OMNI FORUM ON GAR SMITH'S THE WAR AND ENVIRONMENT READER

DICK’S REV. FOR OMNI’S CLIMATE BOOK FORUM, APRIL 8, 2018.

 I: Preparing to read, editor’s guiding apparatus, the structure

II: Part II “Terracide: the War on Nature”

Part I of SMITH, GAR, ED.  The War and Environment Reader.  2017.   Rev. Dick Bennett.  Part I was distributed in advance to the Book Forum committee.

Preparing to Read the Book

     This collection of 55 essays is an encyclopedia on war and warming, not to be read at a sitting or two, but to have nearby for gradual reading and reflection.  Recognizing the potential challenge confronting readers, Smith has provided many reader-assistance features or guide-posts to his meaning. 

       Readers first encounter the name of the publisher, Just World Books, and his Dedication “To our despoiled and damaged world,/ to the innocent victims of war….”  And then a photo of a combat tank in the foreground with burning oil fields in background, and the caption: “Oilfields burning in Kuwait, 1991.”

      With this preparation, Smith provides a helpful Table of Contents of the essays divided into three Parts:

I.  Permawar—Human Nature and War

II. Terracide—The War on Nature

III.  Ecolibrium—Pathways to a Planet at Peace

     Smith has performed major work for us by discovering 55 essays and then distinguishing among them three topics.

     Immediately following the Table of Contents is a second photo from the Gulf War of two persons dressed in fire-protection clothing in foreground and again black smoke covering the background, and caption: “EarthTrust volunteers face the fiery aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War.”   The Table of Contents is firmly placed between two bookends denoting the anthropogenic destruction of nature by war, with emphasis on war over oil.

     The next page contains a potent poem of ancient lineage, one of the world’s oldest surviving antiwar poems, “Enheduanna’s Lament to the Spirit of War” (ca. 2300 BC): “You hack everything down in battle…./God of War, with your fierce wings/you slice away the land….”

   A third photo now appears, of “A B-52 Stratofortress [as it] refuels before dropping bombs on Syria during Operation Inherent Resolve, 2017.”  On the next page begins the “Introduction: Beyond Permawar and Terracide,” Smith’s effort to epitomize his three groups of essays and to appraise President Trump’s role.  I’ll come back to the Introduction shortly.

     Preceding his texts, Smith chose seven signs to guide our travel through the first two Parts.  Following his texts of Part III on Peace, he continues his assistance.

     First, “Strategies for a More Peaceful World” (285-298) offers 32 “global initiatives designed to lead the world toward the goal of ‘positive peace’” (defined p. 285).  For example: A Green Geneva Convention, National Green Constitutions, Environmental Armies, The Nonviolent Peaceforce: 32 ways to think and act globally for peace; 32 ways to imagine peace in action.  

     Second, “International Peace and Environmental Organizations,” 3 pages from the Albert Einstein Institution to the World Peace Council, each accompanied by its web site.  Together, the “Strategies” and the “Organizations” anchor hope in reality.

    Finally, “About the Contributors.”  These bios of the authors extend the contents and authenticity of the book significantly.   We are reminded of the relevance to the subject of notable people like Medea Benjamin, Pierce Brosnan, David Brower, Major-General Smedley Butler, Dr. Helen Caldicott.   We learn about less well-known contributors whose scholarship forms the foundation of the book; such as Prof. Lisa Brady, Boise State U, author of War Upon the Land, and Prof. Hugh Gusterson, author of People of the Bomb.  The diversity of the authors becomes immediately obvious, for example: William Astore was director of International History at the U.S. Air Force Academy, and James Corbett, based in Japan, hosts The  Corbett Report and produces newsletters and videos.

      Looking broadly at these bookends of Smith’s library of writings on the causes, consequences, and remedies of war against climate and the environment, he has given us useful guides to understanding at the beginning and end.   Books like these are not written or read for surprise or sensation, but for knowledge, discernment, and judgment, leading to action.  So we can thank him for taking the time to give us so many directions and guidelines regarding his intentions.  Of course, the entire book is intentional, it has a thesis—to oppose war and to defend the planet.  Those who promote war and decimate the planet control our government and corporate media.  Smith offers a valiant resistance.

