effects of war on humans and the environment

War not only affects humans; it also affects the environment. Many conflicts occur in highly populated, poorer countries. These areas often are also already suffering from harsh environmental damage and poverty. From the preparations of war to the actual fight the environment is being used as a punching bag. The sad part about all the destruction is that many armies show little to no consideration towards the mess they are creating. The damage mainly impacts wildlife and human populations, because most of the fighting takes place in the mountains, rivers and forests, where there are higher concentrations of wildlife. In a lot of the situations many of these animals will soon become endangered. The consequences of war not only affect the people but the place they live as well. Many of the environmental damages are also irreversible and can last for hundreds to thousands of years causing crops to fail and disabilities to humans and animals. Many of the weapons used nowadays have been around (in some form) since the mid-early 1900's but others have been introduced in the later 1900's. Stockpiles of chemical weapons, landmines and biological weapons have been banned, but there hasn't been any form of follow through searches since these agreements have been made. Another loophole in the banning of such stockpiles is that in order for the ban to take affect, the country has to sign the agreement. Many of these agreements were also signed in the 1990's, long after these weapons have either been detonated or hid. Besides competition for land causing controversy another cause is oil and water, which also lead to wars over them. This then funnels down into the production of weapons, and national debts continually rising; one big cause and effect circle. As if the environmental damage isn't enough, there are vast sums of money being spent on the production of weapons and war. This is money that can be spent on bigger world issues such as education, poverty and the pre-existing environmental problems.
In World War I approximately 19 million gallons of Agent Orange were used by the US military in the 9 years between 1962 and 1972. It was used to defoliate the trees to allow US troops to spot the communist troops more easily. It not only destroyed about 15% of South Vietnams vegetation but also lead to serious health problems for soldiers, civilians and animals, the side effects are still being felt today. A similar situation is also occurring in China due to the vast amounts of chemical weapons used by the Japanese Army. Biological weapons are more unique because with many of them it is impossible to reverse their effect once its been released. They are also the easiest and cheapest to produce plus they can affect humans, animals and the environment. It is estimated that there are between 60 and 110 million landmines in the ground worldwide and over 26,000 people are injured or killed annually by landmines while even a bigger number of wild animals are killed. The effects of landmines is also one that is felt years after the wars are over, due to the deforestation, water pollution, soil erosion, declining biodiversity and human casualties inflicted every time a landmine is set off. Currently the US, Russia, Great Britain, France, China, India, Israel and Pakistan posses nuclear weapons, while Iran and North Korea are gathering the needed technology to build them. How is it possible that this many countries are in possession of these weapons, when they all know the potential damage that can be caused by them? Do they know and not care or are these nuclear weapons insurance for future predicaments? Nuclear waste is also a problem because old nuclear weapons haven't been properly stored and have been left to deteriorate and are leaching out radioactive materials. Humans have always counted war casualties as only being in the form of dead and wounded soldiers and civilians or destroyed cities; the environment has always gotten a backseat to them and has gone unpublicised and unnoticed. This is the time when the world has to notice it and how much it matters. This circle of destruction needs to end before the current situation becomes any worse to both humans and their environment.

