A slideshow on the relationship of war and the environment.

1. Gian Lee Carlo G. Quiban
J 112: Reporting on the
Environment

2. What is War?
 War is a condition of armed conflict between two or more
parties (usually states). The emergence of the modern form
of war as an organized and goal directed activity stems
from the development of the European state system in the
early modern period. War has a formal or quasi-legal
character in that the declaration of a state of war need not
necessarily be accompanied by an outbreak of hostilities. In
the post-Cold War era it has been common to refer to ‘new’
wars. These have been characterized, variously, as being
linked to intra-state ethnic conflict, the use of advanced
military technology, and the involvement of non-state
actors such as terrorist groups and guerrilla movements.
(Heywood, 2011)

3. What is War?
 A state of armed conflict between different nations or
states or different groups within a nation or state. (Google)
 A state of open, armed, often prolonged conflict carried on
between nations, states, or parties. (Webster)
 The period of such conflict. (Free Dictionary)
 The techniques and procedures of war; military science.
 A condition of active antagonism or contention: a war of
words; a price war. (Free Dictionary)
 A concerted effort or campaign to combat or put an end to
something considered injurious: the war against acid rain.
(Free Dictionary)

4. Some notable wars in history…
 Peloponnesian War (Gr.)
 Trojan War (Gr.)
 The American Civil War (US)
 World War I (Rus., US, Fr., UK, Ger., It., Hng., Rom.)
 World War II (US, UK, Rus., Ger., Jpn., It.)
 Cold War (USSR, US, UK)
 US War against Iraq and Afghanistan (US, Irq., Afg.)
 Arab Spring (Leb., Syr., Egy., Tns., Lby., Om.)

5. The Cost of War…
The American Civil War

6. What wars have in common…
 Wars are expensive. (Heywood, Global Politics, 2007)
 Wars cause detrimental effects to the societal
framework—how people interact with each other and
relative relationships. (Schumpter, 2010)
 Wars cost lives, millions of lives.

7. But there are two things that wars
in the Early Ages and recent
generations differ from…
 Wars before use swords, shields, catapults, the worst
gunpowder and dynamites. Wars now use
nukes, missiles, torpedoes, heavy ammunitions.
 Wars before leave
cities, economies, people, infrastructures dead. Wars
nowadays, leave not only the same things dead but also
the environment.

8. Nagasaki Nuclear Bombing
(August 9, 1945)

9. WAR PROFILING
German troop advance on the French border

10. Peloponnesian
War
 War fought by Athens and alliances and the
Peloponnesian League led by Sparta during 431-404
BC.
 It claimed thousands of Greek soldiers in the
process, destroyed many cities and ruined the Greek
society.

11. World War I
 Began with the assassination of Archduke Franz
Ferdinand (Aut) by a Serbian soldier, Gavrilo Princip.
 An alliance was created by Germany, Austria and other
Baltic states against France, UK and Italy.

12. World War II
 A competition between the Allied Forces (US, Rus. and
UK) and the Axis Powers (Ger. Jpn. And It.)
 Germany, in the leadership of Adolf Hitler, a Nazi
(National Socialist) wanted to maximise the benefits
given to workers.

13. Cold War
 The war that succeeded the Second World War. It was
a competition between the United States and the
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).
 It took place from 1945 to 1990.
 Caused by the hard headedness of Harry S. Truman
and his denial to understand the Russians’ socialist
lifestyle.

14. Arab
Spring
 It is a revolutionary wave of civil wars and protest in
the Arab nations (Tun., Egy., Syr., Leb., etc.)
 It started in December 18, 2010.
 Turmoil for greater mass power.

15. SAMPLE ENVIRONMENTAL
NEWS ON WAR
Invasion of South Korea by Communist North
(June 25, 1950)

16. The Environmental Impact of the
Vietnam War
Imagine a television newscaster announcing daily
developments in the Indochina war by saying: "And in
Quang Tri Province today, U.S. bombers knocked out 5,000
trees and killed 35 water buffalo while a South Vietnamese
armored column rolled over 300 acres of rice paddies.
North Vietnamese shelling disrupted 18 irrigation systems
and demolished a forest known for its rare jungle parrots.“
Such a bulletin is not likely. The human toll in
Vietnam is so staggering—the mayhem so terrible—that
accounts of what is done to the land rarely receive the
attention they deserve.
Mike Kiernan, Mother Earth News

17. No accurate records have been kept to determine the
exact extent of the ecocide committed in Indochina. But
Dr. Arthur Westing, a professor of biology who interrupted
his teaching at Windham College, Vt., to lead an expedition
of scientists to South Vietnam, estimates that The U.S. Air
Command alone has created 26 million craters with its
bombing of South Vietnam over the last eight years.
The U.S. Army admits that chemical herbicides have
been sprayed over one-seventh of South Vietnam's total
land mass in strengths ten times more potent than ever
used for commercial application in the United States.
Although the Army stopped massive doses of
herbicides in early 1971, scientists say it will be years before
they can estimate the damage done. At present they fear
the herbicides will eventually cause birth defects, plant
mutations, death and deformity.

