transport of dangerous goods and risk management - Kirilo Savić

TRANSPORT OF DANGEROUS GOODS AND RISK MANAGEMENT 241Most recent discussions of terrorism have focused on the identity of the terrorists, their motivations, and theincreasingly destructive potential of the “weapons” at their disposal. However, there has been relatively littlediscussion about their choice of targets. Environmental security scholars know that a strong argument can be madefor linking certain resource and environmental problems with the prospects for political tension, or even war andpeace (Chaletcki, 2002). History shows that access to resources has been a proximate cause of war, resources havebeen both tools and targets of war, and environmental degradation and disparity in the distribution of resources cancause major political controversy, tension, and violence. Terrorism experts have opined that in the last decade, thenature of terrorism has changed from professional, politically-motivated acts to amateur acts motivated by personal,religious or social differences (Hoffman, 1998; Chalk, 2000).An examination of environmental terrorism as a new category of terrorism adds new dimension to all previous, verywell-known definitions of terrorism in identifying the target as a natural resource or environmental feature. At atime when populations all over the world are increasing, the existing resource base is being stretched to provide formore people, and is being consumed at a faster rate. As the value and vulnerability of these resources increases, sodoes their attractiveness as terrorist targets. The destruction of a natural resource can now cause more deaths,property damage, political chaos, and other adverse effects than it would have in any previous decade.This paper will focus on defining environmental terrorism as distinct from eco-terrorism or environmentalextremism. Even in the Western world these two terms are used interchangeably and especially in our countrypresent completely new term and phenomenon. We will examine the risk of environmental terrorism as function ofprobability and consequence and study various vulnerable environmental resources as well as transportinfrastructure susceptible to the potential attacks. Finally, several ideas for reducing the risk of environmentalterrorism will be discussed.DEFINING ENVIRONMENTAL TERRORISMThere are as many definitions of terrorism as there are acts of terrorism. Terrorism as a concept first appeared in theOxford English Dictionary in 1795 as, "a government policy intended to strike". The FBI definition of terrorismpoints out, Terrorism is the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce agovernment, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives (USCode of Federal Regulations (28 CFR Section 0.85).While there is no consensus on exact definition of "terrorism", the word is typically used to describe politicallymotivated acts of violence with the intention to intimidate governments or civilians.Terrorists, whether groups or individuals, have various motivations: religious, cultural, political, economic,psychological, or some combination of these. The means at their disposal are often explosives, guns, poisons, orother destructive agents, though as the recent attacks showed, they can be more creative and dangerous than weexpect. Their enemies are usually governments or political figures, though with the advent of eco-terrorism, weencounter enemies such as biotech firms, pharmaceutical companies, universities or their invenstitors. Their targetsare often federal buildings skyscrapers, and rivaling both of those for the amount of long-term damage that can beinflicted upon a country: environmental resources.Environmental destruction or the threat therof can be labeled 'terrorism' when:1. the act of threat breaches national and/or international laws governing the disruption of the environmentduring peacetime or wartime;2. the act or threat exhibits the fundamental characteristics of terrorism (i.e. the act or threat of violence hasspecific objectives, and the violence is aimed at the symbolic target). An act of environmental destructioncan be termed 'environmental terrorism' only when the two latter criteria are met, and when the environmentis used by the perpetrator as an authentic symbol that instills fear in the larger population over theecological consenquences of the act (Schwartz, 1998:484).