Peace and the Environment

Conflict, militarism and war are probably the most environmentally destructive of all human activities. These activities effect the environment in numerous ways.

• The production and use of weapons release deadly toxins into the environment.
• Military vehicles (planes, aircraft, tanks, personnel carriers etc...) consume huge quantities of fuel, while on military exercises or during conflict, releasing large amounts of carbon into the atmosphere.
• The testing, deployment and use of weapons destroys – or makes unusable – large areas of land.
• The money spent on the military – currently about $1 trillion annually – could instead be used to address poverty and protect the environment.

Here are some disturbing facts which
illustrate these points:

• The Pentagon generates five times more chemical toxins than the five major US chemical companies combined.
• Nuclear weapons development and testing has released over 2 billion curies of radiation into the environment. This has resulted in hundreds of thousands of cancer victims, children born with birth defects and other health problems. The global victims of the radiation pollution related to nuclear weapon production, testing, use and waste conservatively number 13 million.
• The world’s military forces are responsible for the release of more than 66% of CFCs and other ozone depleting gases into the ozone layer. This includes emissions from missiles and aircraft.
• Over 25% of the world’s airplane emissions come from military aircraft. These are a major contributor to climate change gases.
• The funds required to meet the UN Millennium Development Goals - an end to hunger, universal education, clean water for all, basic housing and health for all, and action on climate change and environmental restoration – have been estimated to be about $120 billion per year for 10 years. This is less than 12% of the world’s military budget.
• The US spends $50 billion on nuclear weapons programmes annually, and has spent over $5 trillion since 1945 on nuclear weapons.

"Global military expenditures last year exceeded $1.3 trillion...the total costs of nuclear weapons in just one country – the United States – are over $5.8 trillion (since 1945), including future clean-up costs. By any definition, this has been a huge investment of financial and technical resources that could have had many other productive uses." United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, 2008

Get active:

• Join Greenpeace Aotearoa-New Zealand’s nonviolent campaigns to protect the environment and oppose militarism.
• Support International Peace Bureau’s Disarmament for Sustainable Development campaign.
• Support the United Nations Disarmament for Development initiative:

Costa Rica
The country that abolished its army leads a global initiative on disarmament for development.

On 19 November 2009 the United Nations Security Council, under the Presidency of Costa Rica, held an historic open debate on implementation of UN Charter Article 26, which calls for the regulation of armaments in order to ensure the least diversion of human and economic resources from global needs.

The debate was held against a background of increasing global military expenses despite a global economic crisis, and a lack of commitment by governments to meeting the UN Millennium Development Goals.

Costa Rica, which has abolished its army and negotiated peace in Central America, offered its experience to countries wishing to move from militarism to cooperative non-military security.

For more information see Costa Rican initiative at the UN Security Council

Sources:

Military Spending and Finance for Development, International Peace Bureau, 2008

Whose Priorities, International Peace Bureau, 2007

Warfare or Welfare, International Peace Bureau, 2006

The Military’s Impact on the Environment, International Peace Bureau, 2002

No Immediate Danger: Prognosis for a Radioactive Earth, Rosalie Bertell, Bio-statistician, Women’s Press, London, 1985

Bread not Bombs, Senator Douglas Roche, University of Alberta Press, 1999