US military NIMBY

February 10th, 2007

You might be wondering how militarism could be one of Australia’s big environmental issues. I guess in one sense our contribution to the war on Iraq and wars in general are possibly the most thorough environmental devastations possible.

But I want to be more specific: our government has in mind the kind of collaboration with the US that will mean that military bases will be having even more affect on our environment than ever before. We’ve already experienced the widespread contamination of the British governments nuclear weapons testing in South Australia and the indigenous owners of that land still pay the price. In June 2007 the Taliman-Sabre joint war games will see at least 30,000 US troops visit our shores and possibly twice as many Australian soldiers will also be involved.

Military bases and war games put at risk our rights to a clean, safe and just environment to live in and the preservation of that environment for future generations. And they increase the publics acceptance of violence and force as a means to an end. The military pose many risks to
environmental health: toxic contamination, noise pollution, sonar water pollution, and social upheaval including increased crimes, rapes and violence. We will also see increased nuclear traffic: nuclear power vessels potentially carrying nuclear and depleted uranium munitions. All part of Howard’s wider plans for both strategic domination in our region and increased “interoperability” between Australian and US forces.

The US has around 2000 bases in worldwide. Military bases engage in major industrial operations - testing and use of munitions, fuelling and maintainence of vehicles, use of nuclear materials - creating a lethal cocktail of toxic substances including heavy metals, dioxins, and PCBs.

Military bases are a vast and unaccountable multinational activity, generating an estimated (imperial) ton of toxic waste every minute. The military, especially the US, are thus one of the world’s largest polluters - larger than the biggest five US chemical corporations combined.

One of the worst cases is perhaps the former Vieques base in Puerto Rico in the Carribean. The US DoDs 60 year presence on Vieques destroyed the environmental, health, social and economic basis of the island. Children die of cancer and many contracted asthma and respiratory diseases.

Depleted Uranium and other heavy metal pollution, chemical pollution including TNT (an explosive compound linked to anemia and altered liver function) , perchlorate (primary ingredient in rocket fuel, a thyroid toxicant) and RDX (an explosive compound and neurotoxicant), contaminate the land and water the biota including coral reefs, endangered species and archaeological sites are literally destroyed by constant bombing, navy sonar are linked to whale beachings unexploded ordinances, rusting and abandoned shrapnel and vehicles litter and pollute the landscape sunken fishing nets that still entrap fish and badly affect the ecosystem and surprisingly, the US DoDs presence has decimated the Vieqan economy.

Far from financially benefiting the local economy, the effect of the 60 years naval presence caused an ecological and economic disaster. On several occasions the local subsistence fishermen were told they were not allowed to fish for weeks on end while war games were going on.

In 2003 the people of Vieques after a campaign of civil disobedience that put their lives at risk within the bombing range, succeeded in getting the US DoD out of their region – after 60 years of occupation. Elsewhere US bases and personnel have similar impacts. In Japan, US bases at Okinawa are a source of ongoing protest and contaminate air, land and sea, the noise of jets making daily life unbearable for many. I haven’t time to enumerate the many military sites storing materials that pose radiation hazards, - the US DoD has over 200 tons of plutonium in storage for instance: only 1 millionth of a gram is need to case lung cancer.

There are also social issues: off duty US servicemen engage in drug dealing, prostitution, sexual assault, rape and even kill locals. They often get off without prosecution. The 2002 deaths of 2 Korean schoolgirls run down by a US military truck resulted in widespread riots there. There are a number of past and present class actions being taken against the US DoD at home for contamination, especially in the light of Congress’ dropping of environmental rules for DoD activities. It seems they think alls fair in war.

This Thursday night SBS screens a doco about the toxic legacy of Clark Air Base, in the Philippines, which was closed in 1999 after 100 years, but still sickens the locals – giving children leukemia and other cancers and contaminating their drinking water. The site of the former base has not been cleaned up, much of it is now used for tourist and residential and some of it was used to house the victims of the Mt Pinatabu eruptions, resulting in increased still births, miscarraiges, gastric upsets, skeletal pain and unexplained rashes. Scrap metal scavengers around the base have been killed by unexploded ordinances.

The Australian army often boasts of their great environmental record, but they were complicit in the massive areas of radiation contamination in South Australia, or the dumping at sea of chemical warfare agents such as mustard gas off Cape Moreton, Townsville and Sydney, also the ocean dumping of decommissioned boats, other chemicals, ammunition and day to day naval waste. Tere are also air pollution effects around military airbases. And most of our military equipment is US made and hence has the same pollution issues that US DoD does.

The kinds of activities the DoD engaged in at Vieques are the same kinds of things they want to do now on Australian soil and water: ship to shore bombing runs, testing of new weapons, aircraft and vehicles and on shore leave for troops. The US DoD need us now Vieques his closed – no where else can they do ship to shore bombing, it is banned on US shores.

Vice Admiral Archie Clemins, told The West Australian that traditional US training grounds around the world were disappearing and Australia was an attractive option. He said, “You have to have places to drop bombs, you have to have places to shoot live weapons, places to fly planes over that make noise, places where you can actually test and exercise your capabilities. I think Australia in the future is going to be one of the places we’d like to exercise with the Australians, as well as with the US Navy. You now have some of the finest ranges in the Western Pacific which we cannot get anywhere else. ”

Despite the promises they make about not using depleted uranium on our soil, insiders say they do have it on board their nuclear powered vessels. In any case, the presence of any military operations in the relatively pristine Shoalwater area is bound to result in contamination and destruction of some kind. Perhaps the most insidious, is that we are expected to accept increase militarism and violence in our communities and as a nation.

They have already started bombing Australian sites in QLD, WA and the NT in 2005 with operation Talisman-Sabre in 2007. That’s why the Peace Convergence collective, that I am a part of, are organising events to blockade the war games at Shoalwater Bay, near Rockhampton.

“Military activities will occur in civilian facilities such as Sydney, Rockhampton and Brisbane airports, and military training bases such as Qld’s Shoalwater Bay, Townsville and Cowley Beach and the NT’s Delamere. The Tasman, Timor and Coral seas will also be sites for military exercises and access.

Operation Talisman Sabre will utilise areas of high environmental significance, i.e. world heritage areas (WHA), natural heritage listed sites which include indigenous sites and Ramsar wetlands. These areas are habitat to many migratory birds and threatened species such as dugongs and humpback whales. Environmental impacts identified by the Department of Defence include effects on air quality, fire potential, noise pollution, waste disposal and spills and erosion from amphibian craft landings and weapon target zones.”

http://www.peaceconvergence.com

Speech given at Students of Sustainability 2006: Militarism and Environmental Health and Justice

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