DEFENCE OCTOPUS: BAE´S PEANUTS

Source: BAE Systems.

By Gundhramns Hammer
October 26, 2014
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Man is basically not only a fearful but also warmongering primate. If this were not the case, there would be no businesses profiting from this limping. 

As a matter of fact, there are many companies that make a great deal of money from selling weapons & related high-tech gadgets including nasty land mines.

And some of these are top giants in this field.  One of these is BAE Systems.

BAE Systems is a "British multinational defence, security and aerospace company headquartered in London in the United Kingdom and with operations worldwide", according to Wikipedia (2014).

Many ticks suck blood from this top dog. By this we mean that the number of employees is huge.

Nearly 90.000 employees depend on BAE to make a living: 35,000 in the US; 33,300 in the UK; and 19,800 in international markets such as Saudi Arabia and Australia, according to BAE´s 2013 report.

How peace loving these employees are, only God knows.

As of December 31 2013, BAE´s sales were £18.2 billion, with a net profit of £176 million. 

As you can see BAE Systems handles a lot of peanuts.

And, according to some reports, some of these peanuts may be rotten. 

How about shareholders?

As of 31 December 2013 BAE System listed some of the shareholders (Table 1):

Table 1. List of BAE Systems "significant direct and indirect" shareholders. Source: BAE Systems Annual Report 2013.

For more information on BAE, read the following report:

BAE Systems Annual Report 2013. Click HERE.

Also, read Wikipedia´s BAE Systems article: Click HERE.

Enough about this defence baby.
  
Now, a couple of questions:

What can we say about the defence industry´s "sustainability"? "Where is the beef?"


Is the global defence octopus "sustainable"?

"Sustainable", one of the most popular words in the media and scientific circles now, can mean different things for different people. It all depends what they are up to.

But all in all, from an ecological point of view, no matter what the defence industry lobby people say or how pretty they paint the picture, these mega-industries and their branches cannot be considered "sustainable", for they are tentacles of the global octopus which contaminates and destroys the environment (Fig. 1).
 

Figure 1. Environmental consequences of conflicts and wars in the Middle East. Source: Partow (2008).

Remember one thing. No war is ever kind onto the environment. Neither on people nor on any living creature. 

A war always means destruction.

Weapons are made for wars, wars are a matter of economics, and man´s present cannibalistic economics always mean a hole in the biospherical fabric, near or far away. 

So, how the fuck do you expect any defence industry to be "sustainable" or environmentally friendly? 

We will now sign off saying something for you to think about.

Don´t cry for more!

Since everything is connected under the Sun, humans, whether directly or indirectly, are all ticks sucking dry the Earth´s Biosphere, then what can you do?

Crying out for more - usually to be wasted or dumped - will only speed up the process.

So, don´t cry for more! 

This way big companies will not respond digging deeper for more into Nature´s fabric so that you can get more and more and more in a vicious cycle of more and more and more until one day there will be nothing left for any one anymore. 

Earth´s natural resources are finite.

It is high time we do take care of this wonderful planet!

See you later alligators!

References

Jenkins T.F., Walsh M.E., Thorne P.G., Miyares P.H., Ranney T.A., Grant C.L. & Esparza J.R. (1998). Site Characterization for Explosives Contamination at a Military Range Impact Area. U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, Cold Regions Research & Enginnering Laboratory (CRREL), Special Report 98-9:1-38.

Majeed A. (2004). The Impact of Militarism on the Environment: An Overview of Direct & Indirect Effects. Physicians for Global Survival (Canada), Ottawa, Canada. 40 p.

Partow H. (2008). Environmental Impact of Wars and Conflicts. Chapter 12. In: Pp. 159-172, Arab Environment: Future Challenge, Tolba M.K. & Saab N.W. (Eds.), 2008 Report of the Arab Forum for Environment and Development (AFED). 266 p.

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