18. The irony is that the land in North Vietnam remains in
relatively better shape than the land in the South. The truth is
the U.S. has reaped far greater havoc on its ally than on its
enemy.
Senator Gaylord Nelson, whose complaints throughout
1969 and 1970 helped force the military to phase out the use of
chemical herbicides, has introduced the Vietnam War Ecological
Assessment Act of 1972. The bill provides that the U.S. finally get
down to the task of determining exactly what has been done to
Vietnam's environment. The bill, however, is so unpopular in the
Senate that it's not likely to get a hearing.
The Truth About Smokey the Bear
Smokey the Bear, the legendary forest ranger, has become
the government's merchant prince of conservation. Smokey, who
first appeared twenty years ago wearing dungarees and a
weather-beaten hat, now can afford Brooks Brothers suits. The
latest government report on Smokey's earnings reveals that the
bear made more than $200,000 last year in royalty payments for
his creators the Department of Agriculture.

19. http://www.motherearthnews.com/nature-and-environment/vietnam-
war-zmaz72soztak.aspx#axzz2ZL8LBpvV
Smokey, who works hard for his two hundred
grand a year, peddles enough items to fill several
counters in a department store. The government has
sold forty Smokey the Bear commercial licenses and
his approving face appears on dolls, comic books, milk
jugs, belts, T-shirts, ash trays and a wide range of other
items.
The government refers to Smokey's lucrative
sideline as "an orderly commercial educational support
program." A more appropriate phrase might be:
commercial overkill

20. Syrian War bears Environmental
Cost
The ongoing war in Syria is taking an
environmental toll on the region’s water
outlets, according to the Waste Free Oceans
Foundation (WFO), an initiative aimed at efficient
waste management to prevent marine pollution.
The organization released a statement to
highlight the environmental hazard carried by the
uncollected garbage of Syria’s Latakia, which
consequently causes litter to build up on nearby
Mediterranean shores, including near the southern
Turkish province of Hatay’s Samandağ district.

21. http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/syrian-war-bears-environmental-cost-
foundation.aspx?pageID=238&nid=47202
Some 53 percent of all Turkey’s marine litter is caused
by foreign sources, the WFO said, adding that the lack of
services had resulted in “mountains of garbage” to appear
on the streets of Latakia.
“The destination of all that garbage ends up
being, unfortunately, the sea. The waste put to sea pollutes
all our Mediterranean shores, starting with Hatay,” the
statement said, adding that the area was one of the key
habitats for Caretta Caretta and Chelonia Mydas sea
turtles.
“The turtles can’t make it to the beaches to lay eggs
due to the waste, and the eggs that are hatching on the
beach fail to make it to the sea,” WFO Middle East and
Africa Director Yavuz Eroğlu said. “We can’t, however, take
up any initiatives due to the ongoing war.”

22. Sources (Information):
 Heywood, Andrew. Global Politics. 2011.
 Heywood, Andrew. Politics, Third Edition. 2007.
 Kiernan, Mike. Environmental Impact of the Vietnam War.
http://www.motherearthnews.com/nature-and-
environment/vietnam-war-
zmaz72soztak.aspx#axzz2ZL8LBpvV
 Peleo, Amador IV, MA IR. Lectures in POLSC 180:
Introduction to International Relations. UP Department of
Political Science.
 Syrian Wars bear Environmental Cost.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/syrian-war-bears-
environmental-cost-
foundation.aspx?pageID=238&nid=47202
 Thucydides. History of the Peloponnesian War.
http://classics.mit.edu/Thucydides/pelopwar.html.

23. Sources (Photos):
 War - http://www.zeitgeistsyria.com/war/
 Iraq War: 190,000 lives, $2.2 trillion - news.brown.edu
 War: Overview and Introduction -
http://www2.vcdh.virginia.edu/civilwar/index.php?se
ction=Exhibits&page=War
 Korean War – Pictures -
http://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-
articles/korean-war-pictures.html
 In Times Of War -
http://www.loc.gov/wiseguide/dec11/war.html