Eco-technology and Environmental Science Department of Engineering and Sustainable Development Review: Environmental impact of war technology and prohibition processes Thesis for the degree of Master of Science Individual assignment, 30 ECTS Student: Saloume Bazyan Supervisor: Erika Schagatay Östersund, Sweden May, 2012 Environmental impact of war technology and prohibition processes Saloume Bazyan Content Content.............................................................................................................................................................................................I Figures............................................................................................................................................................................................II Abstract.........................................................................................................................................................................................III Goal and scope.............................................................................................................................................................1 War and the History of warfare................................................................................................................................1 Motivations for war......................................................................................................................................................2 Types of warfare............................................................................................................................................................2 - Warfare environment. .................................................................................................................................2 Effects of war..................................................................................................................................................................3 - Effects on Soldiers, civilian and economy............................................................................................3 - Environmental effects..................................................................................................................................4 ◦ Examples of war consequences................................................................................6 Case study: Libya war................................................................................................................................................9 Method...........................................................................................................................................................................................12 Results............................................................................................................................................................................................12 Discussion and Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................14 Sustainability in warfare.......................................................................................................................................18 Acknowledgment......................................................................................................................................................................19 References....................................................................................................................................................................................20 I Environmental impact of war technology and prohibition processes Saloume Bazyan Figures Figure1: Iraq war, loosing family.....................................................................................................................................................3 Figure2: Kosovo war..........................................................................................................................................................................3 Figure3: World War II, 1941............................................................................................................................................................3 Figure4: World Trade Centre explosion 2001.................................................................................................................................4 Figure5: Economy and War, 2011....................................................................................................................................................4 Figure6: Oil spill disaster on Gulf War...........................................................................................................................................5 Figure7: Consequences of war on environment..............................................................................................................................5 Figure8: Vietnam War, 1967............................................................................................................................................................5 Figure9: Flamethrowers were keys to vampire "mop up" efforts during the Vietnam War.....................................................5 Figure10: a) Agent Orange used by Americans in Vietnam War. B) Agent Orange sprayed by U.S. Army...........................5 Figure11: Congo War........................................................................................................................................................................6 Figure12: Famine and war. Iraq War..............................................................................................................................................6 Figure13: Farmer spreads fertiliser over his wheat field, Helmand Blog – Afghanistan, 2010.................................................7 Figure14: Atomic bomb survivor.....................................................................................................................................................7 Figure15: Gulf War, 2008.................................................................................................................................................................7 Figure16: World War I, 2010...........................................................................................................................................................8 Figure17: World War I, 2008. .........................................................................................................................................................8 Figure18: Bones of anti-Nazi German women still in the crematoriums (German concentration camp at Weimar).............8 Figure19: NASA's false-colour image of the Grand Omar Elmokhtar Reservoir Project.........................................................9 Figure20: Libya war, 2011..............................................................................................................................................................10 Figure21: Occupied desert by military. 2011................................................................................................................................10 Figure22: Modern ammunition cached by rebels in Libya War. 2011.......................................................................................11 Figure23: a) The French Spad SVII; b) Halberstadts and Albatrosses (D types).....................................................................13 II Environmental impact of war technology and prohibition processes Saloume Bazyan Abstract Nowadays humans struggle to supply and attain longer and more appropriate life time. Introducing new technologies, which, speeded up by modernization and industrialization, is the main subject in many branches of science to improve the human’s life; but this rate of innovation is not always pleasurable. As seen in many cases, side effects of using new technology come up as warning signs, and lead to huge environmental and humanitarian disaster with irreversible impact. Moreover, most of these technologies might be applied in different kinds of warfare where nations use high-Tech as tools to reach other’s resources and raise their economic benefits. As in most wars that happened in the world, updated technologies have been applied to overcome the combatant, which finally shows up as damages on the environment, economy, civilians and soldiers. In this study we reviewed the reasons of shaping warfare and its consequences in different aspects of environment, civilians, soldiers and economy. The questions I followed to answer were: What are those main factors that induced by technology to form different kinds of warfare? And, can technology be altered as a tool to make a war more environmentally friendly? To answer these two main questions, we need to know reasons for shaping warfare a) Economy, b) Ideological/religious, and c) Power/pride/love which raise many theories such as Economic, Behavioural, Evolutionary, Demographic, Rational, and Political science theory. In 1990 members of the committee of environmental issue discussed development of technology in the future which should follow by consideration of global environmental issue. Therefore, new technology should bring solution to environmental problems. Nowadays technology creates some kind of competition, not only in combat, but also in cold war. According to reviews