Israel has long been home to green fads. Many are simply comic, not particularly harmful. Occasionally a green fetish does do harm. A few years back we had occasion to comment on a decision by the Israeli government to strip female soldiers in Israel of cannisters of pepper spray and mace. The problem is that female soldiers are frequently the targets of abuse, sometimes of rape, by assorted people, not necessarily Arabs. They were carrying sprays to ward off muggers and rapists. But the greens feared the use of the cannisters (used - let us note - only when the woman was under attack) might upset the ozone layer or some similar faddish silliness. SO the government decided to protect the ozone layer, which - as it happens - is not under threat at all and certainly NOT from CFC gases, by allowing women soldiers to be raped and molested. Anything for a bit of political correctness.

And now along comes a new craze. We have heard in the past that some old ammunition, such as old tank shells, might threaten the environment if left unattended in stockpiles; you may recall that my proposal at the time was to protect the environment by taking these out of storage and dropping them on the PLO and the Hizbollah. Anyways, read on and either laugh or weep:

Soldiers could soon be carrying ’green grenades’ filled with an environmentally friendly explosive.

Scientists are developing new kinds weapons which do not pollute their surroundings.

They will be just as effective at killing the enemy - but will not harm the environment or risk the health of the soldiers using them. Professor Thomas Klaptoke, a German researcher from Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich, who is working on the materials, said:

"It’s a very important issue.

"You have to keep in mind that shooting, missile launches and explosions, within the army and also the police force, are done 99.9% in training.

"Neither do you want to pollute your own environment nor do you want to put your own policemen and soldiers at risk."

The aim is to replace potentially toxic metals and chlorine-based chemicals with materials like nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen and carbon. "All you get from these materials is virtually hot air," said Professor Klaptoke, speaking at the British Association science festival at Glasgow University.

He said his team of researchers, working for the German Army, had patented at least two new environmentally friendly explosives. So far they had not been used in the field.

*Inventions story sent by Ananova

See this story on the web at http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_389983.html

Copyright © 2001 by Steven Plaut.
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