Geog 121: Lecture 8

• - There is no winning
• - Any armed conflict that goes on for any period of time & the impact that has on the environment
• - It is important because
• 1) war is bad/no winning because when we talk about war & consequences, we talk about the human toll (very important); There is rarely any discussion about what happens after war and can be equally devastating as during the war
• - impact of resources to the people in the area; resources don't come back. For decades people are impacted

• 1) Resources
• 2) Real Estate
• 3) Religion
• - You want people to think your way
• - The most important is the destruction of resources
• - Every war has resulted in deliberate destruction of resources & the resources has shifted sometimes 
• - In Medieval times, people would ride into town & burn the fields, then burn the town (known as scorched earth)
• - Scorched earth. Purpose: if you destroy resources available to the people, you bring people to their knees

• - Saddam Hussein wanted Kuwait for its oil fields
• - War in Kuwait was a great war, started in January 1991, ended in Feb. 1991
• - Saddam Hussein was well schooled in the theme of scorched earth: If I can't have it, you can't have it either

• - Summer of 1990
• - August 2nd, Kuwait was invaded by Hussein
• - Saddam detoned 700 Oil wells in retaliation
• - People scattered, ruins, emergencies, Kuwait was left in ruins
• - Nobody was prepared for this disaster
• - 5 million barrels burning  a day
• - 600 wells were set on fire, & it was thought it might take years to extinguish the fire
• - But it only took 8 months to put out
• - Kuwait, Iraq & neighboring countries had polluted air to breathe, respiratory problems for people
• - Tar creat covered 5% of the country of Kuwait
• - At the peak of fires, 80% of the sun's rays were absorbed- Oil continues to sink into the sand & how it will affect Kuwait's groundwater
• - Prior to this, Kuwait was a thriving environment, green wildlife
• - There will always be residual effects after war, but people don't see this
• - This wasn't just an isolated even; it affected the whole world! One single act can affect the world.

• - One of the easiest things you can do
• - Draining of marshes in Iraq; Hussein had a good idea of destroying the environmet
• - A water shortage would have an effect on growing crops & less water for people. productivity decreases
• - The more you destroy the food for the people, they will have to go to the environment and do whatever it takes ot survive
• - Not only is water tainted for humans, but for plants and animals too- whatever is done to the soil, the soil retains some pollutants
• - Talking about war & conflict

• - Planted by millions in war countries around the world- MiddleEast, India & Africa
• - An excess of landmines buried, they're very easy to set
• - nobody keeps track where they are, meaning that cleaning them up is very hard. You remove them, now what do you do
• - In Laos, Cambodia, & Vietnam, many mines are planted
• - The problem with land mines is that you can't find them- Animals , especially rats are great at discovering mines
• - It is an overwhelming task to get rid of them, & what do you do with them?

• - Between 1964-1973, US flew over 1000 bombing missions
• - They tried to block the flow of North Vietnamese arms
• - At least 80 million that are sitting in the country side that have failed to explode
• - less than 1% have been cleaned up until now
• - Most are found in rural areas

- The contaminants that come out stay around for a long time seeping in the soil afer it is detoned

• - Lots of testing of stuff that's in the air
• - Also done underground

• - After you've done all the testing, what do you do with the residual stuff?
• - Off limits site due to large amount of pollution & nuclear mateial went

• - In 2003 an iraqi facility was looted
• - Part of the 2nd iraq war was that iraq was  mostly a developed country
• - To brin Hussein down, the environment was harmed to bring people to their knees
• - The reason why it was looted was to get the barrels
• - The radioactive material had a tremendous impact on the environment
• - Water & food supply was tainted & many people died

• - Trenches: how people fought
• - In 1918 & everything was over, the environment was one of the most damaging, changing the landscape all through Europe
• - Now you have all of this erosion as a result of trenches
• - Landscape will never recover
• - Another big impact that occurred from WWI is the use of poison gases
• - To get rid of people in the trenches, they would throw poison in the trenches

• - Hiroshima & Nagasaki
• - Environmental effects were obvious
• - Radioactive sand, drinking water, contaminated surface water
• - Millions of dollars were spent cleaning it up.

• - Prior to Somalian War, the governement was planning to replant plants
• - But with war, they stopped doing that

• - Alot of the productive land in southern sudan was abandoned during the war
• - There was also the concept of scorched earth, causing a problem with refugees
• - They would pour around neighboring countries

• - Animals are killed off to eat it or just because
• - Lots of National parks had endangered species

• - Amazing civil war, one tribe against another
• - largest genocide, many people lost their homes, like in sudan
• - To escape from civil war, people went into the forest & had to eat, so they took down the forest & wildlife & had ahuge impact on the resources

• -1994 
• - Radioactive waste, oil leaks
• - Polluted soil, surface water
• - Conflict is still going on in one way or another
• - The more resources are taken away, the more it is difficult for people to survive

• - U.S. chemical weapon used on plants (herbicide)
• - Vietnam was covered in rainforest & had a hard time seeing the enemy
• - Mass herbicidal to take down the forest
• - destroyed 14% of food
• - peasants were deprived of their resources

• - Vietnam is still recovering from agent orange
• - trees cannot easily take root
• - high levels of dioxin were left in Vietnam
• - Green fence to surround hotspot, but it is difficult because the soil is very acid
• - Green fence will not solve the issue of Dioxin
• - Newer generations are unaware of contamination because information is lost, but pollution does not go away
• - Many children have born with defects

about people working together & nations produce food, not fighting over resources, access to clean water and maintain water supply, insuring that everyone has access to food, water, functioning infrastructure, and this is critical for a country to develop

because their life is not good, they are struggling & they are being told if you overthrow the government, then your life will be better & you will be able to develop, which starts a conflict & ironically puts them in a deeper hole

• -stable government 
• - Food, water, functioning infrastructure, education, healthcare