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.

You Okay With Over Half Your Discretionary Tax Dollars Going To The Pentagon? ('Cause CEOs Need New Yachts)

Or to put it another way,

Weapons are the US's #1 industrial export.  When weapons are your #1 industrial export, what is your global marketing strategy for that product line?


The good folks at National Priorities Project have done our federal budget homework for us again.

Tax receipt: https://www.nationalpriorities.org/interactive-data/taxday/average/2018/us/receipt/

Full Tax Day analysis and fact sheets: https://www.nationalpriorities.org/analysis/2019/tax-day-2019/

Here are a few of their sample tweets for April 15, 2019. They are basing their calculations on federal taxes paid in 2018 covering the year 2017:

Average annual U.S. tax bill for public housing: $9.79. We can afford more. #ShowTheReceipts #TaxDay2019

The average taxpayer paid $225 to military contractor Lockheed Martin, but only $9.79 for public housing.  #ShowTheReceipts #TaxDay2019

The average tax bill for welfare (TANF) is just $6.50 per month. Military contractors take $144 per month.  #ShowTheReceipts #TaxDay2019

The average taxpayer last year paid $180 for all diplomacy and foreign aid, compared to almost nineteen times as much — $3,395 – for the Pentagon and military. #ShowTheReceipts #TaxDay2019

President Trump wants to eliminate the Low Income Heating and Energy Assistance Program, which costs the average taxpayer just $16.32 per year. #ShowTheReceipts #TaxDay2019

Meanwhile, corporate fat cats (like "defense" contractors) are paying less and less of their fair share.

Join individuals and groups calling for conversion of General Dynamics' Bath Iron Works shipyard to address climate change. Sponsoring organizations include Americans Who Tell the Truth, Citizens Opposing Active Sonar Threats (COAST), Durham Quaker Meeting, Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space, Island Peace & Justice, Maine Natural Guard, Maine Veterans for Peace, Maine War Tax Resistance Resource Center, Midcoast Peace & Justice Group, Pax Christi Maine, Peace Action Maine, Peace & Justice Center of Eastern Maine, Peace & Justice Group of Waldo County, PeaceWorks of Greater Brunswick, 350 Maine and Peninsula Peace & Justice.

Protests At BIW Warship Launch On April 27: Convert Weapons Industry To Address Climate Change

This press release goes out to Maine news media this week. Please share!

MEDIA ADVISORY: PROTESTERS AT WARSHIP LAUNCH AT BIW WILL CALL FOR CONVERSION OF THE SHIPYARD TO ADDRESS CLIMATE CHANGE

Statewide peace groups will gather to protest the “christening”[sic] of a Zumwalt class warship at General Dynamics’ Bath Iron Works shipyard on April 27. The ship will be named for President Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ), who was driven from office by anti war protesters over his conduct of the Vietnam War.

Bruce Gagnon of Brunswick, a member of Veterans for Peace (VFP) who became a activist while in the Air Force during the Vietnam era, said, “Our real security needs as a nation are to urgently address climate change and plan for sea level rise that is already underway. How will this affect BIW’s shipyard in Bath?"

"Continuing to build expensive, provocative and polluting weapon systems like Zumwalt destroyers ignores climate change as the biggest threat to our collective safety.”

Left to right: Bruce Gagnon and Mary Beth Sullivan outside General Dynamics' Bath Iron Works shipyard, February 2018

Gagnon has helped organize protests at BIW for the past several years. In 2018 he fasted for 37 days to oppose a tax giveaway by the state of Maine to General Dynamics.

The Pentagon has identified climate change as the greatest national and global security threat---yet, at the same time, the Pentagon has the largest carbon footprint on the planet.

War machines endanger all life and exacerbate climate change.

A 2017 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration report projected at least a six inch sea level rise by 2050.

Banner by the Artists' Rapid Response Team (ARRT!) of the Maine Union of Visual Artists

“Endorsing the Conversion Campaign addresses these truths and provides a rational “lens” through which to “see” an apocalyptic reality,” says Dud Hendrick of VFP, one of a dozen organizations sponsoring the BIW Conversion Campaign. “The absolute imperative of “Conversion” is all the more undeniable to us in Maine, having the longest coastline in the nation. And, a widely predicted collapse of the lobster fishery in Maine waters due to the associated rising water temperatures would be cataclysmic in every conceivable respect for my home town of Deer Isle.”

“Conversion” should influence every decision our Congressional delegates make in the conduct of their work as our representatives,” concluded Hendrick.

“Making warships at BIW is not even a good jobs policy. Researchers have consistently found that investment of the same resources in sustainable energy solutions like commuter trains or wind turbines would produce many more jobs,” said Mary Beth Sullivan of PeaceWorks of greater Brunswick. “We need conversion of the BIW shipyard now.”

