December 2003

Tom Hastings: Everybody that Rides a Bicycle Commits an Act of Peace

By Jake Schindel

On a brisk and windy evening in November, I walked over to Mara Auditorium at Gettysburg College to listen to Tom Hastings. He is a professor of Peace Studies at Portland State University. His lecture was on the Ecology of War, which coincidentally is a course being taught this semester by Raj Ramanathapillai, who spoke at our potluck on November 8th. It was entitled “Ruling Ashes and Mud, or Living in Hope?”

Professor Hastings opened by breaking this whole idea down into a cost benefit analysis. When we approach the issue of war this way we see how expensive it really is to us. The costs reside in preparation, waging, drives, and peace. He mentioned that out of 191 countries, which is roughly the number in the world at this moment, 140 are militarized. The different ways in which the externalities of war are realized include nuclear waste, chemical contamination, weaponized biological pathogens, fuel pollution, electronic fog, arms racism, and opportunity costs. Within the nuclear pollution there is the uncontrolled uranium mining, which in itself is dangerous to all involved. The uranium needs to be milled and then manufactured into weapons, both of which are often unactualized dangers. Conversely, there is the subsequent disposal of depleted uranium, which often gets dumped on the poor or indigenous peoples around the globe.

Professor Hastings turned to chemical contamination and its effects on human populations worldwide. Mostly these chemicals are applied without concern for safety or calculating destruction entirely. The military has achieved back roads around environmental laws so as to make the populace more susceptible to chemical contamination. The Readiness and Range Preservation Initiative has provided this unneeded avenue for destruction. Professor Hastings talked about biological pathogens including smallpox and anthrax, which he claims could have been destroyed. America, according to Dr. Hastings, decided to keep enough of each on hand in the case it might be needed for a antidote. Dr. Hastings made mention of the military’s extensive oil use. The military is one of the biggest consumers of fossil fuels in the world. This oil is used in all vehicles, including ships, tanks, and planes. In addition, there is a large amount of oil that is burned, as in the oil fires in Iraq.

One of the most unnoticeable pollutants of the military is the Electronic Fog. This is the myriad of electronic signals sent by microwaves, radar, sonar, and/or stray voltage. These are all around us but receive little thought or attention. Some of these signals are strong enough to travel around the globe or through it, and we are totally oblivious. One negative aspect of fueling this massive militarization effort is that it detracts from every other area of the government. This leaves many programs underfunded or unfunded in order to fuel jets or to drive tanks. Dr. Hastings also mentioned that the most successful correlation for wars has to do with resources. Where there is water and oil there is a reason for war. Where there is overpopulation there is a reason for war. It seems only a Marxist would take this correlation and translate it into a working ideology, and that is truly unfortunate.

Hastings ended his lecture discussing the Ecology of Peace, which he is now teaching at Portland State. This study includes international law, nonviolence, tolerance and diversity, conservation of resources, nongovernmental initiatives, peace education, building a culture of peace, and justice. This field of study is not much of a field yet, as compared to the Ecology of War. It seems, as Dr. Hastings pointed out, that there are only a small fraction of institutions that have any programs that specifically study peace. Thankfully there are a few people out there like Dr. Hastings and Raj to add to that list. You can email Dr. Hastings at hastings@pdx.edu .

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