ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS OF WARFARE Consumption of resources Toxic

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

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

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.

CONSUMPTION OF 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

Military spending

Our global priorities

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Draining of southern Iraq marshes, 1992 Area was haven for Marsh Arabs, Shi’a rebels

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

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

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

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

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.

MUNITIONS Land mines Gulf War Syndrome Cluster bombs Bombing ranges Depleted Uranium Flight ranges

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

De-Mining Operations 1998 ban on plastic land mines Schoolyard in Laos

Cluster bombs

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

NUCLEAR WEAPONS Production, Use, Testing, Waste

Uranium mining Began during Manhattan Project 1940 s Deaths of Navajo, Dene uranium miners

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

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

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

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

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

Weapons-grade uranium stockpiles

Atomic Veterans and “Downwinders” 17, 000 cancer cases in the U. S. alone

Nuclear fallout from Nevada Test Site Reassuring government leaflet Atmospheric nuclear tests halted in 1963; continued underground

Strontium-90 in milk

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

Evacuation of Islanders

Soviet tests in Kazakhstan Genetic defects near Semey (Semipalatinsk) Kazakhs protest

British nuclear tests in Australia Effects on Aborigines

French tests in Polynesia Also in Algeria in 1950 s French bombing of Greenpeace ship in New Zealand, 1985

Chinese nuclear tests in Xinjiang In Muslim Uigur minority region after 1964 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban signed; but some small tests continue

India and Pakistan nuclear tests Indian leader in front of H-Bomb mural Pakistani crowds celebrate first test, 1998

Military nuclear accidents • “Broken arrow” • Lost nuclear weapons: 43+ Soviet, 7 U. S. – Plane crashes, sub sinkings, silo explosions – Some scattered radiation • Lost submarine reactors: 6 Soviet, 2 U. S.

Nuclear plants as targets of war Israel bombs Iraq’s Osirak reactor construction, 1981. Iraq launches missile at Israel’s Dimona nuclear laboratory, 1991. U. S. bombs Iraqi operating reactors, 1991 Reactors as possible terrorist targets?

Kyshtym waste disaster, 1957 Orphans – Explosion at Soviet weapons factory forces evacuation of over 10, 000 people in Ural Mts. – Area size of Rhode Island still uninhabited; thousands of cancers reported

Websites Military Toxics Project www. miltoxproj. org Center for Defense Information www. cdi. org Council for a Livable World www. clw. org U. S. military environmental agencies http: //aec. army. mil http: //enviro. navy. mil http: //www. af. mil/environment Gulf War Veterans Resource Links http: //www. spidersmill. com/gwvrl Chemical Weapons Working Group www. cwwg. org