Sullivan referenced the UMass Amherst study in 2011, “The U.S. Employment Effects of Military and Domestic Spending Priorities: 2011 Update” by Robert Pollin and Heidi Garrett-Peltier.

Civil resistance action at BIW on April 1, 2017 resulted in nine arrests for criminal trespass; all defendants were acquitted of the charge, with the judge ruling that they were exercising their 1st amendment right to free speech.

Another PeaceWorks member has spent the past year gathering names of people willing to engage in civil resistance on April 27. Karen Wainberg of Brunswick says she had more than 50 names on her list at this time.

Mark Roman of Solon plans to be there representing the Maine Natural Guard, an organization dedicated to pointing out the Pentagon’s enormous carbon footprint.

“I cannot stand by and watch lawmakers waste our tax dollars on warships that are huge polluters when that money could be spent on climate change solutions, or on housing and food for the 43,000 children in Maine living in poverty,” said Roman.

He has been active in the Bring Our War Dollars Home campaign at BIW since 2009.

Naming the warship after LBJ supports the Pentagon’s attempt at revisionist history around America’s most unpopular war. VFP, which was founded in Maine by Vietnam War veterans, maintains a website called Vietnam Full Disclosure to counter the Pentagon’s efforts to whitewash that war. Several VFP members from around the U.S. are expected at the April 27 protest.

Organizations sponsoring the April 27 protests and resistance include Americans Who Tell the Truth, Citizens Opposing Active Sonar Threats (COAST), Durham Quaker Meeting, Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space, Island Peace & Justice, Maine Natural Guard, Maine Veterans for Peace, Maine War Tax Resistance Resource Center, Midcoast Peace & Justice Group, Pax Christi Maine, Peace Action Maine, Peace & Justice Center of Eastern Maine, Peace & Justice Group of Waldo County, PeaceWorks of Greater Brunswick, and Peninsula Peace & Justice.

##

Maine Natural Guard At Peace Hub In Portland Climate Action Saturday, September 8 Noon

Calling all Maine Natural Guard members to help bring the essential message that the Pentagon is the biggest polluter on the planet to a climate action being organized by 350 Maine:

RISE for Climate, Jobs and Justice

Saturday Sep 8 -- noon

Portland, Maine

The Maine Natural Guard will display our MNG t-shirts and messaging:

Click here to order your shirt

or other costumes:

That's Natasha Mayers holding her giant (cardboard) carbon footprint

That's Cynthia Howard as a polar bear who recognizes the largest cause of carbon polluting

We will carry signs such as:

​image: Suzanna Lasker

Image: Lisa Savage

Image: Jason Rawn 

Bruce Gagnon in action for life on the planet

Last Run (serigraph by Kenny Cole)

Also, since part of the call by organizers is for jobs (i.e. RISE for Climate, Jobs and Justice) messages about the urgent need for conversion of the military-industrial mess we're in would also be a great fit. For example:

Mary Beth Sullivan showing that public transportation light rail could be built at Bath Iron Works instead of warships.

Jenny Gray sharing her conversion vision

You can join the Natural Guard campaign by signing the pledge here.

Be a communication worker and help bring news of the path of real resistance to people befuddled by corporate media messaging.

Add your name to join the Natural Guard effort from wherever you are!

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.

Mark Roman, Ridgely Fuller and other climate activists at Bath Iron Works bridge banner drop

We welcome all who want to help bring this important message on September 8, one which is very often omitted from climate events.  FMI call me at 399-7623

thanks!

Lisa

For more information on the September 8 event:

This is our invitation to participate in a joint action as part of the global RISE for Climate, Jobs and Justice  in Portland on Saturday, September 8th beginning at noon. It’s  part of a worldwide mobilization taking place four days before the  Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco. 350 Maine is  coordinating the event focused on the rising and warming waters of  the Gulf of Maine, but we expect the Maine Chapter of the Sierra  Club to join us as co-sponsors. Our goals for the event are to move the state legislature toward  climate action; get voters to ask what candidates in the November  election are going to do to take action on climate change; and to  register new voters. We want people to see and understand how much is at stake and how important it is to elect people willing to  work seriously on environmental issues as well as jobs and justice.    

