Environmental Impact Meeting
Community dialogue with international scientists in Vieques about effects of militarism on ecology and health.
On Friday, December 11, at the Fort Count Mirasol Museum in Vieques, a group of international scientists spoke with 75 people, residents of Vieques and visitors, about the diverse ecological impacts of war, war preparation and post conflict restoration. The experts participated in a workshop on Vieques about Ecology, Peace and Security, sponsored by the University of Idaho, Colorado State University and NATO.
Dr. Thor Hanson (US) spoke on biodiversity conservation in conflict zones. He mentioned that 90% of the wars and other military conflicts since the Second World War have occurred in geographic areas with high species concentration, a situation that threatens the biodiversity of the planet.
Michael Mason, from England, presented on environmental issues in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel. He shared his experience as UN investigator on the ecological-environmental situation in the occupied territories of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. He explained the enormous difficulties of Palestinian's daily life that result from the occupation.
The topic of environment and military practices in Vieques was focus of Dr. James Porter, University of Georgia. Porter carried out detailed studies of the USS Killen, navy vessel used in the 1950's atomic tests in the Pacific. The Killen was towed to Vieques in the seventies and sunk in shallow waters close to the bombing zone, together with thousands of 50 gallon drums with unknown contents.
About the coral reefs, Porter expressed consternation over the thousands of unexploded bombs and other military junk that threaten this most important of Vieques submarine resources. His presentation included visuals of his robotic invention to safely remove bombs, up to a ton in weight, from the coral reefs. Among the troubling statistics mentioned by the US scientists, according to Navy documents, it is possible that during its decades of practices here, US military forces dropped a trillion pounds of explosives on Vieques!
Dr. Cruz María Nazario, epidemiologists from the University of Puerto Rico, offered a special 'class' for the foreign scientists who had travelled from Italy, Slovenia, Switzerland, England, Canada, the US, Albania, Kazakhstan, Sweeden and Croatia. With statistics from the PR Health Department and the many studies by Puerto Rican and other scientists, Cruz María described clearly and profoundly the relationship between military toxics and the health crisis that affects the Vieques community. Lack of information, manipulation of cancer statistics, need for an epidemiological study, were some points in her presentation.
During the community dialogue that followed the presentations, Myrna Pagán, Carlos "Prieto" Ventura, Fela Sanes and Nilda Medina, among others, brought up the serious concerns about health, economy and environment related to the Navy's toxic legacy.
The last point on the evening's agenda was reading the draft of a resolution that demands NATO - whose military forces bombed and practices on Vieques for decades - take responsibility for the environmental destruction and health problems here.
The coordinator of the workshop, Dr. Gary Machlis, committed to acting as liason to bring the document to NATO officials. The US scientist also explained that all the workshop presentations would soon be available on a website. The conferences and notes from the community dialogue would form part of a book to be published by Springer Press in 2010. He also agreed to include Vieques community organizations in the list of recipients of the workshops official report and recommendations to NATO.