From Head to Head: An Emergy Analysis of a War Rifle Bullet

Emergy (spelled with an “m”) analysis is a method for environmental and systemic accounting in terms of sustainability and quality of resources used for a product, service or process. In this paper, it is applied to the assault rifles projectiles used in war battlefields. The specific emergy is evaluated in terms of sej/bullet, pointing out the upstream investment made by both the environment and the human society to produce the bullet in its operating war conditions. Comparison is made with alternative uses of the same resources when addressed to the support of development and wellbeing.