FFWD Weekly
Copyright © 1998 All Rights Reserved.
| VIEWPOINT This week from the irony file comes word that the United States military has been given marching orders to "go green." Really, it was inevitable in these eco-conscious times that someone, somewhere would eventually get around to pointing out that war is bad for the environment. Of course, some of us have suspected for some time that napalm and nuclear fire-storms are bad for small woodland animals. But now, after a couple of centuries spent bombing its enemies into submission - and poverty - the department of death and destruction is cleaning up its act. Environmentally friendly weapons, like less toxic alternatives to lead bullets, and missiles with reduced exhaust emissions, are the order of the day. For those of us in the satire business, this is a "soft target." The idea of the American military, the people who attempted to defoliate an entire subcontinent with Agent Orange, trying to go green has all the integrity of a skinhead charity ball. Visions of tanks being emissions-tested and generals planting daisies over reclaimed munitions dumps is just too tantalizing, too much a comic gift from the unthinking gods. The subtle danger lies in the fact it's just so easy to make fun of professional killers playing at trendy social sensitivity that we might lose sight of how significant this really is. Perhaps this is a case of true human progress masquerading as a Dickensian farce. Switching to less deleterious materials may be more than a penny-pinching PR stunt (many green weapons could prove to be cheaper in the long run). After all, the military represents the extreme of human existence. It is an organization designed to fight other societies - to the point of absolute destruction - in order to preserve our own treasured way of life. If the military is not above the imperative of environmental responsibility, then no one can be. Although the army is quick to stress that their environmentally friendly approach won't be any less human- unfriendly - ie: green weapons will kill just as many people just as quickly - there is something eerily encouraging about the armed forces backing away from their traditional claim to immunity from social responsibility. Their recognition of the transcendent importance of the environment should be a source of hope and encouragement for the badly beleaguered environmental movement, which has spent the decade since the frenzy of eco-trendiness in early 1990s desperately playing catch-up with the global corporate agenda. Now if we only we could send Stormin' Norman Schwarzkopf after all the other people in the world who are still polluting for fun and profit, that would really be something. |