     There are three big absences in scholarly apparatus--the lack of an Index, of books cited, and of references for each article.   Regarding an Index, particularly in an encyclopedic anthology like this one, a reader’s ability to efficiently relate and connect the essays is seriously impeded by the publisher not paying the money to hire an indexer, or the editor running out of time—or because of cost both had to choose between the Index and some other part of the book.  The missing bibliography and references/notes are probably explained by Smith’s desire to include as many essays as he could, and to make the texts more “readable.”  Their loss damages credibility.  He might have told us where to find them, but I could not find it. 

Closer to the Essays

Back to the Introduction by Gar Smith.  (Smith has also written brief introductions to all three Parts and two of the texts of the anthology: “Stones to Drones: A History of War on Earth” and “El Salvador: Scorched Earth in Central America.”)

    Print a copy of the epigraph paragraph by Ban Ki-moon and carry it around in your pocket; here’s one sentence: “The environment has long been a silent casualty of war and armed conflict.”  On second thought, make several copies.  Or if you like Smith’s first paragraph better copy it!   “Even before war breaks out, the Earth suffers.”  Choosing among the countless striking passages one might quote is a common dilemma in this excellent book.

     I was wondering how Smith might introduce 55 essays even though all of the authors were confronting militarism and destruction of the environment, and he knew their contents thoroughly.  But 55!  Here is his method.  He discusses his three main Parts but very selectively.

      Instead of trying to discuss the seven essays of Part I, “Permawar” (divided into two Parts, “The Roots of War” and “The Business of War”) he writes a new little essay on the US War Culture; i.e. the Pentagon, the military-industrial complex, the dominant profit motive, war profiteers, the “defense” deceit, the Pentagon’s unaccountable budget. 

     Instead of discussing the essays of Part II, “Terracide” (divided into 5 sections), he writes (a paragraph for each) about US military bases around the world and their 11,000 military dumps, Pentagon pollution, and the Pentagon’s (corporate)  goal of “fighting for oil.” 

     And most of his “introduction” of Part III is about David Brower, whose essay “Ecology and War” is included in the section, then back to the Pentagon’s pollution defending the fossil fuels companies, and the 400,000 lives lost to climate change in a single year many more than to terrorism. 

      A reader might joke that Smith became overwhelmed by the size of his creation, but had he tried to discuss the contents of 55 essays, space would not have remained for the essays!   So he kept his eyes on his prize in his Intro. 

      Plus a section “Our Troubled Path” on bully Trump’s anti-social, anti-planet acts, and a final section “Unity Over Division” stressing the rapidly changing, violent planet and urging cooperation and compassion, “a peaceful, just, and sustainable future.”

     Smith divided the 55 essays into three Parts, for each of which he wrote a succinct introduction:

Part I: Permawar--Human Nature and Warfare [or War]

This section of 15 essays is divided into two groups: “The Roots of War” and “The Business of War.” 

Part II: Terracide—The War on Nature

This section of 34 essays is divided into 5 groups:  “Nature in the Crosshairs,” “Collateral Damage,” “A Field Guide to Militarism,” “The Machinery of Mayhem,” “The Aftermath”

Part III: Ecolibrium—Pathways to a Planet at Peace

This section of 5 essays forms one group:  “Toward Ecolibrium”

    Smith’s introduction (pp. 11-14) to Part I opens with a photo of a child of about 3 peering through the scope of a rifle supported by an adult.  The child is wearing a baseball(?) jacket and cap.  The photo is followed by a bullseye epigraph:  “I knew Man was doomed when I realized that his strongest inclination was toward ever-increasing homogeneity—which goes completely against Nature.”   Humans are not predisposed “to choose killing over cooperation,” but learn war from their culture, and some nations suffer from illnesses—the US, as epitomized by President Trump, from Narcissistic Personality Disorder.   This disorder is everywhere demonstrated by the extreme militarization of the country, which he summarizes in two paragraphs; e.g., the huge Pentagon budget and “wars are no longer avoided [by the US], but are provoked” (12).  In a second section of this intro. Smith writes about “Mapping the Terrain,” where he lists ten “foundational forces” of the “militaristic mindset” of the US:  patriarchy leads the list, followed by machismo, misogyny, linear thinkhing, combative sports, Hollywood promotion of violence, violent video games, acquisition of natural resources, war economy, war profiteering, national debt of $14 trillion “as economic  stimulus program.”   Under the heading of “The Aftermath of War,” Smith summarizes the long-lasting harm to earth, air, sky and all creatures by war.  But “nature is resilient,” as the Demilitarized Zone between the two Koreas illustrates.