Behind Enemy Lines

Summary:
On a routine reconnaissance mission flight navigator (Chris Burnett) and his pilot (Jeremy Stackhouse) come across suspicious activity in a no-fly, demilitarized zone. Curious they do a flyover and they take photographs, what they didn’t realize is that they took pictures of mass graves. The Serbians in the area saw the jet and the Bosnian Serb Army commander (General Miroslav Lokar), who is involved in a secret genocidal campaign against the Muslims in the area, and not wanting the graves to be discovered orders the jet to be shot down.
Burnett and Stackhouse land in the Serbian held area. With Stackhouse injured Burnett has to get to higher ground to contact Admiral Reigart for help. In the meanwhile Stackhouse is captured and executed by one of Lokar’s henchmen, Sasha. Burnett, who saw the patrol come, screams when Stackhouse is killed. Realizing that there is another person that knows about the graves out there, Lokar sends Sasha and another Colonel after Burnett. When Burnett get to higher ground he contacts Reigart and tells him what happened, Reigart orders him to go to a certain location. However, Admiral Piquet tells Reigart that the rescue mission could throw Bosnia back into more civil war and therefore orders the rescue mission to be postponed until the extraction can be outside the no-fly zone. When Burnett reaches the designated spot he is told to move outside the zone.
Right after being informed, Burnett notices the Serbian patrol that’s looking for him. When running away he falls into the mass graves that they photographed earlier, in order to not be seen he hides under a dead body until the patrol leaves. Reigart who watched all this on a heat map informs the media of Burnett’s situation. Burnett comes to a road and stops a pickup truck. The drivers offer him a ride and head off towards the town of Hac, which is in the safe zone. However the Serbs, take over the town because they know Burnett is heading there. The Serbians believe that they have found the body of Burnett in the debris after they bombed the town, but he switched uniforms with a Serb militant and escaped.
Claiming that Burnett had been shot by Bosniak forces, they parade the body in Burnett’s uniform around. When Burnett reaches the pick-up spot he watches the chopper, which thought he was dead, fly away. Burnett then decides to head towards where he parachuted to nearby. So he heads off in order to get the pictures to prove what Lokar’s been up to as well as to prove he’s alive. Once he reached his ejection seat he reactivates a rescue beacon which not only notifies Reigart but also the Serbs to where he is.
Not caring what happens to him, Reigart prepares to take a rescue team to Burnett. Meanwhile Lokar sends Sasha and the Colonel alone to kill Burnett but the Colonel steps on a landmine which alerts Burnett. Sasha comes up to the ejection seat which he believes that Burnett is hiding behind. This indeed isn’t true when Sasha reaches the seat, Burnett jumps out of a snowdrift and shoots Sasha several times, but failing to kill him they engage in combat. Burnett ends up stabbing Sasha in the chest with a flare killing him. Right after killing Sasha, tanks and Lokar’s men appear and begin to fire at Burnett, who runs to the Navy helicopter. Just before reaching the chopper he turns back and retrieves the hard drive that contains the photos of the mass graves.
After being rescued, he gives the evidence to Reigart. This evidence led to the conviction of Miroslav Lokar for numerous war crimes, Admiral Leslie Reigart lost command of his battle group and was given a job in Washington, but he chose to retire with the respect and gratitude of his sailors. Chris Burnett, who wanted to resign from duty, decides to stay in the Navy.
Construction: The message is constructed so that the people at home get a renewed sense of hope and faith in the Navy/ Military. For the most part this movie gives you a very real sense of what this situation would be like. Unfortunately in my opinion there were a few scenes where the scene didn’t seem entirely possible. The one that I really seemed skeptical about was when he was in the town of Hac and was running away and managed to dodge every single trip wire while running, another was right at the end when he was about to get into the chopper but ran all the way back to get the evidence. It wasn’t the fact that he went back but the fact that he managed to go through all that artillery fire without being shot or clipped once. To me that seems highly impossible.

Beliefs and Values: The points of view that are shown in this movie are from the flight navigator (Burnett), the Admiral on the ship, the leader of the Bosnian Serb Army, and the man delegated to track down Burnett. The one point of view that I would have liked to have seen would be the people that are stuck in this war torn Bosnia.

Audience: This movie could be interpreted a being just another American war movie with no other purpose than to just entertain anyone who may watch it. If it was released at any other point I may have believed the same but with it being released so close to the 2001 invasion of Iraq makes me a little cautious to assume the easy.

Intent: Behind Enemy Lines was released in late 2001, just around the same time that the Americans were heading off to Iraq. It was directed by John Moore who has done a couple of smaller movie, none of which have been about the wars. The purpose of this movie was to install a greater sense that no matter what the United States Navy will always get their soldier back.

Form: There were several different techniques used. In the scenes where Chris Burnett (Owen Wilson) was running away the camera would be shakier, which created a better sense of realism to the film. Right after Burnett was saved and he got into the navy helicopter there was a wide silhouette shot of the chopper flying into the sunset. This technique has been used in basically every war movie out there and adds the effect of something coming to a close or wrapping up. They also added dramatic music in the tense situations where Burnett was either running or hiding from the Bosnian Army.

My Opinion: In my opinion the movie Behind Enemy Lines, doesn’t relate to the youth from a peace perspective. Overall this movie doesn’t relate to any peace perspective at all. This movie is about saving their man no matter what the cost. Overall I think that it’s a good movie but some of the scenes seem a little unrealistic.

