[CPEO-MEF] NATURAL RESOURCES, GLOBAL: "US Plans to Expand War Games in Ecologically Rich Mariana Islands"

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

US Plans to Expand War Games in Ecologically Rich Mariana Islands
Naval training exercises threaten local communities and environment

by Zoe Loftus-Farren
Earth Island Journal
November 22, 2013

The United States military assumed control the Mariana Islands during  
World War II  and has been waging war on the environment there ever  
since. Recent proposals to expand the range for Navy training  
exercises in this archipelago in the northwestern Pacific Ocean  
represent the latest frontier in this battle, and could be  
devastating to local communities as well as wildlife.

By many accounts, military trainings have already had a tremendous  
impact on the region that’s composed of two US jurisdictions - the  
Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and the territory of  
Guam. Military bombing exercises have destroyed much of at least one  
island - Farallon de Medinilla - and naval exercises have impacted  
large tracts of open ocean.

In 2010, the Navy training range in the region was expanded to  
encompass roughly 500,000 square nautical miles of ocean. "Right now,  
it is the largest range in [Department of Defense's] inventory," says  
Leevin Camacho, a member of We are Guåhan, a cultural and  
environmental justice advocacy group in Guam.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/elist/eListRead/ 
us_plans_to_expand_war_games_in_ecologically_rich_mariana_islands/

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--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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