     The epigraph to his Introduction (91-94) to Part II is from Chief Seattle: The White Man’s “hunger will eat the Earth bare and leave only a desert.”

     The Military-Corporate-Congressional-Exec WH-Corp. Media National Security State directs two wars: one overtly military in successive wars to control the planet and protect the other covert war to exploit and extract the planet’s resources.  The consequence of these dual, non-stop wars is climate change, refugees, heat (2016 the hottest year on record following the two other hottest years on record), crop failures, water scarcity, devastating storms.  And these steamrolling wars are ruled over by an ignorant President Trump who denies CC and would continue oil and coal.  In “Mapping the Terrain,” Smith discusses the first four groups of essays: Nature in the Crosshairs”: a survey of “scorched earth” warfare; “Collateral Damage”: war’s impacts on cities; “A Field Guide to Militarism”: war metastasized throughout the world even into outer space; “The Machinery of Mayhem”: the environmental impacts of global warfare.

     And the epigraph to his Introduction (260-65) to Part III quotes Ludwig von Mises (“the failure…to impose peace by war”) and Dwight Eisenhower (governments get out of the way of the people’s wish for peace).

     Smith traces the failures of religions, just cause principles, and international treaties to ensure peace.  Many excellent Geneva Conventions condemn aspects of war, including the killing of civilians and the destruction of the natural environment.    He quotes from Prof. Steven Freeland’s book, Addressing the Intentional Destruction of the Environment during Warfare: Just as rape during armed conflict was declared a war crime, so too should be the destruction of the environment.  But all treaties so far contain the “escape clause” of permissibility for “military necessity.”

      In “Mapping the Terrain,” Smith discusses the five essays he chose for their special contribution to putting the Earth back in balance—“Ecolibrium”--by Major-General Smedley Butler, “Take the Profit Out of War”; David Brower, “Ecology and War”; the organization Environmentalists Against War (founded by Smith), “Why We Oppose War and Militarism”; Klaus Toepfer, “In Defense of the Environment”; UN Environment Programme, “Protecting Nature from War.”

THE ESSAYS

I hope prior to the Forum to present some analysis of individual essays.   Please try to acquire the book or parts of it before the Forum, and come to tell us about what you have read.  Consider writing a Follow-up during the following the Forum.  Especially someone write about a passage, an essay, a group of the essays can lead to action.   These essay were written by the heavy hitters of the peace, justice, and ecology movement.  Let’s move them into the minds of NWA.     Thanks, Dick

Tell your senators to oppose Trump's war cabinet Rick Wayman, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation   3-39-18  via mail.salsalabs.net  1:39 PM (49 minutes ago) to me Tell Your Senators to Oppose Trump's War Cabinet    Two dangerous new appointments by President Trump have added even more urgency to the effort to take away the president’s ability to use nuclear weapons first. John Bolton is an extreme hawk, and is set to become National Security Advisor on April 9. He has advocated military action against North Korea and Iran. Bolton was a top advocate of the regime change war in Iraq in 2003, which has had catastrophic consequences for Iraq and the wider Middle East, as well as for the U.S. His unbridled enthusiasm to repeat the debacle of preventive military action and regime change in both North Korea and Iran is a huge concern. Bolton’s new position unfortunately does not require Senate confirmation. Trump also nominated Mike Pompeo to become the new U.S. Secretary of State. Pompeo is a staunch opponent of the nuclear deal that was negotiated among the U.S., Iran, Russia, UK, France, China, and Germany. In July 2017, Pompeo spoke in favor of regime change in North Korea. He said, “I am hopeful we will find a way to separate the [North Korean] regime from this [nuclear weapons] system… The North Korean people, I’m sure, are lovely people and would love to see him go.” A regime change war in North Korea would put the lives of millions of people across Northeast Asia, including U.S. soldiers and civilians, at risk. While our members of Congress cannot do anything to block Bolton’s appointment, the Senate does have to confirm Mike Pompeo as Secretary of State. Having Pompeo as our nation’s top diplomat would be disastrous. The Iran deal showed the power of diplomacy and true negotiations. Scrapping it would harm U.S. relations with the rest of the world, especially in the current opportunity for making progress with North Korea. U.S. withdrawal from the Iran deal would cast doubt on all international agreements we have made in the past and will try to make in the future. Please take a moment to contact your senators and urge them to vote “no” to Mike Pompeo as U.S. Secretary of State, and let them know that you support Sen. Ed Markey’s bill to restrict the president’s first use of nuclear weapons.