Behind Enemy Lines Movie Trailer

Afghanistan project

Afghanistan is an old country that has a severe history of wars and political turmoil due to it’s position in Asia. The Khyber Pass links Afghanistan directly to India as well as Russia. What I believe to have begun the problems in this country is when the Soviets invaded it in December of1979, in an attempt to prop up a pro-communist regime. This led to the United States and Afghanistan’s neighbors getting involved. After the Soviet withdrawal the Taliban brought stability. That stability lasted until the US and Taliban began fighting over Osama Bin Laden, a way was paved for the opposition groups to attempt to drive the Taliban from power. In the post-Taliban period there has been a lot of infighting between the local commanders over power and territory. Afghanistan is on a long road to recovery, everything has been stripped to ruins; the economy, environment and the infrastructure are a mess. Afghanistan is also one of the poorest countries in the world. It’s main source of income is agriculture. The biggest crops are corn, barley, rice, wheat, fruits, vegetables, cotton, tobacco, madder, castor beans and sugar beans. Another big source of income comes from sheep farming and the Opium Poppy better known as Heroin.
As for the military intervention going on in Afghanistan I think that it is a waste of time and troops. Afghanistan is the country with the most refugees in the world. It has had 7 years of drought and 25 years of war. In the beginning it was a noble mission but somewhere since then it seems the militaries have begun to get off track. A soldier once said, “If I see someone moving around at night I’m just going to shoot them.” What kind of a peace mission is that? They also need to re-think their strategy. For instance why is President Obama sending 17,000 troops overseas? The rural nature of Afghanistan is exactly why the US cannot defeat the Taliban. They only have enough forces to control certain urban areas. In order to beat them they would need hundreds of thousands more troops. No one can know for sure but it seems that Obama thinks that since 20,000 extra troops could suppress violence in Iraq then 30,000 should do the same job in Afghanistan. But that thought is entirely unfeasible, you would need about 1 soldier for every Afghan. Another thing that the military leaders should re-think is, are they actually wanted there? After all the years they have been over there less than half of the people view the US favourably. The people in Afghanistan are receiving cross messages, on one side this is considered a peace mission but on the other side more troops keep on getting brought in. Carl Conetta, the co-director on The Project On Self Defence said, “we need to remind ourselves, we are not Afghani, we are not Iraqi. We need to remind ourselves that we are sending hundreds of thousands of people into these countries who do not share the religion, who do not understand the culture, who do not have kinship relations with local people, and who do not even speak the language.” As for the women they have more to worry about now. They are still being raped and yet now they also have to worry about bombings, raids and the possibility of their husbands dying. Overall a military solution isn’t the answer, Afghanistan isn’t a place where you can bring peace by force.
When it comes to the media and Afghanistan the report back is very limited. Every once and a while you will hear updates or if there were any Canadian soldiers killed. People at home don’t get the whole story, they don’t even get half the story. It’s not reporters fault though, it’s the big networks that have the specific guidelines on what can be shown on television and unless people go out and look for the truth they won’t find it. The opinions caused by the media shown is that there’s nothing wrong, the military has everything covered, but is this the truth? Not many people know the true answer to that question. I believe that there’s no point having an opinion on something if you don’t know all the facts or else you are assuming and we all know how well that works out.
What the people at home need to consider for a peaceful solution in Afghanistan is that maybe, just maybe the people there don’t want their foreign help. What has sending thousands of soldiers overseas accomplished besides more violence? What do they think they can do honestly. Having all these outsiders come in and try to control them has just made them rebel even more than before. Now civilians have to fear for their own lives because of bombings that are intended for the soldiers. Yes, maybe there has been some improvement but how many lives have been ruined or worse ended to further this ‘peace’ mission? If you ask my opinion, just leave them alone and let whatever happens happen because the military isn’t doing such a bang-up job. At least the people won’t have to worry about roadside bombings and military raids. Just leave Afghanistan alone and think about how much would you like it if foreigners came over to your country packing guns and telling you that they were there on a peace mission. Would you give up and let them control you or would you fight back?

