SCARRED LANDS AND WOUNDED LIVES-
THE ENVIRONMENTAL FOOTPRINTS OF WAR
(71 minutes) Iraq/USA/Vietnam
Directors/Producers: Alice and Lincoln Day
Description:
The scale of environmental damage over the last half century is unprecedented. Falling water tables, shrinking forest cover, declining species diversity-all presage ecosystems in distress. These trends are now widely acknowledged as emanating from forces of humanity's own making: massive population increases, unsustainable demands on natural resources, species loss, ruinous environmental practices. Ironically, however, war, the most destructive of human behaviors, is commonly bypassed. In all its stages, from the production of weapons through combat to cleanup and restoration, war entails actions that pollute land, air, and water, destroy biodiversity, and drain natural resources. Yet the environmental damage occasioned by war and preparation for war is routinely underestimated, underreported, even ignored. The environment remains war's "silent casualty." Activities that do such damage cry out for far-reaching public scrutiny. The very sustainability of our planet is at stake. We can no longer maintain silence about the environmental impact of war on the grounds that such scrutiny is "inconvenient" or "callous" at a time when human life is so endangered. If we cannot eliminate war, we can at least require a fuller accounting of war's costs and consequences, and demand that destructive forces used in our name leave a lighter footprint on this highly vulnerable planet.
Biography: The Days met at Columbia University as graduate students in sociology. Their earliest joint project was a book (Too Many Americans, 1964) about how continued population increase can adversely affect the quality of life not only in less developed countries but also in more developed countries. The Days have traveled extensively in the U.S., Australia, Europe and Turkey, and less extensively in Asia, Africa and Latin America. They lived in Australia for twenty-three years and have dual American/Australian citizenship.
Contact Information: Alice and Lincoln Day
Fund for Sustainable Tomorrows
2124 Newport Place, N.W.
Washington, DC 20037
E-mail: scarredlands@verizon.net
We site: http://www.fundforsustainabletomorrows.org/
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