Carbon ‘Bootprints’
Even if we each do everything we can to reduce our carbon footprint, it will not be enough – because of carbon emissions from the MIC. Just how much do the U.S military and supporting industries contribute to Global Warming?
First, what exactly is the U.S. military? It is run by the Chiefs of Staffs of the Navy, Air Force and Army, who report to the Secretary of Defense, who reports to the Commander in Chief. They are all a part of the Executive Branch of the U.S. government. Their 2018 budget is $700 billion. There are around 800 military bases worldwide, with approximately two million active troops. The U.S. military is the third largest military in the world after China and India.
And the Climate Change costs of the MIC are…
U.S. Military:
• Production of military materiel (materials and equipment) and infrastructure and movement thereof
• War games
• Wars. How many are we still fighting? Obama launched airstrikes or raids in seven countries: Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan
• Oil production and transport are directly used and encouraged by the military’s constant needs
• Underground oil storage for supply in case there is a war The production of military equipment for commercial arms sales also contributes to Climate Change.
U.S. Defense Sales:
Under DCS, PM’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls provides regulatory approvals for more than $110 billion per year in sales of defense equipment, services, and related manufacturing technologies controlled under the 21 categories of the U.S. Munitions List (USML). These sales are negotiated privately between foreign end-users and U.S. companies.
The Pentagon’s Carbon Foot Print
Counterpunch December 2015
the Pentagon has been granted a unique exemption from reducing – or even reporting – its pollution. The U.S. won this prize during the 1998 Kyoto Protocol negotiations (COP4) after the Pentagon insisted on a ‘national security provision’ that would place its operations beyond global scrutiny or control.” [2] So not only is the Pentagon exempt from any climate agreements, it is also exempt from having to reduce its own greenhouse gas emission levels and exempt even from reporting those levels. … As Sara Flounders had revealed: “The complete U.S. military exemption from greenhouse gas emissions calculations includes more than 1,000 U.S. bases in more than 130 countries around the world, its 6,000 facilities in the U.S., its aircraft carriers and jet aircraft. Also excluded are its weapons testing and all multilateral operations such as the giant U.S. commanded NATO military alliance and AFRICOM, the U.S. military alliance now blanketing Africa.”
Pentagon to lose emissions exemption under Paris climate deal
Guardian December 2015
The US military and armed forces of countries around the world will no longer be automatically exempted from emissions-cutting obligations under the UN Paris climate deal, the Guardian has learned. … Under the Paris agreement, countries would not be obliged to cut their military emissions but, equally, there would be no automatic exemption for them either. US officials privately say that the deal adopted on Saturday has no provisions covering military compliance one way or another … The US military is widely thought to be the world’s biggest institutional consumer of crude oil, but its emissions reporting exemptions mean it is hard to be sure.
Pentagon Pollution, 7: The military assault on global climate
Climate & Capitalism February 2015
“The U.S. military is the single greatest institutional contributor to the growing natural disasters intensified by global climate change.”
Correspondingly, militarism is the most oil-exhaustive activity on the planet, growing more so with faster, bigger, more fuel-guzzling planes, tanks and naval vessels employed in more intensive air and ground wars. At the outset of the Iraq war in March 2003, the Army estimated it would need more than 40 million gallons of gasoline for three weeks of combat, exceeding the total quantity used by all Allied forces in the four years of World War 1. Among the Army’s armamentarium were 2,000 staunch M-1 Abrams tanks fired up for the war and burning 250 gallons of fuel per hour. The US Air Force (USAF) is the single largest consumer of jet fuel in the world. Fathom, if you can, the astronomical fuel usage of USAF fighter planes: the F-4 Phantom Fighter burns more than 1,600 gallons of jet fuel per hour and peaks at 14,400 gallons per hour at supersonic speeds. The B-52 Stratocruiser, with eight jet engines, guzzles 500 gallons per minute; ten minutes of flight uses as much fuel as the average driver does in one year of driving! A quarter of the world’s jet fuel feeds the USAF fleet of flying killing machines; in 2006, they consumed as much fuel as US planes did during the Second World War (1941-1945) — an astounding 2.6 billion gallons.
Is Climate the Worst Casualty of War?
Common Dreams July 2018
According to Steve Kretzmann, director of Oil Change International, “The Iraq war was responsible for at least 141 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MMTCO2e) from March 2003 through December 2007.” That’s more CO2e than 60 percent of all countries, and those figures are only from the first four years. We downsized the war in December of 2011, but still haven’t left, so the U.S. invasion and 15 years of occupation has likely generated upwards of 400 million metric tons of CO2e to date.
