Saturday, September 08, 2007

Munitions dumping

I just found an article from back in June called "Munitions Dumping at Sea". Here's part of what it says:

The Army now admits that it secretly dumped 64 million pounds of nerve and mustard agents into the sea, along with 400,000 chemical-filled bombs, land mines and rockets and more than 500 tons of radioactive waste - either tossed overboard or packed into the holds of scuttled vessels.
...
Hundreds of dolphins washed ashore in Virginia and New Jersey shorelines in 1987 with burns similar to mustard gas exposure. One marine-mammal specialist suspects Army-dumped chemical weapons killed them.

And here's one of the comments to the article:

This kind of information makes me cringe. Was there ever a species that was so abyssmally incompetent at managing its own environment? Is there any other species that would do this kind of damage to its own habitat?

The horrible and irresponsible things we do to the other species that share our living space are a testament that we are not a mature race, that we are merely savages with guns. The west is -not one- iota better than a rebel in the random African country of your choice who believes that he will gain the strength of his slain enemy if he eats his heart/brain. The west is on that exact same level, there is no difference between us. We are all cavemen and on a fundamental level we really haven't got the slightest idea of what we're doing.

Where is Carl Sagan when you need him?

Well, I don't think we're cavemen. The cavemen lived much more in harmony with their environment than do we. But I take this person's point. He or she is commenting on our staggering ignorance regarding cause and effect.

I think we're as doomed as the polar bears. Really, I do.

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous12:41 PM

    Upcoming conference on this topic in Halifax, Canada in October 2007. www.seadumpedmunitions.com

    ReplyDelete

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