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In the lite ra tu re Hell on Earth "extractive economy" is, at all times and places, the "excessive and unsus tainable use of natural systems and The Second World War and the Environment natural resources in peripheral areas," Evan Mawdsley, general editor of By G. Tracy Mehan III the Cambridge History of the Second World War (2015), and one of the " M people witnessed spectacles comparable ,,with Renaissance paint ribbean, Asia, Africa, and the Arctic. Edited by two Finns, Simo Laakkonen (University of Helsinki) and Timo Vu- contributors to The Long Shadows, gives the game away' when he writes, "But I also find a considerable degree of truth in the proposition that the ers' conception of the inferno to which orisalo (University of Turku), and one most deadly war in history' (in human the damned were consigned; human American, Richard Tucker (Univer terms) had only limited environmental beings torn to fragments of flesh and sity of Michigan), The Long Shadows. impact, especially' if seen in compara bone; cities blasted into rubble; or A Global Environmental History o f the tive terms." He makes an exception for dered communities sundered into dis Second World War offers chapter-length China, He also cites Professor McNeill persed human particles," writes British essay's by 16 authorities, including an for the proposition that "most of the historian Max Hastings in his 2011 introduction by the environmental environmental changes wrought in work Inferno: Ihe WorldAt War, 1939- historian John R. McNeill and a con combat proved fleeting" and "prepar 1945. It was the "greatest and most cluding chapter by' the editors offering ing and mobilizing for industrial war- terrible of all human experiences." their own hypotheses. fare" brings more serious changes. Hastings reckons that "at least 60 While the book's subtitle limits its The historical research they pres million were terminated by death." scope to a history' of World War II, it ent is impressive by' any measure and An average of 27,000 people perished actually begins the story much earlier, merits careful attention by' any student each day between Septem of war and the environment. ber 1939 and August 1945 Also, the book's global per and China, invaded by ja- \ ... ... The Long Shadows; A Global spective (supply chains be pan two years earlier, lost SAL. Environmental History of the ing just one example) will 15 million lives. Second World War. Edited be most helpful to an Anglo- It may seem unseemly, by Simo Laakkonen, Richard American audience, which even disrespectful of the Tucker, and Timo Vuorisalo. tends to overlook, say, the dead, to discuss the envi Oregon State University Press; war in China going back to ronmental consequences of 346 pages; $35.00. 1937 or the Eastern Front, World War II, given the im regarding which another mense carnage it inflicted British historian, Norman on humanity (or humanity Davies, observed that for inflicted on itself). But the four years, more than 400 environment encompasses Red Army and German di- human beings who must rely ______ visions fought over a front on it. So it was inevitable, of 1,000 miles. Eighty-five even necessary, that environmental even before World War I, and contin percent of the German military' dead historians would turn their attention ues it forward into the Cold War (in fell there. to war in general and World War II in which military' expenditures "sustain The costs of the war for the Soviet particular. This is, after all, the Epoch an unjust world order") and beyond. Union and Belarus, and the Stalinist of the Anthropocene. And nothing is In truth, most of the contributors ideology which mistreated the natu more quintessential^ human, and de are criticizing industrialization, re ral world as well as human beings, are structive, than war. source extraction (mining, forestry), exhaustively' outlined in a chapter by' Now' Oregon University Press has intensive agriculture, colonialism, Paul Josephson of Colby College. The given us what it deems to be "the first Stalinism, capitalism, and widespread 871 -day' Leningrad Blockade is de book-length w'ork to offer global per reliance on chemicals, pesticides, and scribed in excruciating detail. .Again, spectives on the environmental his nuclear energy' in war and peace. Evi this is an example where the human tory of World War II," a collection of dently, one does not mine minerals but tragedy, quite obviously, dwarfs any academic essays reflecting the latest is "raiding" them. One does not farm, concern with the environment. research on a global scale encompass but engages in "agricultural coloniza Given the Finnish influence in ing Europe, North America, the Ca tion." And, at least in the Arctic, "the and on this collection, the three wars 6 ITHE ENVI RONMENTAL FORUI Sierra Club v. EPA 18cv3472 NDCA Tier 5 ED 002061 00106882-00001 In the lite ra tu re involving Finland, the Soviet Union, servation ethic was grounded in the and Nazi Germany are most interest ideology of "blood and soil" (Blut und ing, given that the Finns had to fight Boded) and was intertwined with anti- on both sides of the war because of Semitism and various contradictory their geopolitical vulnerability. They themes of "anticivilization, antiurban were invaded in 1939 by the Soviets in ism, anticapitalist and antiliberalist the Winter War, launched a counter views into a potent, mystical