"A kinder softer, greener military?"
Stopping all wars is the greenest way! And I can prove it, using science!
Why are the governments forcing the consumer to "go green" when they are to blame?
I have seen that the US military has been looking into equipment that uses less energy. Of course, "greening" military equipment makes sense, less resources to transport, less logistics, less cost. Spare me! The US military is the largest energy consumer aka polluter.
Being a career designer, I know that the basic “traditional” design philosophy is “cheaper”. Use less materials, remove cost and reduce operational costs. Same old.
I am sure most know that the US military is the most energy consumptive entity on earth. With those B-52 bombers flying with nukes 24/7 with a zero shot record, the return on environment (ROE) is terrible. I am not suggesting that each B-52 pop a nuke to make each mission worthwhile. No.
Greening war machines under the guise of “helping the environment” makes me sick. The nerve to slap a green message to killing machines takes the cake for my greenwashing list so far.
The US military is sending me the “lemming feed” for this one and I am not going to take that bite, thanks. On one hand, they want to sell this notion of saving a little gas is somehow going to improve my planet? Improving how?
The US military still uses depleted uranium rounds in many of its ordinance. Lets talk turkey (not the country).
Depleted uranium (DU) has been an issue for a while. Most say that DU is not “that” radioactive. Well, this is true, it is mildly radioactive, but, this is a talking point constructed to divert attention to the fact that DU is a toxic metal. Much like lead and other heavy metals, DU is classified as a toxic metal.
It is hard to find definitive studies showing that DU is outright nasty stuff. Most information leads to the typical “not 100% sure” scientific argument, or as I call it “the lawyers stamp of approval” to argue for its use in times of war.
The United Nations has a few studies and they do not endorse the use of DU.
DU is amazing, from the war profiteer perspective! DU is made from spent nuclear materials processing. Wow, talk about recycling! Instead of dealing with storage, the USA has learned that they can shoot it at their enemies. Lets face it, it is a war profiteers dream product: improved killing efficiency and nobody wants to store radioactive-toxic metal and the taxpayer flips the bills! The war profiteers clink the glasses over a juicey bonus for the quarter.
DU will eventually enter the water sources of all the places it has been used: Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan and the places that don't appear on the news. Iraq has already experienced DU's effects, but the US truthiness machine can quickly discredit any observations. I hesitate to post any findings, since most are not “scientific” according the GOP law experts that protect America.
What science does show us is that all life seems to be impacted by toxic metals. I have always held that toxic pollution is far more of an issue than climate change. Sure climate change is important and can devastate the human population, but, what else are we expecting to happen? Toxic pollution impacts all lifecycles on this planet. I am sure that chemical companies are happy that everyone is concerned about carbon emissions and not the poisons they are producing in the environment we all share.
I started this blog with the military trying to save a few percentage points of fuel in an effort to help this planet ( http://tinyurl.com/ydjj4hb ). This is such a complete joke. The audacity of the military to slap a green message on its products is outrageous!
Makes me angry that these suppliers are probably getting “Green Tax Dollars” to do this stuff. Makes me angry that the US voted to continue using DU. The UN vote was 122 to ban DU and 6 against (US, UK, France, Netherlands, Czech Republic, Israel).
Looking at the list of countries, I can understand why they want to use DU: they are countries, whose citizens are burdened with government military control by war profiteers.
Hybrid tanks, fuel cell powered UAV's, maybe even solar powered nuclear weapons sites? They are on the drawing boards, trust me. It is the natural process of “innovation”. Good technology exploited for war... expect to see more of this greenwashing... just look at nanotechnology.
Here are some links:
“Green” army vehicles :
UN report on DU:
Wikipedia Ad-Free
2001 report on DU ( thanks lawyers! )
Report on disposing of DU in USA ( why not dump it on Iraq! )
Enjoy!
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