The Elephant In The Room Of #ClimateEmergency: Pentagon Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Source: "PentagonFuel Use, Climate Change, and the Costs of War" Neta C. Crawford, Boston University, June 12. 2019

I've been fortunate to meet some of the younger climate activists in Maine recently, those organizing Climate Strikes and also support for the landmark Juliana v. US climate justice legal challenge.

What is striking to me is that young and old alike have been kept effectively ignorant of the central fact that is the elephant in the room of climate emergency: Pentagon greenhouse gas emissions.

As we can see from the chart above, the Pentagon consumes the lion's share of U.S. fuel. That is not even counting its many contractors, such as General Dynamics' Bath Iron Works ship yard here in Maine. More on that in a minute.

Fuel use likewise makes the Pentagon the biggest greenhouse gas emitter of any organization on the planet. Indeed, its CO2 boot print is larger than that of many nations. 

Forbes used Professor Neta Crawford's research to produce a graphic illustration of this alarming fact:

Why have we been so ignorant of this central fact in understanding climate emergency? 

Because, as the report notes, "emissions from international bunker fuels (for military aircraft and ships) and multilateral wars were excluded from national accounts in the Kyoto Protocol negotiations in 1998."

Thus we have the ironic and quite possibly suicidal situation where, in Professor Crawford's words:

"The Pentagon views climate change as a threat...to national security...Yet the Pentagon does not acknowledge that its own fuel use is a major contributor to climate change."

One is science, the other is politics. Our planet's atmosphere, climate, and ability to sustain mammalian life can be understood via science; Bill Nye, science guy, is now predicting the dire effects of climate change for human life will begin as early as 10-15 years from now if we continue down the same path. More conservative scientists are saying 50 years.

Politicians, on the other hand, continue kissing the ring of fossil fuel giants and weapons manufacturers; the latter are so wealthy they are sometimes referred to as the 1% of the 1%. They vote to fund wars for control of the fossil fuels that are killing us, and this is true whether they have D, R or I after their names.

Dud Hendrick of Veterans for Peace called out Maine's congressional delegation for their failure of leadership to address the climate crisis in his piece this week in Common Dreams, "A Call to Put Down Arms."

Hendrick will join me and others for a news conference on June 21 in Portland calling for conversion of the largest weapons factory in Maine, the Bath Iron Works shipyard. We have a great coalition of Native, environmental, peace and faith leaders joining the Conversion Campaign -- yet not a single elected official at the municipal, state or national level had yet found the courage to accept our invitation to join us on June 21.

The following day, dozens will protest at Bath Iron Works as yet another carbon-belching war ship is celebrated.

Be there if you can on Saturday, June 22 at 8-10am in Bath to demand demand conversion of the ship yard to address climate emergency. Let's turn this ship around, before it's too late.