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20 - The biosphere and the Cold War

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 September 2010

By
J. R. Mcneill
Edited by
Melvyn P. Leffler  and
Odd Arne Westad
Melvyn P. Leffler
Affiliation:
University of Virginia
Odd Arne Westad
Affiliation:
London School of Economics and Political Science
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Summary

Everything is connected to everything else.

V. I. Lenin (1914)

When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.

John Muir (1911)

The Cold War is one of the handful of subjects that can keep hundreds of historians busy all their lives. The literature already authored fills many a bookcase and website, with no end in sight. But little has been said about the environmental dimensions of the conflict. Perhaps for Cold War historians the fate of fish, forests, and so forth seems beside the point when examining an era replete with apocalyptic risks to humankind. It certainly seemed so to the great majority of people in power at the time. Meanwhile, of the squadrons of environmental historians at work on the years 1945–91, almost none have seen fit to link their work directly to the Cold War. This chapter will address some of the linkages between environmental change and the Cold War.

The analysis here focuses on three aspects: agriculture, especially the Green Revolution; transportation infrastructure, especially roads; and weapons production, especially nuclear weapons. Cold War geostrategic priorities shaped state efforts in these arenas, and those efforts brought significant, usually; unintended, environmental changes. Obviously, not all environmental change in the years 1945–91 should be attributed to the Cold War. Indeed, with a few exceptions, such as radioactive pollution from nuclear-weapons production and testing, the ecological tumult of the post-1945 era resulted from confluences of multitudes of causes, among which Cold War considerations normally played only a part.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge History of the Cold War , pp. 422 - 444
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

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