The current “green” wave sweeping the planet has caught up with the military. An article on Yahoo! News talks about efforts to build “environment” friendly explosives. Apparently the current generation of explosives leave a lot of toxic residue behind after the explosion. The new generation of explosives based on tetrazoles (which use Nitrogen for explosive power) has turned up less toxic residue in tests. The “only” really toxic byproduct is hydrogen cyanide gas. Though scientists are confident that even this can be eliminated through the use of appropriate oxidizing agents. The U.S. Army’s Armament Research, Development and Engineering center is one of the agencies funding the research.
This in my opinion takes what I would call the “green hysteria” sweeping companies, marketers, nations and people in general to whole new heights. I mean what’s next, green firearms ? Instead of wasting taxpayer money on such “green” deeds, maybe the US would be better off taking the climate change minotaur by the horns. And in the end if better weapons are needed, maybe designing a bomb that didn’t leave rubble in it’s wake (or radiation) would be much more green. What say ?
Technorati Tags: Environment, Greenwashing
Tags: Environment
I'm Elroy Serrao, a technologist, photographer, and part time blogger from India.
I love to design web sites, program in php and rails in my free time and of course go trekking and clicking pictures in the great outdoors.
I'm from Mumbai, and am an alumnus of Mumbai University and NMIMS.