L'aviazione militare e il riscaldamento globale

In questi giorni sul guardian è apparsa un'interessante e alquanto controversa notizia. L'USAF, l'aviazione militare statunitense, ha convocato alla propria corte diversi esponenti del mondo della scienza per stendere un piano in stile Apollo, con la finalità di sviluppare combustibili più ecologici e contrastare il riscaldamento globale [*1]. Avvalendosi dell'aiuto di università, governi e compagnie private porterà avanti un progetto multi-miliardario per ridurre le emissioni di gas serra dei combustibili e di svilupparne di nuovi, seguendo l'esempio delle compagnie private:

Anderson said the military could learn from civilian airlines, which have studied how to reduce weight and increase fuel efficiency. He said: "What everybody sees is the fighter aircraft, but the predominant part of what we do is transporting people and stuff around. And so do British Airways, so do Virgin and so do Fed Ex." Concerned about future supplies of oil, the US air force plans to switch its aircraft to a synthetic liquid fuel made from coal. It has tested the new fuel in aircraft such as the B-52 bomber, and is encouraging the British and French to follow. Anderson said: "Energy demand is going to outstrip any gains from renewables. As oil starts to diminish, coal is going to play big."

Questa scelta, che apparentemente può sembrare dettata da una reale sensibilità verso le problematiche ambientali, risulta un tantino in controtendenza rispetto alle politiche tuttora adottate dal dipartimento della Difesa statunitense. Il dibattito sulle morti civili causate dalla guerra è spesso sotto le luci dei riflettori, tanto da costituire la principale motivazione per cui pacifisti e non si sono sempre opposti alle missioni militari. In realtà l'esportazione di democrazia comporta una conseguenza meno visibile ma paradossalmente più pericolosa e che coinvolge un maggior numero di persone: l'inquinamento. Le tossine militari, a differenza dei soldati (ad esclusione di quelli israeliani), non conoscono confini e non uccidono esclusivamente il nemico o i civili del posto (sic) bensì anche il personale militare e soprattutto inquinano acqua, aria e terra. Si tratta quindi di una contaminazione su larga scala, che colpisce sia chi si trova fisicamente in un teatro di guerra, sia chi è solo spettatore del massacro. Il Dipartimento della Difesa statunitense è il più grande "inquinatore" al mondo, producendo più rifiuti tossici dei 5 più grandi colossi chimici americani [*2]:

The types of hazardous wastes used by the military include pesticides and defoliants like Agent Orange. It includes solvents, petroleum, perchlorate (a component of rocket fuel) lead and mercury. And most ominously, depleted uranium. [...] The U.S. Navy is the largest polluter in the San Diego, California area, having created 100 toxic sites during the last 80 years. Environmental damage caused by the Navy includes spilling over 11,000 gallons of oil into the San Diego Bay in 1988. Fish in the Bay contain high levels of mercury and radioactive compounds that are attributable to Navy pollution of the Bay. [...] Pollution from the manufacturing of military weapons is equally horrific. The soil near a plant that manufactured depleted uranium rounds in Colonie, New York was found to have 500 times the amount of uranium that one could normally expect to find in soil. [...] Nuclear testing is responsible for particularly hazardous pollution. Amchitka Island, off the coast of Alaska was the site of three nuclear weapons tests in a mile-deep shaft on the island in the late 1960's and early 1970's. The last bomb tested was the equivalent of 400 bombs the size of the one that was dropped on Hiroshima. [...] The impact of depleted uranium on Gulf War veterans is so staggering that it is incomprehensible that the U.S. government persists in denying the damage done. The numbers tell the obvious story. During the three-week war in 1990-91, 467 U.S. personnel were reported injured. Since then, more than 11,000 Gulf War veterans have died and more than 600,000 are on permanent disability through sperm, causing a variety of gynecological problems, including cancer and the need for hysterectomies. Children born to Gulf Veterans have a much higher than normal incidence of birth defects, cancer and other diseases. And of course, the same problems that have plagued our own citizens have also taken place in the countries where depleted uranium has been used, including the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq. In Basra, Iraq, cancer rates have leapt from 11/100,000 in 1988 to 123/100,000 in 2002. Cancer in children under the age of fifteen has tripled at the Basra Maternity and Children's hospital since 1990. Children under five years of age now make up due to their exposure to depleted uranium, or what we euphemistically call Gulf War Syndrome. [...] But U.S. military personnel are of course not the only victims of depleted uranium. Many returning soldiers brought it home to their families as well. Wives and girlfriends have been contaminated56% of the reported cancer cases, in 1990, they were 13% of the total. There were several cases of babies born with multiple congenital birth defects in 1990. In the last three years there have been more than 200 such cases. This scenario is being played out wherever depleted uranium has been used.

Alla luce di questi dati la scelta dell'aviazione statunitense pare una gigantesca paraculata, oppure l'ennesimo tentativo di drenare altre risorse economiche forzatamente versate dal contribuente per finanziare progetti militari. Ma il problema non è circoscritto alle singole missioni militari, bensì comprende anche le esercitazioni militari statunitensi (dell'aviazione stessa) [*3]:

Exposure to a rocket fuel chemical widespread in the U.S. drinking water and food supply, at levels equal to or lower than national and state standards, could cause thyroid deficiency in more than 2 million women of childbearing age who would require medical treatment to protect their unborn babies, according to an Environmental Working Group (EWG) analysis of new data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. At a hearing in Sacramento today, California health officials will consider a proposed standard for perchlorate in drinking water that EWG found could trigger thyroid deficiency requiring treatment during pregnancy in more than 272,000 California women. New Jersey's proposed standard could cause such a deficiency in 65,000 women in that state.

A questo inquinamento provato si aggiungano tutti quegli esperimenti portati avanti nella più assoluta segretezza dal Pentagono, come le scie chimiche [*4] o i progetti di controllo climatico portati avanti in Alaska (HAARP) [*5]. Insomma, a fronte di un inquinamento massiccio, la cui unica soluzione, da cui trarrebbero giovamento tutti (esclusi lorsignori), sarebbe di interrompere missioni di pace e inutili esercitazioni finanziate dalle tasse di tutti, il Dipartimento della Difesa si preoccupa di allestire tavoli comuni in cui far dialogare scienziati e politici per rendere i combustibili un po' meno inquinanti rispetto a prima. Tanto di cappello.