          

   SECOND HALF OF DICK’S REV. FOR OMNI’S CLIMATE BOOK FORUM, APRIL 8, 2018l:  GAR SMITH’S THE WAR AND ENVIRONMENT READER.  Presented on April 8 at FPL.

    Let’s try this method.

Because the book is encyclopedic in scope with 55 essays, I discussed the book as a whole in an earlier email to the Forum committee, and will be glad to send it to anyone who wants it.    And I’ll not try to discuss all or even most of the essays individually, but will limit myself to Part II, the essays on “The War on Nature,” and only a few of those.  

    Related, I have presented a 5-minute talk on this book for KPSQ to try to convey why this book is a blowtorch for change.  I will forward it to anyone who writes me a note.

     Smith divided the 55 essays into three Parts:

Part I: Permawar--Human Nature and Warfare [or War]

This section of 15 essays is divided into two groups: “The Roots of War” and “The Business of War.” 

Part II: Terracide—The War on Nature

This section of 34 essays is divided into 5 groups:  “Nature in the Crosshairs,” “Collateral Damage,” “A Field Guide to Militarism,” “The Machinery of Mayhem,” and “The Aftermath”

Part III: Ecolibrium—Pathways to a Planet at Peace

This section of 5 essays forms one group:  “Toward Ecolibrium”

    

     Smith wrote an Introduction to each of his 3 Parts.  

The epigraph to his Introduction (91-94) to Part II is from Chief Seattle.  Here is one line: “The Earth is not [the White Man’s] Brother but his enemy.”  While Part I examines US wars to control the planet, Part II treats the US wars to exploit and extract the planet’s resources.  These inseparable wars together have produced catastrophic global warming and climate change expressed by weather extremes. Under President Trump they are sure to worsen.

      Smith epitomizes the first four groups of essays in Part II as follows: 1. “Nature in the Crosshairs”: a survey of “scorched earth” warfare; 2.  “Collateral Damage”: war’s impacts on cities; 3. “A Field Guide to Militarism”: war metastasized throughout the world even into outer space; “The Machinery of Mayhem”: the environmental impacts of global warfare.

        One structure for interpreting a text is to examine the text and what is absent (contexts).   The importance of this seemingly encyclopedic collection is clear from how much it omits.   Each of the 55 essays condense very large subjects.   Each essay is a potential introduction to the book or books we need to adequately cover the subject.  This is an urgently important subject grossly understudied.   For example, if the leaders and people of the US were familiar with the horrendous bombings of N. Korea during the Korean War, the people of the US just might feel some empathy for them and their leader.  Or take Okinawa, also not represented: most of the US bases in Japan are located on the island of Okinawa, whose population—and I refer to all species--is in frequent turmoil over the harms to their island caused by the many bases.

       Or take insects.   Aubrey Shepherd gave me Douglas Tallamy’s book Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants.  This entomologist marvelously explains how population growth and development (“and no national recognition of the limits of our land’s ability to support additional millions”) ensures extinction “for most of our species” (12).  And he doesn’t mention climate change, not there yet.

     So what’s really missing in Smith’s book?  Attention to insects.   Most forms of higher life depend upon insect protein for life, and insects eat native plants.    But the scholarship has been so long delayed, or rather so long left unpublicized, that the essays in Smith’s book report on bird decimation but not on their life-support.    War and warming are killing the insects, and nobody is reporting it, including Tallamy.

      Now to the essays.  I will discuss only Section 1 of Part II, “Terracide,” “Nature in the Crosshairs.”

