Footprints of War: Radioactivity, Toxic Landscapes, Chemical Agents



Military attacks have alarming consequences on our ecosystem. Radioactive contaminated landscapes, many millions of tons of ammunition in our oceans, toxic landscapes, ten percent of global carbon emissions – the military footprint is huge. From WWI until today, nature is under fire.

What does a war mean to our ecosystem and how is the global eco-balance affected? Can a modern war be eco-friendly? What does it mean when a military machinery is put into motion, what resources are needed and how much are used?

A search around the globe and through history: The battlefields of World War I are the birthplaces of modern Ecocide. In Norway and Russia a Soviet submarine officer introduces us to one of the best kept cold war secrets: the nuclear complex. In Vietnam scientists laborate on the half a century old dioxin contamination caused by Agent Orange. On the Canadian coastline a Remotely Operated Vehicle leads us to toxic hotspots on the seafloor. In the Baltic Sea we find a German shipwreck loaded with chemical weapons. And a paradise island in the Caribbean gives shocking testimony of five decades of military training.

FOOTRPINTS OF WAR is a film about two antagonist logics: the logic of strength and fight versus the logic of life and balance.

Title : Footprints of War: Nature Under Fire
Director: Maximilian MΓΆnch

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28 thoughts on “Footprints of War: Radioactivity, Toxic Landscapes, Chemical Agents”

  1. Good documentary!! man if only more people got to see this (f)actual destruction of nature..

    Wish we all would simply taboo Armed conflict & when we can finally fully recycle plastic we can return to Britney's 'Barbie' days all over again!

    (LOL, a man can dream eh)

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  2. Videos like this first doesn't surprise me, shows me mankind doesn't deserve such a beautiful planet because there will always be a small minority that wants power and wealth peasants and creatures be damned.

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  3. When last river is polluted the last tree cut down and the last fish is caught ,only then the white man will realise he can,t eat money…CRAZY HORSE…the plains indians of north America had far more love and understanding of Mother earth than 90% of people today.

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  4. The year we have zero war’s across the planet is the year we get to claim the greatest species on earth. Tell then we are the worst thing to happen to this planet. No wars then we can actually start working on fixing our environment problems.

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  5. Man needs to protect nature,Be mature enough to realize we are on the same size and protecting animals and nature and our atmosphere is our mutual job,We are monkeys with suits.We must protect all life or DIE very badly.

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  6. I have been thinking about this issue for many years and so I am very glad to see that it has finally gotten the attention it deserves in this excellent documentary. We must begin to understand that long, long after a modern war has been fought and the winners and losers have died and mostly been forgotten, the innocent people and animals that are born afterwards must suffer again, and again, and again in purpetuity.
    Did Adolf Hitler take any responsibility for the tremendous environmental damage he caused the world to suffer. Did any American Army general, Navy admiral, or Air Force commander take any responsibility for the tons of unused ordnance or chemicals they ordered to be offloaded into the jungles or into the rivers or sea waters of Vietnam?
    It is way past time that the people of this planet wake up and realize that we are allowing our military industrial complexes to destroy the environment upon which all life forms depend on for survival. We must move beyond war as a means to settle our disputes. It must become clear that there are no real winners to modern wars but that in fact there are only losers, sooner or later. Perhaps when those millions of tons of bombs that they dumped into the seas after WW II begin leaking their contents in the the coming months and years and vast quantities of fisheries are ruined and many, many people become sick in the Northern Hemisphere due to consequences of the enormous environmental contamination caused by the short sighted decisions during and after that war, folks will start worrying about what happens when a modern war breaks out.

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