Militainment

Militainment is the combination of “military” and “entertainment”. During the past decade the Pentagon has found a way to monopolize on the ongoing and past wars they have participated in. they have done this through the entertainment industry, and have done almost everything to bring the war to your living room. They have managed this by producing movies, television shows, sports, video games and even toys about the many wars. Nowadays we consume war in the same way that a person consumes entertainment and it’s become a prominent part of American life in the 21st century.
The American nation has seamlessly merged the concepts of war and entertainment so now they appear to the everyday person as the same thing. The 2003 war in Iraq was promoted by a movie trailer, made by the Pentagon, and was shown in movie theatres 2 months before the war even began. As for the war movies themselves many served as recruiting advertisement, such as the 2001 movie “Behind Enemy Lines”. Later came the “Shock and Awe” strategy, which was a media event to its core. It psychologically overwhelmed the Iraqis Military, sent a message to the world about US military power, served as a weapons advertisement for the global arms trade and it served as pure entertainment for those who watched at home, it was a MUST SEE television event. As if the news coverage wasn’t enough, many music channels began airing war videos and messages, radio stations played “music that inspires” and even a Iraq War Movie Soundtrack was produced. George Gerber once said, “A boiling point is reached when the ability to wage war coincides with the ability to direct a movie about it.” I believe that this statement rings true, it came to the point that American industries were taking advantage of what was occurring overseas and exploited it just to make a few more bucks as the idea spread that war was becoming natural.
The people at home came to only know one side of the war and that was the television side. They came to know a war without victims, bodies or suffering. This has been a long ongoing thing dating back to the Vietnam war or the first televised war. In the beginning viewers at home got mainly the whole story but later there were media restrictions limiting what was being able to be shown to Americans at home. In 1991 the Pentagon had created conditions so the war overseas appeared short, abstract, sanitized and even beautiful, minimizing any sort of death whether it was soldier or civilian. The first step of “Clean War” was to dehumanize the destruction by not showing human imagery when televising targeted areas and tilting the ground cameras to the sky, avoiding the street view. Weapons were also led to be believed that they were unable to hurt civilians because of their precision and on the chance that a civilian is killed it is immediately known to be the enemies fault. To top of the clean war there was also a “Clean” language: a bombing = air strike, future bombsite = target of opportunity, unarmed areas = soft targets, civilians killed = collateral damage, etc. But even clean war couldn’t escape contradiction because there is no such thing as a clean war. In 1991 George HW. Bush put a ban on press access for any returning caskets and in 2003 the Pentagon clearly stated that they DON’T do body counts, therefore leaving that task for others to figure out. In 2004 a study was done that conservatively estimated the civilian body count to be at 100,000 or more since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The US military budget in 2005 approached the combined total of all other nations combined, while the Iraqis budget was 1/400th the size. All of the effort put into making war “Clean”, made war more friendly but we at home have to remember that when a bomb falls people get hurt.
War was becoming just another thing to watch on television, and just like the Sunday game viewers at home tuned in to get caught up on everything new. Paul Vinilo stated that, “Weapons aren’t just tools of destruction, but also of perception.” Overall the message towards weapons wasn’t wariness but delight. Networks had reporters praising war machines, statistics sheets were also made therefore making weapons central players in the middle of the action and every night the news would have trivia questions about the different battle groups and weapons. Techno-Fetishism was comprised of three points, 1. The worship of weapons, 2. Depicting weapons as objects of beauty, and 3. Ascribing inherent moral goodness to high tech weaponry. Techno-Fetishism was taking over America. When the Pentagon set off the MOHAB, the largest conventional bomb, the networks went crazy with devotion. Even if you were at hoe you could still get the experience of riding inside a V1 bomber just by watching a video and riding in an official fighter plane became an American pastime. If that wasn’t enough you could also purchase a military vehicle on the markets. As if promoting these weapons wasn’t enough networks were also promoting America by showing their sophistication compared to the Iraqis. The news and the military began “selling” the same thing to back each other up. Not only were people encouraged to fanaticize about the war the were also being pulled into the fight as well.
Toys manufacturers were a big seller in the Militainment industry. Christian Borman, president of plan-B toys said, “He told us we should wait until the war starts, and whatever logos we see on CNN, to put that on our toys.” After the presidents flight, Blue Box toys began selling presidential action figures as a part of the “elite force” set and like any other big movie production the Iraq War demanded merchandise such as a monopoly game, trading cards, playing cards, military bears with guns included, action figures, etc. About 40-60% of action figures were bought for or by teens and adult males. New toy companies began popping up and older ones such as GI Joe began making more detailed action figures. There was even a blown up dollhouse being sold. In 2006 the Army caught wind of the toy success and began marketing them as well. These detailed action figures may have even been a little too realistic because when the Iraqis sent a “video” of an American soldier being held captive it later turned out to be a close up of an action figure with a toy M-16 pointed at his head.
Another extremely realistic part of Militainment was video games. Many of the ones being sold commercially were also being used to train soldiers before battle, which was a major selling point for many of the games. Real war video games from the people who make real wars. As usual the Pentagon noticed the new fad and began capitalizing on the public appetite for war play. These video games just proved the point to the nation that war Can be a form of entertainment or liesure activity. War was becoming more virtual everyday with the games, and computer generated flyovers and maps. Soon war games were coming out only months after the certain operation were finished and video games soon surpassed the wars.
Militainment isn’t only the merging of both the entertainment and military industries. It was the exploitation of the carnage that was happening overseas. It’s a sickening thought to just even think of how much the American industries and economy benefited from their own families and friends dying. But the truth is they were to much in awe of how pretty and clean the war was, and if they were the ones that took the chance and fought for their country knowing what was happening at home would they be as proud as they are?

