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 Military toxic wastes Agent Orange Chemical weapons use Chemical weapons disposal

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

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

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) Vietnamese civilians and veterans U.S. veterans Limited compensation to veterans for cancers, diabetes, birth defects

Chemical releases in Gulf War? Bombing of Iraqi biochemical sites, 1991 Detections of chemicals in air 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 Yugoslavia, 1999

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

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, 1940s-70s. Groundwater poisoned with nitrates.

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

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

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

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

Cluster bombs

Nis, Yugoslavia market bombing, 1999 Bomblets in Laos

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

Depleted Uranium (DU) 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. Releases radioactivity when explodes or burns, leaves behind dust

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

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

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

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

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

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 1940s 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 1970s: Israel, India, Pakistan, possibly North Korea Disarmed in 1990s: 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 Atmospheric nuclear tests halted in 1963; continued underground Reassuring government leaflet

Strontium-90 in milk

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

Evacuation of Islanders

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

British nuclear tests in Australia Effects on Aborigines

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

Chinese nuclear tests in Xinjiang In Muslim Uigur minority region after 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, Iraq launches missile at Israel’s Dimona nuclear laboratory, U.S. bombs Iraqi operating reactors, 1991 Reactors as possible terrorist targets?

Kyshtym waste disaster, 1957 –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 Orphans

Websites Military Toxics Project Center for Defense Information Council for a Livable World U.S. military environmental agencies Gulf War Veterans Resource Links Chemical Weapons Working Group