The New Orleans Style Funeral procession we are planning will  pass through the center of town and end at a point currently being  determined, but at a place where a modest and active rally can take  place combined with voter registration.  We want as many people  as possible to be involved in the action with individual groups  taking responsibility for a specific components of the overall  program.  This should be a fun event that carries a serious message  and purpose.      Accordingly, some of the ideas being considered include:  ● The Leftist Marching Band to lead the funeral procession  ● A coffin containing a Gulf of Maine codfish and/or other  endangered species inside   ● Puppets, cheerleaders and dancers  ● People in costumes that emphasize mourning or sea level  rise  ● Floats or similar (e.g. Noah’s Ark, a giant lobster, fishermen  with empty nets, etc.)  ● Fishermen & lobstermen with empty traps and nets (income  & job loss)  ● Symbols of rising, warming seas (e.g. blue ribbon)  ● Children, teens, college students participating in any way  they see fit  ● Rally point activities that are lively and active:  o With local performers (singers, dancers, band)  o Limited talks that include funeral orations or memorial  addresses  o Tables with displays of Portland areas likely to be  flooded, climate action plans (simple, easy things  everyone can do), Children’s Trust, etc.  o Voter registration  ● YOUR IDEA PLEASE

The event wants to be big and memorable.  Would you be  interested in helping us pull it off?  Will you get involved and help  make it happen?    You, ------, are invited to play an active role in the overall  planning and event coordination and/or to simply take an active role  in the event itself.  Since we are working on a tight schedule, we’d  like to hear from you a.s.a.p. one way or another.     Let us know what you think.

With best regards, Espahbad Dodd & Chuck Spanger, 350 Maine 

Take the Natural Guard pledge 

to connect the dots between 

militarism and environmental harm.

Natural Guard Pledge: Speak Up To Call Out The Pentagon For Its Major Role In Causing Climate Chaos

The Eagle Creek wildfire burns in the background as golfers play at the Beacon Rock Golf Course in North Bonneville, Washington, on September 4, 2017.  Kate Beckwith, Facebook

My friend Janet Weil has been updating me about forest fires raging in the Columbia River basin. As the daughter of a forester, she is heartbroken at news that these forests may never be restored. Global warming means the conditions for such living organisms may no longer be present in the U.S. Pacific Northwest.

Meanwhile, another friend who relocated to the Florida Keys this year to teach school has finally updated her blog so I know that she and her family are alive. They evacuated to northern Florida and then, ultimately, to Alabama to get out of harms way from Hurricane Irene. They expect to find nothing left worth saving when they return home to see the effects of the 10 foot storm surge.

A new acquaintance who grew up in Texas told me last weekend that where he's from is either on fire or under water right now. Hurricane Harvey's toxic flood waters, full of fecal bacteria and chemicals from oil refineries, are a menace to life in Houston and an enormous surrounding area.

But hey, it's beautiful in Maine this time of year and a young moose was sighted at the end of our driveway a couple of days ago. 

The photo of golfers ignoring the raging fire in the distance kind of says it all.

This coming weekend I'll be at the Sierra Club of Maine's annual climate conference tabling for the Maine Natural Guard.

I'm going to be there because environmental organizations continue to ignore the carbon belching elephant in the room: the military. Liberals or progressives or whatever you want to call them willfully ignore the role of the Pentagon as the largest consumer of fossil fuels on the planet. It consumes more than many countries, and more than any other organization.

Should the Sierra Club really need to be reminded of this fact?

Actually, it's not a reminder because many people never knew this central truth about climate change to begin with.

The corporate media have done such a thorough job of directing our gaze away from the truth about the environmental, social and moral costs of the "war on terror" that the public remains profoundly ignorant.

Even socialist publications like Jacobin can publish an entire summer issue devoted to climate change and not mention the Pentagon or its wars once. WTF? (Janet sent them a corrective message. You can, too.)

Image: Anthony Freda

I'm looking forward to spending this Saturday with my husband and our friends Mary Beth Sullivan and Bruce Gagnon sharing some useful information. I'll also be offering people a chance to buy a good looking Maine Natural Guard t-shirt printed on 100% organic cotton.

People can join the Natural Guard from wherever they find themselves in climate chaos. 

Taking the pledge is easy. Just read it:

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, we 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, we remind others of the need to examine the role of the Pentagon and its many contractors in contributing to planetary warming.

and click here to add your name.

Then, get busy sharing some truth.

P.S. If you can make it to Washington, DC this month you can attend the first ever (?!) conference to connect the dots between the Pentagon===>climate change. Details on No War 2017: War and the Environment here.

War As A Main Driver To Climate Chaos

Pentagon Planet image by Anthony Freda

This week scientists and environmentalists who work for the U.S. government were muzzled by the gang of thieves who have seized power in Washington DC. As one such step, the official twitter accounts of the National Park Service were brought to heel so that they would stop tweeting about realities like climate change.

