Military pollution and natural purity: seeing nature and knowing contamination in Vieques, Puerto Rico

Abstract

Military activities have produced contaminated environments at many sites around the world. This contamination and the associated health risks play a large role in how these places can be redeveloped after military use. In this essay we focus on the island of Vieques, Puerto Rico which was used as a bombing range by the US military for six decades until 2003. We examine the ways different groups of people perceive this formerly militarized landscape and the ways that these perceptions legitimatize certain redevelopment options over others. Through participant observation, semi-structured interviews and an analysis of textual materials we found that many local residents view the island as suffering from severe contamination while the large number of visitors, tourism promoters and North Americans now flocking to the post-militarized Vieques view it quite differently. These perceptions of purity and contamination, affected by different knowledges of the island's history, have led to differing valuation of the landscape and contentious economic, political, and cultural battles over an island often labeled ''natural'' despite a history of military use and social exclusion.

War and Terrorism, Geography of

“…On the one hand, geographic research has documented how the rise of an industrial militarism, as exhibited by the use of landmines and cluster bombs, chemical weapons, and depleted uranium, has left a distinct -and lethal -imprint on the landscape (Wilson, 1988;Hupy, 2006;Davis et al, 2007;Hupy and Schaetzl, 2008;Tyner, 2010;Hupy and Koehler, 2012). Much of this work has adopted a critical perspective, noting that the military detritus of warfare continues to pose health risk to both people and the environment years after the violence has supposedly ended.…”

Looking at Military Landscapes: Definitions and Approaches

“…The military forces of many nation-states, particularly those of advanced capitalist economies, have increasingly been held to account by national governments and by pressure groups and the environmental lobby over environmental impacts, and it is worth noting how external critique has often prompted remedial action. However, and as a number of commentators have noted, the levels of environmental destruction and contamination produced as a consequence of military activities have been of sufficient severity or extent as to merit explanatory strategies and explanations rife with political intent concerning armed forces' self-image (see Davis, 2005Davis, , 2007Davis, Hayes-Conroy, & Jones, 2007;Havlick, 2007Havlick, , 2011. Critiques have moved beyond the simple idea of a 'greenwash' to focus on the complex interplay between defence objectives around the use of landscapes, and defence objectives around the presentation for public consumption of explanations around the uses of such landscapes.…”

Toxic Emissions from a Military Test Site in the Territory of Sardinia, Italy

“…Public data reveal that environmentally hazardous military activities in USA have generated on average a ton of toxic waste per minute during the last eight years, making them the largest source of pollution in the USA [1]. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has stored waste coming from the production of nerve gas and pesticides during the Second World War and the Vietnam War era at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal in Denver (Colorado).…”

“…Government health data indicated that risk of mortality from cancer was 1.39 times higher in Vieques than on the main island (Puerto Rico). Cancer risk in Vieques was found to increase since the early 70s [1]. …”