Public Opinion Turning As Pentagon Planet Keeps On Burning

Source: Brown University's Watson Institute Costs of War Project

It was 114 degrees in France last month during the hottest June ever recorded on Earth.

The executive branch of the U.S. government's response? Worship the war machine. Roll out the tanks, and promise that 'Murica will plant a flag on Mars. (In case you were confused about NASA being a branch of the military.)

My opinion: they may be winning the battle for increased Pentagon funding, but they are losing the war of public opinion.

© Chappatte  www.chappatte.com

I keep a running list of articles and studies pointing out the connection between the climate emergency and military greenhouse gas emissions. Lately I am able to update it every few days, a good sign that people are waking up to the grim truth: if you're talking about climate without talking about the military, you're just whistling in the dark. (You can hear Rep. Chellie Pingree whistling in April before paying homage in June to major polluter General Dynamics as they celebrated completion of yet another carbon belching war ship at Bath Iron Works.)

The latest entries on my list come from quite different sources:

Published by The Roar  July 5, 2019

There is no such thing as a green war

by Eleanor Goldfield, Act Out!

Published by The Conversation  June 24, 2019

US Military is a bigger polluter than as many as 140 countries -- shrinking this war machine is a must

by Benjamin Neimark, Lancaster University, Oliver Belcher, Durham University & Patrick Bigger, Lancaster University

Young people are especially aware of the threat of climate disruption, because the news is also full of dire predictions like this one from Nafeez Ahmed in Vice: "New report suggests high likelihood of human civilization coming to an end in 2050."

Callous disregard of scientific facts is why information management is crucial to the regime, and should be to those of us in opposition to burning the world down in a display of patriotic ignorance.

Meredith Bruskin, Connie Jenkins, Russell Wray, Dud Hendrick, Rob Shetterly & Richard Kane  Photo credit: Amy Browne

Here in Maine we have allies in the information effort, like community radio station WERU. Producer Amy Browne recently interviewed five of the Inouye 22 and you can hear them explain why they blocked the road at General Dynamics' Bath Iron Works shipyard on June 27 archived here.

The corporate press covered our civil resistance actions lightly if at all. Two sisters who were arrested together took them to task in a letter to the editor that did manage to slip through:

Absence from BIW ‘christening,’ activist events reflects poorly on Press Herald
A robust local resistance, a former presidential candidate's visit, a display of hypocrisy by Gov. Mills and 'Maine's latest contribution' to climate change are all newsworthy. 

Last Saturday, demonstrators gathered near the entrances to Bath Iron Works and a nearby intersection to peacefully protest the “christening” of destroyer USS Daniel Inouye (read: implement of terror, violence and planetary destruction). 

Twenty-two veterans, artists, parents, teachers and others were arrested, and zero Portland Press Herald reporters covered this. If they had, they would have learned that, as a follow-up action to protest the cash bail system (which unfairly punishes poor people), nine protesters refused to pay release fees of $60 and were held at Two Bridges Regional Jail for the weekend. Kudos to those willing to spend the nicest weekend of the season behind bars! And each with a touching story as to why. 

The Press Herald would have known about this action and the central message of the demonstrators if a reporter had attended a news conference last Friday. At this event, youth climate activists, representatives from Maine’s First Nations and other notable speakers, including Dr. Jill Stein, spoke about converting BIW’s product line to a lucrative green and also peaceful one. At present, General Dynamics (BIW’s parent company), while receiving tens of millions in corporate welfare (aka our tax dollars), contributes to the U.S. military’s unprecedented carbon footprint by churning out obsolete implements of war like this one.

Also of note, Gov. Mills spoke in support at the “christening,” despite having signed the Green New Deal in Maine into law earlier that week (hypocrisy).

We’re at a loss for what qualifies as news these days. The Press Herald only reprinted a typo-riddled (but appreciated) Times Record article, which made no mention of the bail refusal action or Mills. Why isn’t the work of robust local activist communities, a former presidential candidate’s visit, the flip-floppy and disappointing actions of the state’s highest-ranking political officials and Maine’s latest contribution to the global climate crisis newsworthy? 

Ashley and Sophia Bahlkow 

North Yarmouth

The Earth's atmosphere does not care whether there is a D or an R after the name of chief executives celebrating carbon belching weapons of war.

But, the U.S. public cares a lot. A cascade of articles responding to the race to Mars invoked in the president's 4th of July remarks (which went hilariously off the tracks when his teleprompter shut down in heavy rain) have been sharing this simple truth:

To slow global warming, "Stop Building a Spaceship to Mars, and Just Plant Some Damn Trees" writes Jackie Flynn Mogensen in Mother Jones reporting on a climate study just published in the journal Science.

This begs the question, how would planting trees help politicians get big campaign donations from corporations? I'll bet you won't see the corporate press connecting those dots any time soon.

We have our work cut out for us.