Military bases concentrate environmental harm in poorer non-Western communities

Evidence

The overrepresentation of U.S. bases in current and former colonies means that the environmental damage caused by bases tends not to be shared equally. Consistently, those most often harmed—such as the Chamorros in the Northern Marianas and Guam—are economically and politically disadvantaged or marginalized groups, indigenous peoples, the poor, and non-Western people of color. Bases in Italy, Germany, Britain, and elsewhere in Europe have also caused environmental damage, of course, but the military is increasingly interested in moving some of its bases from western Europe to poorer countries in eastern Europe, Africa, and elsewhere. And part of that interest stems from those countries’ limited environmental regulations. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 426

Categorization

• XREF: Connects directly to environmental-justice scholarship showing pollution burdens track race and poverty. — connects to: Counting war dead fails to capture ecological-time casualties like genetic damage — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 626; Class and unequal political power also drive where environmental harms land — David Schlosberg, Defining Environmental Justice:…, 209; Military bases abroad are dangerous, unhealthy places despite their pleasant appearance — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 591
• SEED: Potential article angle: the Pentagon’s base relocation decisions as de facto environmental dumping aided by weaker foreign regulations.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 426