National Park Service employees responded by setting up many alternative twitter feeds that cannot be so easily commandeered to suppress the truth. A favorite post from one of these newest accounts:

Share if you're with her!#sciencematters #imwithher #ClimateChangeIsReal #resist pic.twitter.com/x3Vko1CkST

— AltYosemiteNPS (@AltYosemiteNPS) January 28, 2017

I am with Her, and in that spirit I offer this installment in a series of posts inspired by this podcast interview with Professor Tom Hastings of Portland State University. (My previous post focused on the Pentagon's carbon footprint.)


Hastings was interviewed by environmental activists Sherri Mitchell and Rivera Sun. Sun pointed out that "the U.S. has chosen to use extreme forms of violence to...dominate its territorial and economic interests around the world. This choice comes hand in hand with environmental devastation."

Hastings:

If you add the refugees from war to the refugees from climate chaos and then you look to the roots of both then you see this is really stemming from our methods of managing conflict. Our methods of managing conflict are the root of most of our environmental problems as well.

Mitchell observed that "worldwide... there's an incredible amount of land that's under the control of the military. How do we address those issues and try to clean up some of the lands?"

Hastings: "For many years the Center for Defense Information -- which was an organization composed of nothing but high level military officials, retired -- they presented their budget every year as an alternative to the budget presented by either the president or the Pentagon. And, on average, they came in at about 1/3 of the military budget.

The reason for that was that they proposed that we only defend the United States. They believed in military means, they just did not believe in imperialism. They didn't believe in global power projection. They didn't believe in having 800 military bases on the sovereign soil of other people's countries."

Hastings is engaged in studies of the theories of civilian based defense. He mentioned a recently published book, Security without weapons: Rethinking violence, nonviolent action, and civilian protection by M.S. Wallace saying, "She did a lot of field work with the very forward organizations that are providing nonviolent security such as nonviolent peace force but also folding in the theories of civilian-based defense."

We can begin to work our way out of looking at defending everything by the threat or the actual commission of violence. To look at those possibilities and then to run a cost benefit analysis.

Aleppo, 2014  Getty Images

Hastings described how he and graduate assistant Dana Ghazi presented U.S. senators with a cost-benefit analysis around bombing Syria.  Their report, from 2011, is rather prescient:

Key talking points:

• The resultant costs of bombing and arming any faction in Syria are too high and will not lead to the expected outcome

• There are many constructive nonviolent alternatives which should not be mistaken for inaction

• Immediate strong steps are: arms embargo, support of Syrian civil society, pursue meaningful diplomacy, economic sanctions on ISIS and supporters and humanitarian intervention

• Long-term strong steps are: withdrawal of US troops, end oil imports from the region, dissolve terrorism at its roots

Hastings added in the interview, "When you look at the thousands of analysts that the Pentagon employs it just really seems like they would throw in a few people from the field of conflict resolution...the costs of violent conflict are so high." He noted that when the government of Norway has a conflict, they call in a conflict resolution specialist. But "when the govt of the U.S. has a conflict, they call the generals.".

Hastings also noted his view that "granting to other people the same amount of sovereignty that we would expect for ourselves, the reasons to go to war...go away."

Mitchell responded: "I think that one of the things that that assumes is that the reasons that we're often given for going to war are accurate when we know that they're not. 

That the majority of the reasons behind our warring around the world are really about conquest. It's really about securing resources that belong to others. 

And so you know we have to do more than just address our sticking our nose into everybody else's business. We also have to really educate people about the fact that many of the dog and pony shows that we see in the media regarding war are really manufactured out of whole cloth. That there's very little reality to them."

Versions of this meme are being shared widely on the interwebs.

The conflicts of interest created when investors influence government policies that will benefit them financially are not a new problem, but they do appear to be ramping up under the new regime. Members of Congress work overtime to bring pork barrel "defense" contracts to their constituents always looking away from the environmental impact and hiding behind the claim that they produce needed jobs. 

Then, "national security" is invoked as the alleged reason why weapons must be deployed. Who speaks for Mother Earth?

Hastings believes that its is "100% up to civil society to address" this problem. He described an effort he was part of in Wisconsin to close a Navy base which "had a very faulty environmental impact statement." A coalition of Native and non-native environmental advocates won an injunction to close the base but "it took the Navy about ten minutes to go down to the circuit court in Chicago...to lift the injunction." The Navy's statement was without details; it simply cited the need for "national security."

Those who profit from rampant militarism are not likely to recognize that real national security is significantly at risk from climate chaos and environmental pollution that threatens life itself.

Still, Hastings is optimistic. He believes that "whichever administration is in power we're still able to do things at the civil society level..as long as we  continue to build bigger coalitions on the ground, we can win."

Next up in my series of posts about the War On Mother Earth: superfund sites. Who created the mess, and why cleaning them up might be a path forward out of the militarized march to destruction that we're on.