Climate Change and the Military

Climate Change and the Military

As Don Fitz wrote in 2007, "[t]he military is the only sector of the economy where emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) can be reduced by greater than 100%. This is because militarism is the only type of activity whose primary purpose is destruction." 

Indeed, Fitz concludes that: "The world does not need a global warming strategy which features tanks charged by wind power or Israelis using solar-powered bulldozers for leveling Palestinian homes. Given the oil used by the military, its interconnections with other economic sectors, and its increasing permanence, no proposal for reducing GHG should be taken seriously if it does not include a massive restructuring of war industry into a peacetime economy." 

On the contrary, a 2004 "secret report, suppressed by US defence chiefs and obtained by The Observer, warns that major European cities will be sunk beneath rising seas as Britain is plunged into a 'Siberian' climate by 2020. Nuclear conflict, mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting will erupt across the world." Unfortunately, this observation is only likely to lead to an increase in military budgets, as the report's authors note that climate change "should be elevated beyond a scientific debate to a US national security concern". 

Ironically, there have even been calls that Governments must declare war on climate change.

Also see, Council on Foreign Relations "Special Report on Climate Change and National Security" (author: Joshua W. Busby)

Related SourceWatch articles

 * Climate change
 * U.S. Air Force and Coal

External articles

 * Joni Seager, "Earth Follies: Coming to Feminist Terms with the Global Environmental Crisis", Routledge, 1993. (see pp. 14-69 for a discussion of the influence of war on the environment)
 * Mark Townsend and Paul Harris, "Now the Pentagon tells Bush: climate change will destroy us", The Observer, February 22, 2004.
 * Jeffrey Sachs, "Climate Change And War", TomPaine, March 1, 2005.
 * Don Fitz, "What’s Possible in the Military Sector? Greater than 100% Reduction in Greenhouse Gases", Znet, April 30, 2007.