Friday, August 24, 2007

What's so wrong about a green arms manufacturer?

businessGreen had one of those headlines that cut through the fog.

The news that BAE has demonstrated the first hybrid-engine tank is likely to spark a predictable response from the green movement as commentators rush to point out the irony of trying to help save the planet when your industry's raison d'etre is the ability to destroy large chunks of it.

The tank announcement put me in mind of the last time BAE tried to bolster its green credentials with the announcement it was working on "environmentally-friendly" weapons, including "reduced lead" bullets, "reduced smoke" grenades and rockets with fewer toxins.

Here's Greenpeace:

And now from the "This is NOT a joke" Department

...So when they perfect the lower-carbon armoured vehicle that fires only organic flower seeds, the reduced-smoke grenade that only explodes into blossom, and the no-lead, no-metal nerf-bullet that reduce not just collatoral damage but direct damage as well, we'll be first in line to cheer.