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| Image: Kenny Cole globe "Worlds Seen and Foreseen”– Downtown area Windows / Skowhegan, Maine in 2011. It's about 32" in diameter and the materials are ink, gouache and paper mache. |
This oversight is ridiculous given that war and militarism are the leading cause of carbon pollution, global warming and climate chaos. Any time you spot this omission, know that the Democratic Party -- cheerleaders for every war the U.S. is currently engaged in -- is behind it.
Sister blogger Cecile Pineda has offered this corrective, a draft of a flyer to use at the upcoming April 29 climate actions.
(You can read more from the author of Apologies to a Whale: Words to Mend a World here.
Working with groups determined to participate in the April 29 climate mobilization and planning actions of their own, I offer this DRAFT of a flyer text which makes the connection between militarism with Climate Collapse (fits 8 1/2 X 11):
To Fight Global Warming & Planetary Degradation WE NEED PEACE
Fact 1: The U.S. Military is the greatest unreported polluter on the planet with uninhibited use of fossil fuels, massive creation of greenhouse gases, and extensive release of radioactive and chemical contaminants in the air, water, and soil.
Fact 2: While making war to control more oil, it is a top consumer of fossil fuels, burning 340,000 barrels a day, 80 percent of the federal energy demand.
Fact 3: The U.S. military has dumped corroding barrels of nuclear waste in the oceans, and chemical contaminants into the soils and water table.
Fact 4: Life on the planet cannot survive continued conventional war making, let alone nuclear war. U.S. wars have created sacrifice zones in the U.S. and worldwide, contaminated by the use of depleted uranium, land mines and cluster bombs.
Fact 5: The U.S. military is an agent of environmental degradation with its destruction of 70 acres of a Guam world heritage site coral reef for a naval harbor.
Fact 6: With its use of sonar, the U.S. Navy is accountable for the deaths of whales and dolphins, all animals which depend on their own sonar for survival.
Fact 7: Instead of making more jobs available for marginalized people, militarization reduces the number of jobs available in all other sectors, including teaching.
Fact 8: While profiting from its wars, the U.S. bankrupts other countries. The U.S. made $53 million on Gulf War I while costing 40 low & middle income countries 1 percent of the GDP, Yemen, 10 percent, and Jordan a whopping 25 percent.
Fact 8: Militarization is not good for kids, 33% of them live in poverty (that includes the U.S.), while the US spends 60% of its budget on militarization.
Sources:
Rosalie Bertell: Planet Earth
Peace Pays! Peace Pays! Peace Pays! Peace Pays!
If you'd like to help people connect the dots between the military and climate chaos, join Cecile and scores of dedicated environmental activists in taking the Natural Guard pledge:
I pledge to speak out about the effects of militarism on our environment, because the commons we all share that sustain life are valuable to me.
In discussions about security and safety, I will remind others of the need to count in the cost in pollution and fuel consumption of waging wars all around the planet.
In discussions about acting soon to protect our loved ones from the effects of climate chaos, I will remind others of the need to examine the role of the Pentagon and its many contractors in contributing to planetary warming.
Lisa Savage, Solon, ME
Mark Roman, Solon, ME
Bruce Gagnon, Bath, ME
Wade Fulmer
Curtis Cole
Bob Dale
Christine A. DeTroy
Eric Herter
Ann E. Ruthsdottir
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natasha mayers
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Beth Adams
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Starr C. Gilmartin, Trenton, ME
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