      Consider the 8 essays in the first section on US scorched earth imperialism.   Smith discusses only one continent, Africa; 5 essays from the over 100 or more countries he might have chosen; while 3 essays discuss island parts of countries.  Continent: Africa; Countries: Afghanistan, El Salvador, Kuwait, Serbia, Vietnam; Island subdivisions: Guam, Sardinia. You see what I mean about what is left out? 

            But much is presented.  The decimation of one forest by Agent
Orange—5 percent of Viet Nam’s forests--is described frighteningly in two pages: “spraying of 72 million liters [19 million gallons] of herbicides and the displacement of billions of cubic yards of soil by 13 million tons of bombs. . . .”

     The horrifying ruin of Kuwait 1991-93 and flocks of birds dropping from the sky, endangered turtles dying by the hundreds, black rain, tar, dust resulting from the burning of 400 oil wells, and the Highway of Death.

          The essay on tiny colonial, thoroughly militarized Guam seems to be an exception to the drastic sampling typifying other essays, until you begin to think about the largest stationary aircraft in the history of the world and probably ever.  Yes the island is thought of as a weapon, the “tip of the US spear.”  Army bases, airfields, artillery testing ranges, aircraft carriers, troop barracks, weapons depots, combat training, ship repair, arms sales, toxic waste sites, and golf courses, McDonald’s, and brothels.  But much more could be said, for example, about the species made extinct or becoming extinct on a tiny island armed and supplied to the teeth.

I’ve gone past my time.

A final comment.  This book should have appeared 20 years ago, so much needed to be studied and written about war and warming.  But there have been important gains.   There is Barry Sanders’s excellent book: The Green Zone: The Environmental Costs of Militarism (2009), about the US military’s greenhouse gases putting all Earth inhabitants in immanent danger.   And Nick Turse’s Tomorrow’s Battlefield: US Proxy Wars and Secret Ops in Africa (2015), on the Pentagon’s already gigantic footprint in Africa just beginning. 

[I omitted this par., maybe use elsewhere: 

OMNI’s Book Forum might return to this book sometime during this year for reasons I will give.  We have repeated a book once before with Naomi Klein’s This Changes Everything.   If the committee chooses to do that, someone else might be moderator, as we try to expand participation.]

 

PART II: TERRACIDE—THE WAR ON NATURE

[See interesting bios of authors pages 302-311.]

NATURE IN THE CROSSHAIRS (8)

Frank, Afghanistan: Bombing the Land of the Snow Leopard” (2010).

Afghan War against earth and species, carpet bombing, DU, resources exploitation.

Goodall, Africa: Wars on Wildlife” (2003).

Killing Africa’s animals, esp. elephants, population growth, refugees.

Smith, El Salvador: Scorched Earth in Central America” (1988).

1980s dictatorship decimated peasant farming: antipersonnel bombs, napalm, white phosphorous, deforestation, killing cows, the birds—tanangers, warblers, kingbrds, vireos,

Lutz, “Guam: The Tip of America’s Global Spear” (2010).

Colonial Guam a gigantic stationary aircraft carrier preparing for war, like continental USA, and US power projected all over planet.   Colonial racism, inequality.

Thomas, “Kuwait: The War That Wounded the World” (1991).

The “world’s biggest oil spill,” “the world’s biggest environmental catastrophe in modern times,” rain of bombs, toxic clouds, black rain, tarcrete, Highway to Hell, radioactivity, farming/farmland decimated, “history’s most intensive suburban bombing campaign”; weather destabilized globally:   Eco war and cover-up.  Bush learned nothing.

Frazer, “Serbia: The Impact of NATO’s Bombs” (2000). 

Jet aircraft emissions, DU, vast clouds of toxic soot, war on farming.  Yuogo gov. accused NATO of violating “just about every existing environmental treaty.”

Jaccard, Sardinia: Bombs and Cancer in Paradise (2012)

One third of Italian and NATO military bases are in Sardinia (cp. Okinawa), NATO’s largest air base at Decimomannu,  large areas of dangerous wastes and battlegrounds, uninhabitable, high rates of cancer and birth deformities near them, etc.

