Pollution Wars

 

 #wargasm #warecology #militarism #militarypollution

The tremendous bravery of the Ukrainian people is stirring to see. But these types of conflicts increase significantly military budgets and therefore pollution, even after the fighting has stopped. Why not reduce military budgets drastically and therefore reduce the likelihood of these sorts of conflicts between in the first place? And if there are quite a few people who agree with this point of view, why doesn’t the topic trend more frequently on social media?

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Pollution Wars 1 (https://youtu.be/t90a8DoIW3Q) is a short, non-videopoem piece by Finn Harvor, uploaded in early 2022. It functions more as a direct, essayistic or commentary-style video rather than one of his hybrid literary/experimental “authorial movies” or videopoems.

The video explicitly links industrialism, militarism, and environmental pollution. Harvor argues that wars and heightened military budgets dramatically increase pollution—not only during active conflict but long afterward through sustained defense spending, manufacturing, and ecological damage. He highlights the bravery of the Ukrainian people amid the ongoing invasion (contextual for 2022) but questions why societies don’t prioritize drastic reductions in military budgets to lower both conflict risks and environmental harm. 

The hashtags (#wargasm #warecology #militarism #militarypollution) tie it directly to his other works.

Visually and tonally, it appears straightforward and reflective, using footage or collage to underscore the industrial-military complex’s ecological footprint, without the fragmented phonetic poetry, narration-over-music layering, or satirical edge prominent in pieces like The Wargasm 2.

Contextualization with Harvor’s Other Video Poetry/Work

This piece extends the “warecology” and militarism critique central to The Wargasm 2 - new cut (and its source poem “nHI-lizm”). Where Wargasm 2 uses ironic, nihilistic language and collage to explore war’s perverse allure, desensitization, and absurdity (the “wargasm” thrill), Pollution Wars 1 grounds it in concrete environmental consequences—treating war as an accelerator of the Anthropocene’s industrial pollution crisis.

It aligns with Harvor’s broader themes of:

• The intersection of technology, power structures, and planetary degradation.

• How globalization, neoliberalism, and militarism shape everyday and ecological realities.

It complements more politically charged works like Peacedemic or Wargasm? (which weighs peace vs. perpetual war machinery) and contrasts with his quieter, observational pieces such as Deep Into Another Night or The Baram Poems series (lyrical engagements with weather, place, and subtle environmental shifts in South Korea).

In essence, Pollution Wars 1 acts as a straightforward ecological companion to the more artistic/satirical anti-war videopoems. It reinforces Harvor’s consistent concern with how human systems of violence and production erode both culture and the biosphere, presented here in a more advocacy-oriented format to provoke discussion on military spending and trending social priorities.