Scarred Lands, Wounded Lives: the Environmental Footprint of War (Film and more)

One of the films major consultants/participants, Dr. Saleem H. Ali, is an Associate Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Vermont's Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, and on the adjunct faculty of Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies (currently, he's on a sabbatical writing a related book)

American by citizenship while Pakistani by heritage, Dr. Ali has an astute quote
on his challenging while engaging site:

"Ideals are like the stars, we may never reach them - But like the mariners of the sea we chart our course by them" (Carl Schurtz)

See his site HERE

See the intro to this highly praised film supported and sponsored in our town this weekend by local and national Physicians for Social Responsibility and our local Peace Gathering (From the film's site):

What prompts this film is recognition of our deep dependence on the natural world and the significant threat to that world posed by war and preparations for war.

The scale of environmental damage over the last half century is unprecedented. Falling water tables, shrinking forest cover, declining species diversity - all presage ecosystems in distress. These trends are now widely acknowledged as emanating from forces of humanity's own making: massive population increases, unsustainable demands on natural resources, species loss, ruinous environmental practices. Ironically however, war, that most destructive of human behaviors, is commonly bypassed.

In all its stages, from the production of weapons through combat to cleanup and restoration, war entails actions that pollute land, air, and water, destroy biodiversity, and drain natural resources. Yet the environmental damage occasioned by war and preparation for war is routinely underestimated, underreported, even ignored. The environment remains war's "silent casualty."

Activities that do such damage cry out for far-reaching public scrutiny. The very sustainability of our planet is at stake. We can no longer maintain silence about the environmental impact of war on the grounds that such scrutiny is "inconvenient" or "callous" at a time when human life is so endangered.

If we cannot eliminate war, we can at least require a fuller accounting of war's costs and consequences, and demand that destructive forces used in our name leave a lighter footprint on this highly vulnerable planet. It is to this change in values and actions that this documentary film is directed.

CLICK: here and for more on the Film/Work CLICK here

Watch here on this blog for more links, comments and items on this timely film and work...