Environmental mayhem outlives regime change and troop memory.

Evidence

In our age of depleted-uranium shells and cluster bombs, “smart” wars become wars of ecological folly as we turn soil, air, and water and into slow weapons of mass destruction, wielded unremittingly against ourselves. Armies move on, as do our memories, but a deeper memory remains lodged in the earth. Despots may be deposed, but environmental mayhem outlives regime change. — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 708

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Borders can shift across pollution, leaving detoxification to successor states — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 133; The environmental impact of wars begins long before they do, through resource-intensive military build-up — How does war damage the environment?; War’s ruin intrudes on and dishonors even untouched natural landscapes — Julien Gracq, Balcony in the Forest, 28 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Technologies promising shorter wars can extend violence across ecological time #expands (0.85) — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 624
• Slow violence’s deferred consequences give polluters profitable cover for inaction #expands (0.82) — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 109
• The Gulf War’s virtual immediacy masked its slow environmental and epidemiological aftermath #exemplifies (0.80) — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 593
• War degrades landscapes before any fighting actually occurs there #expands (0.72) — Julien Gracq, Balcony in the Forest, 28
• War’s ruin intrudes on and dishonors even untouched natural landscapes #complicates (0.70) — Julien Gracq, Balcony in the Forest, 28
• Ordinary nature walks trigger vivid flashbacks of wartime executions for former soldiers #exemplifies (0.70) — Farrar, Straus and Giroux Ishmael Beah, A Long Way Gone- Memoirs of a Boy…, 764