In under one hour of flight, an F-16 fighter plane burns up almost twice as much fuel as the average American motorist during one year. This century has seen a steady increase in the percentage of civilian victims of war as well as an increase in the amount of environmental damage caused by war. The desire to cripple an enemy's economic ability to wage war leads to the targeting of industrial facilities. However, as the technology of weapons has advanced, so too has the technological level of the targets which are selected. This has increased not only civilian causalities but also the incidence of environmental destruction through the release of industrial chemicals.
Modern weapons rely on toxic chemicals for much of their explosive force and propulsion.
Hence they create negative environmental impacts through their own composition as well as their destructive power. Although the weapons constitute the most obvious threat to the environment, the targets that they destroy are also a highly significant contributor to the environmental devastation of war. During the current war in the Balkans, NATO has bombed petro-chemical plants in Pancevo and Sremicica in the suburbs of Belgrade. These air raids destroyed a plastics factory and an ammonia production unit within the complexes, releasing toxins such as chlorine, ethylene dichloride, and vinyl chloride monomer into the atmosphere. These chemicals not only have an immediate and life-threatening effect on humans but also have a residual effect on the environment.