Military preparedness, weapon systems and the biosphere: A preliminary impact statement*

Abstract

Everyone knows that war destroys and war kills. We also know that preparedness for war, despite all the protests of prudence, deterrence, self‐defense, and the like, often makes war more likely. Less self‐evident, however, are some of the consequences for our physical environment. Thanks to the work of Arthur H. Westing [Warfare in a Fragile World: Military Impact on the Human Environment (London: Taylor and Francis, 1980); Cultural Norms, War and the Environment (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988)] and a few others, we are increasingly aware of the damage that war itself inflicts on this environment, but outside of the effects of nuclear weapons production and testing, little attention has been given to the environmental effects of preparation for war. The purpose of this essay is to help rectify this unfortunate state of affairs. Thus, we present here a summary of what has been observed and reported in regard to the environmental effects of military preparedness programs in the more industrialized parts of the world in recent decades: something of a preliminary “impact statement.” We ignore here the role of nuclear weapons testing and production; the folly of testing scores of them and producing about 40,000 of these worldwide during the Cold War has already been brought to our attention and the efforts to mitigate such danger and devastation are increasingly familiar. What we do try to cover, however, is challenge enough: all types of non‐nuclear weapons and their delivery, communications, command and support systems, “conventional” as well as “exotic” in the biological and chemical meanings of the word.