The US Military Empire occupies 917 military bases across 98 countries. It is the largest institutional consumer of petroleum and emitter of greenhouse gases on the planet.The US lobbied to have military emissions excluded from the 1997 Kyoto Protocol and so military emissions are not counted for any country.
The Department of Defense (DOD) is America’s largest federal agency, having an annual budget of $824 billion as of 2023 that is expected to grow above $1 trillion by 2031.
The military is the main reason that our national debt has ballooned to $31.4 trillion, and as of 2024 interest payments on that debt have grown larger than actual spending on defense.
Between 2001 and 2022, the U.S. spent $8 trillion on war. While the U.S. comprises just over 4% of the world’s population, it is now responsible for 40% of global military spending, more than the next ten top-spending countries combined.
The DOD is also America’s – and the world’s – largest consumer of petroleum and emitter of greenhouse gases, predominantly from fueling its air force and its 917 military bases across 98 countries.
If it were a nation, the US military would have the highest per-capita emissions in the world (at 42 metric tons of CO2-eq per nearly 3 million staff members). For reference, the per-capita emissions for the US are 13.83 metric tons; per-capita emissions globally are 4.7 metric tons.
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Dr. Neta Crawford’s research on military emissions and fossil fuel use is what finally helped me realize that the US military is a massive and unaccountable contributor to climate change, even as it insists that its role is “elevating climate change as a national security priority.”
I found the brilliant “All Hail the Planet” series and this particular episode on how militaries are fueling the climate crisis soon after I found Dr. Crawford’s work.
The third video is from “Our Changing Climate” and looks at whether or not these environmental and monetary burdens caused by the military-industrial complex are justified.
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People Around the World are Taking Action Against War and Militarism