Peace and War

i believe that the kids in the future won't know what peace is. its going to be something that they will learn about but probably never experience firsthand. if we had equal parts of peace and war information more people would probably be aware of what's happening and how bad it is out there but unfortunately like my one friend pointed out, "peace movies are boring to most people and even if we don't like it war is more interesting to watch". this statement is sad but unfortunately true, probably 9 out of 10 people would watch a war movie first. if people don't do something soon the concept of peace will be forever lost. :(

peace list (CHALLENGE)

1. War movie – Jarhead
2. War uniform – soliers uniform (above)
3. High school course about war – Social Studies 11
4. War painting –
5. T.V. show about war – M.A.S.H.
6. War Hero – Gen. George S. Patton
7. War video game – Call of Duty
8. War toy – G.I. Joe
9. War monument – Vimy Monument (vimy ridge)
10. Poem, book or story about war – Flanders Field

Peace
1. Peace movie – Across the Universe
Gandhi http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxYQ4CXoIwg
2. Peace uniform – (above)
3. High school course about peace – Peace and Youth Culture
4. Peace painting –
5. T.V. show about peace –
6. Peace hero – Nelson Mandella
7. Peace video game –
8. Peace toy –
9. Peace monument – John Lennon Peace Wall
10. Poem, book or story about peace –

i searched forever but i couln't find many of the peace things, but i'm sure that was the point of this project.

Peace List Activity

1. Were there any differences in the amount of information you were able to fill in on each list?
Yes, I found that I was able to answer more questions about List 1 on violence and I believe this is because violence has been openly promoted way more than peace in every aspect of life.

2. Does the absence of war or violence mean that we have peace? Why or why not?
No, peace doesn't just happen after a war ends. It takes a lot of working together and a mutual understanding for peace to even seem like a possibility. Wars leave huge scars on a country and its people and they can’t be easily erased or forgotten.

3. Are we a naturally violent society?
I don’t think that we are naturally violent but due to all the violence surrounding us we tend not to care that much. I believe that due to all the violent videos games, movies and shows we watch people tend to not be as affected by violence on the streets.

HAITI 2010

i just went to an assembly at my school where some of the kids from Quest(the group of canadians that were in Haiti when the earthquake hit). it was eye opening to listen to what they had to say about how there was more happening than what the news showed.
the three student Jodie, Cam and Ryan told us about how the communities came together to help each other.
Quest originally went down there to help build a wall for a goat farm but the plans quickly changed after the earthquake. they pooled their money together and bought rice that fed about 500 families for about a week. the group also helped clear a road.
this whole experience has made me stop and think about what students can do for countries like haiti.

Peace and Youth Culture 12!!

this is a course that i'm taking online. as of now i'm kinda confused about what to and such but thats the joys of not having a teacher i guess. :S

1st follower!!!

cudos to megann.taylorr for being my FIRST follower!!!!! u just made my week ;P follow her at campfire-songs.blogspot.com

hey everyone out THERE!!!

kay i was told to make this for my class, so ya :D