There is No
More Time
By Lucinda Marshall
04 March, 2005
Countercurrents.org
All
evidence suggests that our lives and that of our planet are in grave
peril. If we are to survive, we must immediately dismantle the forces
of greed and power that are destroying our lives in the toxic pursuit
of empire. It is our refusal to face the realities of global warming
and our continued illegal use of Depleted Uranium that are the true
terrors of our time. Our governments and the corporate empires they
defend must be compelled to cease and desist from all forms of violence
against our earth and its inhabitants, to work towards mitigating the
damage done and to begin creating a livable future.
The environmental
imperative of our situation cannot be ignored. The impact of global
warming is accelerating. Levels of carbon dioxide (the main cause of
global warming) have risen abruptly in the last two years. The Arctic
is warming twice as fast as the rest of the world and its polar ice
cap has shrunk up to 20% in the last three decades; the ice cap is expected
to disappear altogether by the year 2070. (1) Our land, air and water
are polluted with toxins and waste to the point where they can no longer
sustain life. Species of plants and animals are becoming extinct, glaciers
are melting.
As global warming
continues to affect the life of our planet, the results will be devastating.
Water will become scarce in some parts of the world while others will
be flooded by rising seas as the polar ice caps melt. Rain forests are
likely to dry out and burn and parts of the world will become much hotter
even as others become much colder. Droughts will cause starvation, oceans
will become more acidic and less hospitable to life and diseases like
malaria will spread easily. (2)
Studies and reports
have been issued telling us that temperatures are rising far faster
than previously thought and that we have reached the tipping point in
global warming that we had sought to avoid. There is the grave possibility
that within as little as 10 years, we will reach the point of no return.
Once that point is reached, the risk of abrupt uncontrollable climate
change is expected to increase according to the recent report "Meeting
The Climate Challenge". (3)
Each year, more and more people die unnecessarily of the cancerous impact
of our toxic behavior, of preventable starvation, of disease and because
of the misguided priorities of violence. War rages because of greed
and the desire for domination. The pandemic quest for power and honor
cuts an ever-widening swath of violence and degradation. Millions of
people have been killed, wounded, trafficked, sexually assaulted and
left homeless. And always, it is women and children who are most victimized.
It is precisely
our disconnection from our ecological support systems that allows us
to commit warfare. It should therefore not surprise us that military
powers are the biggest polluters on our planet. The worst of this pollution
is the use of enormous amounts of depleted uranium in wars that have
been waged by the U.S., most recently against Afghanistan and Iraq,
imperiling the very survival of our planet.
With a half-life
of 4,500,000,000 years, the impact of DU will not go away. There is
more than 1.5 million tons of radioactive Depleted Uranium waste in
the world today (700,000 or more tons of this is located in the U.S.),
and this number grows by 50,000 tons per day. In the first Gulf War
alone, the Pentagon admits to using 320 tons of uranium weapons (in
violation of international law), although Greenpeace puts the probable
amount at more than 800 megatons. (4), (5) (6),
Depleted uranium
causes both radioactive and chemical damage in humans. It is deposited
in the lungs and kidneys of its victims and gives off alpha and beta
radiation which cause cell deaths and genetic mutations, resulting in
cancer in exposed individuals and genetic abnormalities in their descendants
for many generations to come (from a 1995 U.S. Army report). (7) Women
with their sensitive breast and uterine tissues and children with their
not yet fully developed immune systems are the most vulnerable. (8)
Unquestionably the
most critical point that we must understand is that the lethal impact
of DU knows no boundaries. As these weapons explode, their toxic dust
is carried in the wind and invades soil, water and air everywhere. We
do not yet fully know the magnitude of the damage caused by this pollution,
but there is the very real likelihood that we have already sown the
seeds of our own demise.
It is the most perverse
of ironies that the military forces that claim to defend us are responsible
for most of the violence and environmental degradation that is destroying
our world. These forces are inextricably tied to the ethos of corporate
and national empire building that values the hoarding of resources over
the common good.
This perilous and
lethal greed is no longer tolerable and it is imperative that we come
together in insisting on an end to planetary destruction and full commitment
to creating a fair and sustainable future, with full and equal voice
for all, most especially those who have born the brunt of the impact
of the patriarchal irresponsibility.
Delay is no longer
acceptable or possible, there is no more time.
________________
Sources:
(1) Geoffrey Lean,
"Global warming approaching point of no return, warns leading climate
expert", The Independent, January 23, 2005.
(2) Geoffrey Lean,
"Apocalypse Now: How Mankind is Sleepwalking to the End of the
Earth", The Independent, February 6, 2005.
(3) Michael McCarthy,
"Countdown to global catastrophe", The Independent, January
24, 2005.
(4) World Information
Service on Energy Uranium Project, "Current Issues: Waste Management
of Depleted Uranium", http://www.antenna.nl/wise/uranium/ediss.html.
(5) VT Padmanabhan,
"Is Depleted Uranium From The West Asian Battlefields Coming To
India?", South Asia Citizens Wire, January 27-28, 2005.
(6) Brita May Rose,
"America's Radioactive War", Counterpunch, November 17, 2004.
(7) VT Padmanabhan,
"Is Depleted Uranium From The West Asian Battlefields Coming To
India?", South Asia Citizens Wire, January 27-28, 2005.
(8) Rosalie Bertell,
"Health and Environmental Costs of Militarism", presented
in Barcelona, Spain and reprinted by International Institute of Concern
for Public Health, www.iicph.org.
____________________
Lucinda Marshall
is a feminist artist, writer and activist. She is the Founder of the
Feminist Peace Network, www.feministpeacenetwork.org which publishes
Atrocities, a bulletin documenting violence against women throughout
the world. Her work has been published in numerous publications including,
Awakened Woman, Alternet, Dissident Voice, Off Our Backs, The Progressive,
Rain and Thunder, Z Magazine , Common Dreams and Information Clearinghouse.
She can be reached at [email protected]