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Agent Orange Atoll

#island #googleearth #military Johnston Atoll is unrecognizable from how it was prior to its use by the US military. // The atoll, which comprised only two islands before people arrived, is not known to have been home to any indigenous people. Like many atolls, it was first discovered by a ship accidentally grounding on its shores. Throughout the 1800s, it was tugged back and forth between The Kingdom of Hawaii and the U.S. Government which claimed it under the Guano Act. This would be the beginning of a one-sided relationship with the land, where in this case it was used for its phosphate. In the 1900s, it would be recognized for its wildlife and was the subject of biological surveys. As a part of the famed Tanager expedition, a team photographed the atoll from a floatplane in 1923 which was brought over on a small warship called the Whippoorwill. A short list of flora was described in the 1931 publication of Vascular Plants of Johnston and Wake Islands. The water around the atoll was rich with sea life, from hundreds of species of fish, to turtles, seals, and whales. In the 1920s and 30s the atoll was again the object of competing interests. President Coolidge first established it as a bird refuge, due to its wide variety of seabirds and its importance as a breeding ground. There were petrels, terns, shearwaters, boobys, tropicbirds, and many more. Then, about a decade later, FDR gave control to the US Navy, also by way of executive order. The irony is not lost on me that this so-called important bird area would then be completely altered by this decision, and all the coral blasting and excavation that would ensue, to establish the atoll as a base for seaplanes. And it doesn’t end there. After the second world war, the atoll would become the site of a series of nuclear and bioweapons testing. While the islands were used as a launchpads for high altitude weapons tests, a series of failures in the 60s would scatter radioactive debris throughout the lagoon. The atoll was used as a chemical weapons storage site, including Agent Orange. Needless to say, this place is rife with untold amounts chemicals and contamination. The satellite imagery lays out the history of Johnston Atoll in a way that makes it so clear, in two dimensions. The remnants of the hurricane-damaged structures, the dredged lagoon, the artificial causeways, the two artificial islands… it reads like a graphic novel for virtual globetrotters. And despite all that it has been subjected to, Johnston Atoll remains a place of great biodiversity. I suppose this can be seen as a testament to the resilience of nature, but as I contemplate it from the lens of Google Earth, I can’t help but feel saddened by what remains. // Dream Islands is an indulgence in getting digitally lost, using the wonder that is Google Earth to hover over the many islands on this planet, one by one. The pursuit is less about facts and understanding than it is about uncovering the deeper truths behind isolation, geology, and memory.