notion attack in the Continuation War and, of the rural as a revivifying force." The finally, had to fight the Germans in Reich did institute some resource- the Lapland War under the terms of its protection legislation and even sup previous surrender to the Soviets. The ported animal welfare policies, again, Long Shadows highlights the destruc until the shooting started. At the heart tion in Finland's Arctic regions, both of the regime was "an ideological-po human and environmental. However, litical paradox," i.e., rejecting the ra true to form, it judges the Finnish gov tionalism of the Enlightenment while ernment harshly for pushing econom embracing, fully, modern technology. ic development in the regions after its When Chinese Nationalist Gener loss of so much territory to the Soviets. al Chiang Kai-shek breached the Yel The book also focuses on the Finn low Rivers dikes in Henan province ish army's non-chemical means of in 1938, it flooded vast areas of land fighting lice and typhus: portable dis for nine years resulting in what Mi- infection saunas for people as well as cha Muscoiino of Oxford University horses! This latter chapter, written by calls "the single most environmentally Helene Laurent, a medical doctor at the damaging act of warfare in world his University of Helsinki, contrasts this tory" killing over 800,000 people and approach with chemical treatments in making nearly 4 million refugees. This Germany (Zyklon, also used in the gas sounds like a human tragedy rather chambers of concen than environmental tration camps) and the United States and the United Kingdom (ty Ideology aside, the book does offer a damning damage, another ex ample of the defini tional challenges in phus vaccines, D DT). account of conflict this area of environ Laurent sees the world wars as lead resolution via arms mental history. One of the best ing to environmen chapters of the book, tal damage "`by bringing together the but confusing in its historical method interests of the state and the chemical ology, describes Japanese imperialism industry." She does cite the successes and the development of that nations in fighting typhus in World War If "pelagic empire" or dominance of with DDT, etc., but also invokes Ra marine resources and global fisher chel Carson on the dangers of pesti ies starting in 1868. This is a classic cides without discussing the benefits. case of government failure, or "indus She displays little sympathy for those trial policy," causing environmental actually fighting and surviving the war harm. Through subsidies, diplomacy, against Nazi Germany and Imperial state-sponsored research, and numer japan with the tools at their disposal. ous other techniques, japan came to One of the more curious essays is ruthlessly dominate and over-exploit Simo Laakonens on the "Environ marine fisheries throughout the globe. mental Policies of the Third Reich." It The primary goal, historically, was for seems that the Nazis, at least in times export and foreign exchange. This is of peace, were "radical environmen an excellent essay but it is unclear how talists." They' strove to promote na it supports the "long shadow" thesis in ture conservation, but all of this gave that the Japanese fishing industry was way to industrialization once the war wiped out in World War If until the commenced. Unfortunately, this con America occupation authorities found it necessary to restore the industry for both domestic food supply and export. There are also chapiters in The Long Shadows on the war in Burma, includ ing the Burma and Ledo roads and for ests; the militarization of Hawaii, before and after Pearl Harbor, and its legacy of pollution and hazardous waste sites; and another interesting chapter on the "acoustic ecology of war" and "traumat ic wartime sonic experiences" based on the experience of Finnish war veterans. In addition, there are chapters on the development of aluminum for aircraft in the Western Hemisphere, Mexican forests, food disruption in Tanganyika, the opening up of the circumpolar Arc tic, Canadian resource development, and international conservation in the post-war years. Most of the authors take a pretty dim view of resource extraction and, understandably, heavy-handed co lonialism in some cases. War is hell. It is a catastro phe for human beings, animals, nature, and the environment. The contributors to The Long Shadow have marshalled impres sive historical materials delineating the human and environmental trag edies stemming from World War II. They do, however, bring a good deal of ideological baggage with respect to their antagonism to industrialization and resource extraction, whether or not it is tethered to war-fighting. They do not ask the hard questions as to when war, even brutal ones, are necessary or justified. Nor do they of fer new ideas for international law or even ongoing military protocols to minimize damage in future conflicts. Fortunately, the contributors to this landmark book provide much his torical substance with their ideology, which should be sufficient induce ment for the prospective reader. G. Tracy Mehan III is executive director for government affairs at the American Water Works Association and an adjunct professor at Antonin Scaiia Law School, George Mason University. Email: trnehan@awwa.org. Sierra Club v. EPA 18cv3472 NDCA Tier 5 NOV E M B E R / D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 7 | 7 ED 002061 00106882-00002