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Environmental War: Hostile Manipulations of the Environment

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Arthur H. Westing

Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs on Pioneers in Science and Practice ((BRIEFSPIONEER,volume 1))

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Abstract

Environmental warfare refers to the manipulation of the environment for hostile military purposes. The militarily most useful hostile manipulations of the environment would be those in which a relatively modest expenditure of triggering energy leads to the release of a substantially greater amount of directed destructive energy.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The numbered references are provided in Chap. 3.

  2. 2.

    Reproduced from: Westing, A.H. (ed.). Environmental Warfare: a Technical, Legal and Policy Appraisal. London: Taylor & Francis, 107 pp: pp 3–12 (Chap. 1); 1984, with the original title “Environmental Warfare—An Overview”, by permission of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the copyright holder, on 20 March 2012.

  3. 3.

    High-altitude nuclear detonations would disrupt communication systems on the ground, but would do so directly by emitting an electro-magnetic pulse and not via an atmospheric manipulation (Stein, 1983).

  4. 4.

    At the end of 2010 there were 441 nuclear reactors in operation in somewhat over 200 clusters, within 29 nations.

  5. 5.

    The Iraqi nuclear reactor under construction in 1981 was destroyed by Israel. In 1991 the USA attacked and destroyed an operating Iraqi nuclear reactor. And in 2007 Israel attacked and destroyed a Syrian nuclear reactor about to go on line.

  6. 6.

    It might be noted that the partial restrictions on the use of nuclear weapons embodied in the 1967 Outer Space Treaty (UNTS 8843) and 1971 Seabed Treaty (UNTS 13678) do not prohibit the use for possible hostile environmental modifications or other purpose in these two environmental domains.

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  1. Security & Education, Westing Associates in Environment, 134 Fred Houghton Road, Putney, VT, 05346, USA

    Arthur H. Westing

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Westing, A.H. (2013). Environmental War: Hostile Manipulations of the Environment. In: Arthur H. Westing. SpringerBriefs on Pioneers in Science and Practice, vol 1. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-31322-6_6

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