Militarism and War Cause Ecological Devastation

World Beyond War flotilla on the Potomac. www.worldbeyondwar.org

By Nancy Price

Militarism and Ecological Destruction, two of the four evils described by the Poor People's Campaign, were the focus of the “Environment and Health” Plenary at the conference on U.S Foreign Military Bases, held January 12-14, 2018, in Baltimore.

The PPC themes for Week Three (May 27–June 2) include Militarism, and Week Four (June 3-9) themes include Ecological Devastation, Environmental Injustice, and Clean Water. This is part of the Poor People’s Campaign 40 Days of Action from May 13–June 23. Read more about WILPF’s partnership with the Poor People’s Campaign here [LINK to other eNews article?].

Earth Democracy will be working on a Fact Sheet for these two weeks and then will create an infographic card for branches and members to use in organizing locally and statewide after the June 23^rd Rally in Washington, D.C.

To watch the excellent video of this “Environment and Health” Plenary, go to www.noforeignbases.org  and scroll down to the conference. Do not click at the center to activate the video. Rather, click at the upper top left corner of the video screen for the playlist or menu of videos for each individual plenary. Then, click on video #3: “Conference on U.S. Foreign Military Bases – Plenary 1”; and finally click on the X at the upper right of the screen to “disappear” the video play list.

Even though the focus of the Poor People’s Campaign is on conditions in the U.S., let’s be clear about what the content of our conversation must be when we discuss the topics of Weeks Three and Four. Militarism at home is projected worldwide, funded by a war economy that prevents spending that would meet human needs here and worldwide, and has devastating environmental and health impacts. So when it comes to a “national call for moral revival,” we cannot avoid talking about U.S. militarism worldwide.

Pat Elder made clear in his opening talk, “How the Military Pollutes the Potomac River,” that the alphabet soup of military pollution and its impacts is replicated across the U.S. and wherever the U.S. has bases in foreign countries. This was further documented in the following talks: Marie Cruz Soto, “The (De)Militarization of  Vieques, Puerto Rico”; Patricia Hynes,” Environmental Contamination: US Military Base Legacy”; and  Susan Schnall, “Agent Orange and the Health Legacy of the American War in Vietnam.” 

The content of these talks and Gar Smith’s new anthology, The War and Environment Reader, are good sources for writing the Earth Democracy Factsheet for weeks three and four of the Poor People’s campaign. Here are Pat Elder’s articles: “How War Pollutes the Potomac River" and “Military Disregard for the Environment” (subtitled “Native people have been living on this land for ten thousand years and we’ve destroyed it in a hundred”).

For more information, contact:
Nancy Price nancytprice39@gmail.com if you’d like to work on the factsheet.