Klaus Toepfer notes: "a polluted environment, contaminated water supplies and sullied land and air, are not a long term recipe for stability." With this in mind, Toepfer has issued a call for the creation of a "Green Geneva Convention."

"We have the Geneva Conventions, aimed at safeguarding the rights of prisoners and civilians," Toepfer argues, "We need similar safeguards for the environment."

Gar Smith is Editor Emeritus of Earth Island Journal and co-founder of Environmentalists Against War (www.envirosagainstwar.org).

This article was syndicated by AlterNet www.alternet.org

http://rainbowwarrior2005.wordpress.com/2008/10/09/war-pollution-equals-millions...

Gives a list of wars and the manner in which they pollute.