The Military and the Environment: The Biggest Polluter in the World!By Karl
Abrams
Surprisingly few people are aware of the fact that the US military is, by far, the largest environmental polluter in the world, generating one-third of all yearly US toxic waste. This is about one ton per minute of waste chemicals, all of which are poisonous in small quantities to all living things, especially fetuses. The US Military is also the largest polluter of oil in the world, consuming hundreds of millions of barrels per year and burning 30 percent more per year during war time. This makes the US Military the largest contributor to global warming. The Department of Defense controls 25 million acres of military bases and training facilities. All of which are all laced with unexploded and corroding bombs and rockets and enough slowly leaking chemicals to permanently poison the entire planet. Such military bases are spread out among 11,000 military sites all over the US and the rest of the world. Other countries should be concerned. The US Military is not required by law to clean up most of the 737 overseas bases they have polluted. In the US alone, the EPA has counted over 29,000 “environmental hot spots” saturated with fuel spills, dangerous heavy metals, and quickly spreading volatile solvents like trichloroethylene and ammonium perchlorate, a solid rocket and missile fuel. These and other chemicals have contaminated public drinking water across half of our American states, covering 40 million acres of land. Trichloroethylene is the single most widespread contaminant in drinking and farm water. It is a grease-cutting colorless, sweet smelling military solvent used to clean metal airplane parts. It causes kidney cancer, neurological abnormalities and autoimmune diseases. Its slowly spreading underground plumes will cost billions to remove. Perchorates are known to cause severe thyroid damage which imperils pregnant women and causes birth defects in their unborn children. Perchlorates are present in the urine of all Americans and are found in 90 percent of human breast milk and 90 percent of lettuce and other foods grown on contaminated farms. A 2005 study by the National Academy of Sciences states that perchlorates are more toxic than the Department of Defense (DOD) wants to admit. As a result, the US Military is now a major threat to our global environment and to domestic safe drinking water across thousands of American communities. Who is safe? A whopping 10 percent of Americans ( 31 million) live within 10 miles of hundreds of superfund toxic dumps. Unfortunately, 100 percent of Iraqis live in a completely poisoned country. And, although billions have been spent on cleaning Iraq’s nightmare environment, it still remains a human and ecological disaster which may never fully recover. Radioactive military pollution may take centuries to be satisfactorily removed from the environment. Sadly, the US military has already used more than a million pounds of depleted Uranium (read, partially depleted) in their war against Iraq and Afghanistan. Besides its verifiable alpha particle radioactivity, depleted uranium is a toxic heavy metal that is known to cause DNA damage and severe birth defects in doses much lower than the military wants to admit. Its horrors have already caused an 8 to 10-fold increase in cancer and a 4 to 5-fold increase in Iraqi birth defects. Weapons of this kind affect everyone. Not surprisingly, 80,000 US vets from the 1991 Iraq Gulf War have claimed chemical and Depleted Uranium exposure. Ten thousand vets may have already died because of it, while many other claims are being categorically ignored. One contractor (Alliant) has produced over 15 million 30-mm shells for the US Air Force and over a million 120-mm rounds for use in US tanks and howitzers. Alliant has conveniently removed all references to uranium on their website, just in case too many activists and concerned citizens may find out. This deadly abuse of human rights is one of the most serious war crimes in history. The US global empire is out of control. They have waged unjust wars abroad and under-protected our environment at home. No wonder the Pentagon employs several thousand people with an annual budget of about two billion dollars just to deal with the legalities and lawsuits that are expected to arise from its never ending military pollution. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), charged with protecting “human health and the environment”,is quickly losing power to the Pentagon and the current administration. Since President Bush came into office, the DOD has been trying to win exemptions from laws covering toxic sites and clean air. The DOD feels that it is beyond accountability and should be, especially during war time, exempt from the law. The DOD has pressed for unregulated “Military Readiness.” Whole communities, states and even the EPA have brought uncountable actions against the Pentagon all over the country. Are we winning? Using Bush appointees and political influences within the EPA, inspections are down 10 percent, fines are down 25 percent, military site cleanups are down 20 percent and less of the military budget is available for appropriate environmental cleanup. We cannot let the military poison us, the very people it is supposed to be protecting. We must not let the military commit environmental crimes in this country or commit crimes against humanity--in Iraq-- or anywhere else on this sacred planet. Posted: Fri - June 1, 2007 at 10:12 PM Free Venice Beachhead June 2007 #308 Previous Next Feedback | |
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