War is an environmental issue

KGA171 The Global Geography of ChangePresented by Associate Professor Elaine StratfordSemester 1

VulnerabilityL vulnerare – to wound; capable of being wounded; open to attack or damage; assailable

LOOKING FORWARD, LOOKING BACK

Part 1

Revising Module 6 Lecture 31. There are at least seven coastal geomorphic types;

what are they, what processes do they involve and what forms do they produce?

2. Name four erosional and depositional actions of waves, and explain how these work.

3. What is longshore drift? How does it happen, what are its effects, and what sort of management challenges does it produce?

4. Name two measures for coastal dune protection and evaluate their strengths and weaknesses.

5. How might dune stabilization be ‘read’ as a challenge or opportunity if one is thinking in terms of the human ecosystem model?

6. What are Meigs’ categories for arid lands?7. Describe and explain the relationship between desert

distributions and atmospheric circulation.8. Describe five Aeolian processes of dune formation in

arid lands.9. What is desertification? What vulnerabilities does it

produce? What management responses? Man thinking

Learning Objectives

Module 6 Lecture 4Be able to:• describe three stages of armed

conflict• explain, in general terms, the nexus

between armed conflict and environmental degradation and harm

• elucidate the ways in which the environment may be used to create additional harm at each stage of armed conflict

• explain the particular effects of despoliants, unexploded ordnance and nuclear weaponry on social and ecological life

KGA171• demonstrate knowledge of

geographical concepts, earth and social systems and spatial patterns of change

• create and interpret basic maps, graphs and field data

• identify and analyse different viewpoints to contribute to debates about global development

• communicate in reflective and academic writing, referencing literature when needed

Textbook Reading Leaning, J. (2000) Environment and health: 5.

Impact of war, Canadian Medical Association Journal 163(9), pp.1157-61

See also Australian Government, Department of Defence Defence Environmental Management

Critical reading1.What is the author’s purpose?2.What key questions or problems does the author raise?3.What information, data and evidence does the author present?4.What key concepts does the author use to organize this information, this evidence?5.What key conclusions is the author coming to? Are those conclusions justified? 6.What are the author’s primary assumptions?7.What viewpoints is the author writing from?8.What are the implications of the author’s reasoning?[from Foundation for Critical Thinking] Man reading a book

FOUNDATIONAL IDEASPart 2

A nexus exists between war and environment“An aerial reconnaissance photograph of the opposing trenches and no-man's land between Loos and Hulluch in Artois, France, taken at 7.15 pm, 22 July 1917. German trenches are at the right and bottom, British trenches are at the top left. The vertical line to the left of centre indicates the course of a pre-war road or track” [This is photograph No. Q 45786 from the Imperial War Museum collection No. 1900-03].

Context, phases, corollaries (1)

(2)

(3)“"Punisher" Soldiers of 3rd Platoon, Delta Company, 1st Battalion, 37th Armor Regiment, 1st Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, and their Iraqi Army partners from 46th Brigade, 12th Division, train on loading and unloading a Black Hawk for an air assault at their shared compound, Patrol Base Gaines-Mills, Jan. 20, 2010. This training is a part of the Commando training that the "Punisher" Soldiers are teaching their Iraqi counterparts” [ United States Army].

Costing the Earth?

The environment as a weapon of war

Scorched earthUS Navy (USN) F-14A Tomcat in flight over burning Kuwaiti oil wells during Operation DESERT STORM

Scorched earth Satellite view over Kuwait Shows the smoke from the burning oil wells

PREPARING FOR CONFLICTPart 3

Testing strategies “Nuclear weapon test Bravo (yield 15 Mt) on Bikini Atoll. The test was part of the Operation Castle. The Bravo event was an experimental thermonuclear device surface event” [United States Department of Energy].

Training strategiesSoldiers of the Australian Defence Force, 2nd/14th Light Horse Regiment leaving Sabina Point at the Shoalwater Bay Training Area, following an amphibious beach landing during the biennial Talisman Saber exercise in 2007 held between U.S. and Australian forces. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class James E. Foehl

Separation strategiesBethlehem, separation wall, August 2009

Access strategiesGeorgian Military Road south of Krestovy mountain pass.

