War and the Physical Environment

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that wars have always harmed the environment and killed or wounded non-combatants; however, modern technology has greatly increased the scope of violence by targeting industrial facilities such as oil fields, refineries and nuclear reactors thus creating unprecedented environmental and health impacts. The author points out that the threat to the environment has increased throughout history from the battle of Delium, 424 B.C., when the Athenians destroyed local vineyards and agricultural fields for a short-term military advantage, to the use of Agent Orange, a chemical with long-term danger, in the Vietnam War. The paper concludes that, because of long-lived contaminates such as dioxins and unexploded ordnance, society has reached a point in its war fighting capability where it must consider the consequences of developing and using these sophisticated weapons.

From the Paper:

"During WW II, the Soviets used scorched earth tactics on their own territory to deny Germany the resources it needed to continue its offensive. Rebuilding the industrial base would take longer and cleaning up contamination in those areas of Russia is, in many cases, just the beginning. In the Vietnam War, modern herbicides were used to destroy vegetation to deny the enemy concealment. The long-term effects of these herbicides are still unclear. Further, mass bombings of vegetated areas with napalm, forest fires, and bomb craters also threatened the habitat over large areas of the country. In the 1980s, Soviets destroyed crops and fields in Afghanistan to deny food to the Mujahadeen rebels."

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