Kemf, “Vietnam: Delivering Death to the A Luoi Valley” (1990).

US ecocide of one agri area bombed, shelled, sprayed, including 100,00 hectares of forest destroyed by Agent Orange, reminds him of Rachel Carson’s “silent spring.”  “This is a crime against nature and humanity….The rich fauna...the large number of species…are gone.”

COLLATERAL DAMAGE (6)

Fisk, The Independent, “Baghdad: A Civilization Torn to Pieces” (2003).

Shortly after the US invasion 2003, mob destruction of Iraq’s great art and literature, unprotected by US occupiers.

Weir, Toxic Remnants of War Project, “Ukraine: Civil War and Combat Pollution” (2016).

Long-term damage to the environment following the secessionist conflict in eastern Ukraine: flooded mines, polluted water supplies by bombed chemicals, damaged military equipment, notably the region’s numerous nature parks.  “…a new system of environmental protection and restoration” is needed.

Swijnenburg and Pas, Pax for Peace, “Syria: Cities Reduced to Toxic Rubble” (2015).

Climate conflict: prior to 2011 uprising “5 successive years of drought,” millions “forced to flee their homes.”  By 2013 some 1.2 million homes destroyed; Portland cement toxic, destruction of Aleppo, Homs, explosive remnants of battles.

Hastings, “Wars and Refugees” (2017).

Destruction of enviro by flood of fleeing refugees, 65 million in 2017, most from Syria, Afghanistan, and Somalia, 7.3 million I Yemen, 2.2 million children..  Also 22 million displaced 2008-2015 by consequences of cc—flood, fires, rising seas, with “scores of millions more” to lose homes, cities from climate chaos.  “When we solve the problem of war, all the rest  will be far less difficult” (155)

Benjamin, Codepink, “Civilian Victims of Killer Drones” (2013).

Medea tells horror story of Roya, Afghan child refugee in Pakistan, family victims of “collateral damage.”

Brosnan, NRDC, “The Navy’s Sonic War on Whales” (2014).

Detailed explanation of sonar and its terrible effects on whales.  Also history of whale strandings.

A FIELD GUIDE TO MILITARISM (7)

LaDuke, Honor the Earth, “The Militarization of Native Lands” (2013).

Pentagon taking Indian land for weapons testing, practice bombing, and field maneuvers, without cleaning up afterward (unexploded bombs, hazardous waste).  Most of the military’s 30 million acres were taken from Native peoples. Etc. essay covers a lot of subjects and still only barely begins the story.

Swanson, World Beyond War, “Wars Are No Longer Fought on Battlefields” (2010).

US wars abroad are not fought on “battlefields” as of yore, but in hometowns and neighborhoods.  From Vietnam, Bush, and Obama: “War…now officially everywhere and eternal,” and killed mostly civilians PLUS countless harms, and the aftermath (176)..

Lanier-Graham, “War on Land: Toxic Burdens and Military Exercises” (2017).

“One of the first effects of military buildup is a relaxation of environmental standards.” Essay a quick intro. to the toxic sites caused by military: Maryland’s Aberdeen Proving Ground (arsenic, cyanide, napalm, white phosphorus, etc.), Tinker AFB vs. OK’s only underground aquifer (trichloroethylene, hexavalent chromium, etc.), etc.  Military exercises, armored tanks….

Paik, International Forum on Globalization, “War on the Sea: Islands Under Siege (2017).

US controls 9 million square nautical miles of militarized Pacific Ocean much acquired by fraud “marine monuments”) vs. China.  Ecocidal war games killing hundreds of thousands marine animals.  Much more.

Delestrac, “Wars for Sand: The Mortar of Empires” (2016).

“…sand (after water the most consumed resource on Earth) is now on the front lie of a growing global war over access to raw materials.”

Letman, “War at a Distance: Long-Range Missiles” (2014).

Militarized Hawaii, e.g. the Pacific Missile Range Facility PMRF plus 2.1 million square miles of “extended range,” Hawaii a major player in a militarized Pacific Ocean.

Grossman, “War in Space: Astro-Imperialism” (2017)(195). 