Construction strategiesMilitary tunnel, Vietnam

BOMBARDMENTPart 4

Explosive bombardmentBombing sortie on E.G. Farben Chemical Industries at Auschwitz on 13 September 1944. The bombs are seen on the top left of the picture. The ordnance is headed to the factories east of the camp.

Platforms of deliveryChildren left homeless in the London Blitz, September 1940

NagasakiBefore and after

Crater formation

Crater formationfor example, in the American War in Indochina, the volume of earth displaced by bombs in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia

– exceeds that moved to create the Panama or Suez canals

– exceeds the area of Netherlands reclaimed by dykes

Marshak, S. 2001. Earth. Portrait of a Planet. Norton, NY.

DESPOLIANTSPart 5

DespoliantsFrom the German Federal Archives

Chemical and biological weaponsNapalm bombs explode on Viet Cong structures south of Saigon in the Republic of Vietnam, 1965

Halabja Cemetery“1st Lt. Matthew Chau, commander of Border Team 3, 25th Infantry Division, patrols Halabja, Iraq. Buried in the village cemetery are many victims of the 1988 chemical weapons attack, ordered by Saddam Hussein. Photo by Sgt. Sean Kimmons, February 23, 2005.”

Agent Orange

See• Helen Sewell, Agent

Orange Hotspots• Fred Pearce, From

Viet Nam to Rwanda

Tu Du Obstetrics and Gynaecology Hospital, Ho Chi Minh. Professor Nguyen Thi Ngoc Phuong with a group of handicapped children, most of them victims of the genetic effects of the defoliant Agent Orange

Despoliants

Environmental legacies, Stellman et al. 2003

WHEN THE EXPLOSION DOESN’T COMEPart 6

Unexploded ordnance (UXO)

“Land mine victim playing a traditional instrument (Siem Reap, close to one of the Angkor sites)”.

Interactions between land mines and natural processes“Punta Espora, Chile, Tierra del Fuego side of the Strait of Magellan - minefield warning near the ferry terminal”.

Laos – the ‘secret war’Kremer, C. (1997) Stalking the Elephant Kings, Allen & Unwin, St. Leonards

OTHER RESPONSES TO CONFLICTPart 7

Goya’s Third of May 1808

Refugees of warRezekne, Latvia

Environmental impacts of refugees

• Deforestation• Water pollution• Air pollution• Degradation of natural

landforms• Soil degradation• Encroachment on ecosystems

and Protected Areas (gathering fuel and so on)

• Loss of species via poaching and other activities

Philip Blenkinsop

Issues related to governanceSculpture - Truth and Falsehood, 1857-66. Alfred Stevens (1817-75) London: Plaster

Killing fields

Large scale landscape disturbance for development projects• Abandoned all previous

environmental protection measures

• Revoked all national parks• Encouraged/forced land clearing• Land degradation after other

areas abandoned• Deforestation—peasants and

army

NUCLEAR CONFLICTPart 8

Nuclear weaponsMany schools, clinics and parks

The nuclear waste problemUnited States Department of Energy

Nuclear warfare“This is a victim of an atomic bomb. Original caption: The patient's skin is burned in a pattern corresponding to the dark portions of a kimono worn at the time of the explosion.”

REDUCING THE IMPACT?Part 9

‘Green’ bullets in sightsThe US Army said yesterday that it had begun producing lead-free ‘green’ bullets that killed as effectively as conventional ammunition but were kinder to the environment. It said the lead-free 5.56mm bullets for the M-16 rifle were “part of a comprehensive program to move ‘green ammunition’ into the 21st century”. The bullet’s core is made with tungsten-tin or a tungsten-nylon mix. It said the ‘green’ bullet was more accurate and caused less barrel erosion.The Mercury, section 4, no date recorded.