ACTION ALERT: Tell Congress to Reduce
Greenhouse Gas Emissions from the US Military
Climate Crisis and Militarism Project / Veterans For Peace
(December 9, 2021) — The Climate Crisis & Militarism Project of Veterans For Peace invites you to urge your Member of Congress (MOC) to cosponsor H Res 767: Department of Defense to reduce the overall environmental impact of all military activities and missions, and for other purposes.
To begin changing how the US military contributes to the global climate crisis, this House Resolution declares that is it the duty of the Department of Defense (DoD) to monitor, track, and report greenhouse gas emissions from all its operations (link to resolution). The United States military does not publicly and regularly report its overall fuel consumption or greenhouse gas emissions—despite requirements laid out in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2021. DoD is estimated to emit more CO2 than over 120 separate countries.
DoD must set clear annual greenhouse gas emission reduction targets for both domestic and foreign operations, consistent with the 1.5C global temperature rise target specified by the 2015 Paris Agreement. The US military is the globe’s single largest institutional source of greenhouse gas emissions. This resolution calls for DoD to reduce the overall environmental impact of all military activities and missions in accordance with the science-based emission targets set out in the NDAA for Fiscal Year 2022.
For questions or additional information, contact climate@veteransforpeace.org
Heroes in the House
Thank you to Rep. Barbara Lee and these Co-Sponsors: Nanette Barragan, Karen Bass, Joyce Beatty, Earl Blumenauer, Sean Casten, Emanuel Cleaver, Mark Desaulnier, Anna Eshoo, Adriano Espaillat, Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, Raúl Grijalva, Jared Huffman, Pramila Jayapal, Henry “Hank” Johnson, Mondaire Jones, Ro Khanna, Ted Lieu, James McGovern, Gwen Moore, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Mike Quigley, Lisa Blunt Rochester, Rashida Tlaib, and Peter Welch.
If your Representative is listed above, please CLICK HERE to send them a Thank You!
Climate Crisis & Militarism Project
Mission: To educate and mobilize about the cost of war and militarism as it relates to the Climate Crisis.
Our areas of focus are:
- The carbon bootprint of the US military, larger than that of many countries.
- The wars for oil and other resources — how they support the fossil fuel-based status quo.
- The unequal burden of both climate crisis and militarism on people of color, the poor, and future generations.
- The resources spent on militarism and war — redirect to respond to the existential threat of climate crisis.
CONTACT: climate@veteransforpeace.org
Our Climate Crisis and US Militarism
Climate Crisis and Militarism Project / Veterans For Peace
US militarism is the elephant in the roomwhen it comes to the global climate crisis. Members of Veterans For Peace (VFP) have formed the Climate Crisis and Militarism Project(CCMP) to address the connections between US militarism and the climate crisis. We seek to motivate others to help us stop US militarism and reverse its environmental impact.
US MILITARY & CLIMATE CONNECTIONS
Carbon Footprint: The enormous carbon and greenhouse gas emissions created by the US military.
The US Military’s Expenditure: Money that supports our global militarism could be redirected for ecological restoration, preservation, support for displaced workers and other human needs.
Racism: US militarism and our global climate crisis disproportionately affect Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC), including those in the Global South.
Wars For Oil: Wars for oil and other resources keep in place the fossil-fuel based status quo and US military usage of those resources.
CARBON FOOTPRINT: The US military has the largest carbon and greenhouse gas footprint of any organization in the world, larger than that of each of 140 countries.
Due to US government pressure, the 1997 Kyoto Protocol stipulated that military emissions (for any country) would not be included in calculating national emissions.This means the carbon footprint of US overseas bases is similarly not counted.
THE US MILITARY’S EXPENDITURE:
Greater than the Next 10 Countries Combined
US militarism has come to seem indispensable, unchangeable, benign and/ or invisible. Money for the military and war seems to come from some magical source, different from the limitations we are told apply to programs for people’s wellbeing.
What are these enormous sums used for?
These expenditures are labeled defense, but the US has not been invaded by a foreign power since the War of 1812. The expenditures go towards global control of resources, profits of the war industry, support for “defense” contractors, and fossil fuel interests (Wars for Oil).
This includes upkeep and replacement for the US’s 6,500(+) nuclear warheads, 3,700 attack aircraft and operational maintenance for over 800 bases in foreign countries. All other countries combined have about 70 foreign bases.
RACISM: In the 75 years since the end of World War II, notwithstanding the Cold War preoccupation with the Soviet Union, the US military’s many wars and interventions have been almost entirely directed against non-white people.
None of these wars and interventions have led to a stable democracy. Racist dehumanization towards the people in these countries has been promoted among members of the US military and the US population as a way of reducing opposition to these wars.
Transfer of lethal military equipment to local police has resulted in this equipment being used against people protesting racism and police brutality.
Many who suffer from our Climate Crisis are people living in the Global South, who contribute to it the least. Island nations are already heavily impacted by rising sea levels and refugees are fleeing both climate catastrophes and war in record numbers.
Racism contributes to this general lack of awareness and concern among US media and its citizens towards those living in the crisis areas.
WARS FOR OIL: The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have everything to do with oil in the region. They also offer strategic positioning regarding Iran, which sits on the second largest oil reserve in the region. The US military is used as the enforcer of all fossil fuel interests that specifically benefit US oil corporations.
Concerning other resources, the approach is the same — the US military functions at the behest of corporate power as it expropriates resources from around the world. For example, Iraq has natural gas, oil and port access to the Persian Gulf. Afghanistan has natural gas, oil, lithium and opium. Africa has oil and uranium; cell phones contain cobalt and coltan from the Congo.
OTHER ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE
While our focus is on the Climate Crisis, we briefly note environmental damage inflicted by the military in two other areas: nuclear and toxins.
NUCLEAR: The US military is the first and only military to ever use nuclear weapons in combat. Twice the Japanese people suffered immediate and protracted death from US nuclear bombs in Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Nuclear testing has also brought displacement, damage and death to people in many Pacifiic Islands, as well as to US Atomic Veterans.
TOXINS: Depleted Uranium, Agent Orange, chem/bio weapons, burn pits, destruction of oil fields, fires and chemical spraying are some examples. These have lifetime and generational health effects on people in countries (including US veterans and their children), where the US has prepared, tested and conducted warfare — far beyond the duration of the wars.
OUR GOALS: CCMP educates and mobilizes, to bring climate awareness to our own VFP members and chapters, and to bring the issues of militarism to the forefront of the climate movement. We address workers, media and the general public about the connection between these two issues. Joining with other climate groups, CCMP seeks an ecological and just economy. We feel that our movements for climate justice will not succeed unlessthey include challenging US militarism and its role in the Climate Crisis.
For additional details or to ask for a Zoom presentation on this topic for your group, email us: climate@veteransforpeace.org