US Space Command (USSC) preparations to fight in space, dominate, unilaterally control, and win. Deployment of weapons in space linked to nuc power.  All in violation of the Outer Space Treaty of 1967.   Trump for weaponizing space, $52 billion to the $1.15 trillion “America First” budget for “American superiority..on land, sea, air, and space.”

THE MACHINERY OF MAYHEM (7)

Sanders, “Fueling the Engines of Empire” (2009).

Wars by nations are wars v. the Earth.  Footprint stats:  war v. Earth in Iraq War: in 2015 30,000 vehicles; First Gulf War M-1 Abrams tanks in desert; 92 different kinds of aircraft; 2 million gallons of oil a day; a single aircraft carrier; pollution unreported; etc. 

Savage, War Resisters League, “Superpower, Superpolluter” (2000).

Pentagon enviro impact: toxic pollution, $1 million a minute, 55 times more $ than for EPA, money could be used in 1000s of ways for land and species, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Panama, etc. trashed and scorched; radioactive leftovers; depleted uranium, etc.

Loesch, “Jet Fright: The Impacts of Military Aircraft” (1989).

Kerosene rain, W. Germany ‘60s-‘80s 600,000 NATO flights yearly, hydrazine, noise, animal health effects, average annual military sorties 700,000, etc. 

Williams, International Campaign to Ban Landmines, “Land Mines: The Smallest WMDs” (1997).

Anti-personnel mines, massive use: 400 million since WWII; developing world hit hardest, Africa worst; Campaign to Ban LM 1999 Ottawa Treaty banned them: US, China, Russia, and many other nations didn’t sign.

Caldicott, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, “Explosive Arsenals: ‘Bomblets’ to ‘Near-Nukes’” (2017).

Depleted uranium-238 (DU, half-life of 4.5 billion years), cluster bombs, Bunker Busters, “Near-Nukes,” nuclear option, nuclear-armed ballistic missiles.

Shields, et al., USAF, “Weather as a Weapon: ‘Owning the Weather in 2025’” (1996).

Weather modification for military offence and defence, 1977 UN Gen Assembly Resolution prohibiting; climate change mitigation and adaptation; space war.

Ellsberg, “Nuclear Doomsday” (2009).

Strong case for banning nuc bombs.  His horrified analysis of billion deaths from nuclear blast, fallout, and firestorms,, and discovery of “nuclear winter.”  Calls for Congress to face facts of scientific findings “of this real potential for self-destructing of our species and of most others” (236).

THE AFTERMATH (6)

Lanier-Graham, “Graveyards, Waste, and War Junk” (2017).  Ecosystem devastation: unexploded munitions, radioactive residues, chemical weapons, deforestation, erosion, extinction of wildlife, etc., early US history, WWI, II, Vietnam, Persian Gulf War (6 mil. Plastic bags discarded each week). 

Drummond, “The Pentagon’s Toxic Burn Pits” (2013).  Afghan and Iraq wars open burn pits (505 bases in Iraq) fired by jet fuel and extremely damaging to lungs (but only one species is discussed).  Pentagon long aware (at least from 1978) = asbestos, tobacco companies, and see Carter and Woodworth on climate science deniers).  

Larager, “America’s ‘Downwinders” (2016)

I. Nuclear weapons testing.  II. Uranium Mining

100 atomic bombs tested aboveground, 800 underground.  Humans and animals sickened, government knew radiation consequences and covered up.

Keju-Johnson, “Atomic Islands and ‘Jellyfish Babies’” (1983)

Using deception, Marshallese of Bikini Atoll and Enewetak Atoll forced to move to Rongerik Island.  1^st hydrogen bomb dropped on Bikini 1954 100o times stronger then Hiroshima; Marshallese not warned.  Result: deformed babies, widespread cancer.

Willson, “Haunted by Memories of War” (2011)

Narrates visit to farm village just after US napalm bombing inhabitants.  Stats on murdering civilians during Vietnam War; he estimates some 6 million.  Intensely outraged at US immoral and illegal war.  Both legs severed protesting Trident munitions train.  

Brady, “The War Zone That Became a New Eden” (2013) (Korean DMZ)

The verdant Korean DMZ “home to thousands of species that are extinct or endangered elsewhere on the peninsula.  It is the last haven” of “Korea’s rich ecological heritage” (257).