-
War & Conflict
- - 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
-
- Every armed conflict in the history of the world has been about (3 R's)
- 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
-
Burnt Oil fields
- - 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
-
March 1991- The Fires of Kuwait(Clip)
- - 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.
-
Bombing dams
- - 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
-
Land mines
- - 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?
-
Unexploded Ordinance
- - 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
-
Nuclear weapons
- The contaminants that come out stay around for a long time seeping in the soil afer it is detoned
-
Nuclear testing
- - Lots of testing of stuff that's in the air
- - Also done underground
-
Abandoned submarine base
- - 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
-
Depleted Uranium Dumping
- - 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
-
WWI----90+ years later
- - 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
-
WWII
- - Hiroshima & Nagasaki
- - Environmental effects were obvious
- - Radioactive sand, drinking water, contaminated surface water
- - Millions of dollars were spent cleaning it up.
-
Somalian Sand Dunes
- - Prior to Somalian War, the governement was planning to replant plants
- - But with war, they stopped doing that
-
Sudan's famine
- - 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
-
Congolese War
- - Animals are killed off to eat it or just because
- - Lots of National parks had endangered species
-
Rwanda Civil War
- - 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
-
Chechnyan War
- -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
-
Agent Orange
- - 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 (NY Times Video)
- - 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
-
Conservation of resources is about
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
-
Reason why you have conflict
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
-
Must have in order to have all the other good things
- -stable government
- - Food, water, functioning infrastructure, education, healthcare
|
|