Useful+Information

Click on a bar to read about environmental effects in a specific time period || “//My hands are tied The billions shift from side to side And the wars go on with brainwashed pride For the love of God and our human rights And all these things are swept aside By bloody hands time can't deny And are washed away by your genocide And history hides the lies of our civil wars//” – Guns ‘n Roses (Civil War)
 * Timeline of wars***
 * **[|Africa] [|America] [|Asia] [|Europe]**
 * **[|Africa] [|America] [|Asia] [|Europe]**
 * **[|Africa] [|America] [|Asia] [|Europe]**
 * 
 * Africa-**

"//Drafted to go to Vietnam To fight communism in a foreign land. To preserve democracy is my plight Which is a God...Given...Right. Greenery so thick with hidden enemies Agent Orange is sprayed on the trees. Covering me from head to toe Irate my eyes, burns through my clothes. Returned home when my tour was done To be told "You have cancer, son". Agent Orange is to blame Government caused your suffering and pain. Fight for compensation is frustrating and slow Brass cover-up, not wanting anyone to know. From cancer many comrades have died Medical Insurance have been denied. Compensation I now receive My health I hope to retrieve. In Vietnam, I was spared my life Just to be stabbed with an Agent Orange knife//" Yvonne Legge, 2001
 * Vietnam War**

Read more: []

**World Trade Centre explosion** - "//We will live in the death smog for a while, breathing the dust of the dead, the 3 thousand or so who turn to smoke, as the giant ashtray in Lower Manhattan continues to give up ghosts. The dead are in us now, locked in our chests, staining our lungs, polluting our bloodstreams. And though we cover our faces with flags and other pieces of cloth to filter the air, the spirits of the dead aren’t fooled by our masks//." Lawrence Swan, 05-10-2001

Read more: []

^ ^ ^ This could be used for english, it's a poem. and used in the film..

– The Vietnam War started in 1945 and ended in 1975. It is now entitled a proxy war, fought during the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union to prevent the necessity for the nations to fight each other directly. North Vietnam fought side by side with the Soviet Union and China, and South Vietnam with the United States, New Zealand and South Korea. It must be noted that the United States only started to be actively involved in the battle after 1963. Between 1965 and 1968 North Vietnam was bombed under Operation Rolling Thunder, in order to force the enemy to negotiate. Bombs destroyed over two million acres of land. North Vietnam forces began to strike back, and the Soviet Union delivered anti-aircraft missiles to North Vietnam. The ground war of US troops against the Viet Cong began. The United States would not retreat from Vietnam until 1973, and during those years extremely environmentally damaging weapons and war tactics were applied.

A massive **herbicidal programme** was carried out, in order to break the forest cover sheltering Viet Cong guerrillas, and deprive Vietnamese peasants of food. The spraying destroyed 14% of Vietnam’s forests, diminished agricultural yield, and made seeds unfit for replanting. If agricultural yield was not damaged by herbicides, it was often lost because military on the ground set fire to haystacks, and soaked land with aviation fuel en burned it. A total of 15,000 square kilometres of land were eventually destroyed. Livestock was often shot, to deprive peasant of their entire food supply. A total of 13,000 livestock were killed during the war.

The application of 72 million litres of chemical spray resulted in the death of many animals, and caused health effects with humans. One chemical that was applied between 1962 and 1971, called, was particularly harmful. Its main constituent is dioxin, which was present in soil, water and vegetation during and after the war. Dioxin is carcinogenic and teratogenic, and has resulted in spontaneous abortions, chloracne, skin and lung cancers, lower intelligence and emotional problems among children. Children fathered by men exposed to Agent Orange during the Vietnam War often have congenital abnormalities. An estimated half a million children were born with dioxin-related abnormalities. Agent Orange continues to threaten the health of the Vietnamese today.

Today, agriculture in Vietnam continues to suffer problems from six million unexploded bombs still present. Several organisations are attempting to remove these bombs. Landmines left in Vietnam are not removed, because the Vietnamese government refuses to accept responsibility. |||| || During the second Indochina War, between 1961 and 1971, millions of litres of toxic chemicals, including a herbicide called Agent Orange - which contained dioxin - were sprayed over large parts of Vietnam. According to U.S. defense records, the U.S. Air Force sprayed 72 million litres of toxic chemicals, of which 44 million were Agent Orange - the most toxic chemical discovered so far. ||  ||
 *  **When? How? Who?** 