CODE RED: Militarization and Climate Change
‘A Just Transition to a Regenerative Economy’ must end wars, military culture, and the violence of militarized forces and police in our communities and across the world.[1] – Sha Merirei Ongelungel, Indigenous Peoples’ Network
The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) has over 800 bases and over 4,775 defense sites in the world. DOD owns 8.8 million acres in the U.S. alone with at least one base in each state.[2]
For decades the U.S. military has contaminated the air, soil, and water worldwide, including in the United States, by burning or burying contaminants on land or dumping them in the ocean and then hiding or simply not reporting major pollution. Aside from fossil fuels some of the toxins are: bacteria, pathogens, metals such as lead and mercury, and per-and polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS) substances in foams used in firefighting.
Some examples of polluted areas are:
Marinara Islands: In 2016, after Pacific war games near the Marinara Islands, the military left behind tons of toxic waste — dumped into the ocean — including heavy metals, motor gasoline and chemicals harmful to humans and marine life. This dumping practice by the U.S. military has been going on there for decades.[3]
Pacifica, Asian Islands, Palau, Marshall Islands Micronesia: The colonial legacy and neo-colonization does exist. Compacts of Free Association are treaties with the United States that subject people to practices from the Department of Defense and armed forces: pollution and failure to report emissions.[4]
Red Hill Naval Base, Hawaii: On November 28, 2021 approximately 19,000 gallons of jet fuel and water leaked from underground fuel storage tanks at Red Hill Navy Base and contaminated two wells providing drinking water for over 93,000 persons. The tank complex sits only 100 feet above Honolulu’s main aquifer. Many persons went to emergency rooms with rashes, vomiting and diarrhea.[5]
Okinawa, Japan: Extensive water contamination comes from chemicals contained in firefighting foams (PFAS) used on the military bases. Oil contamination comes from shuttling of fuel near Defense Department facilities on Okinawa, farmers’ fields and rivers that are polluted and have contaminated the drinking water sources of 450,000 residents.[6] On Okinawa there is no official push for accountability and unlike in the U.S. where citizens have demanded action, active citizen groups are met with many barriers created by the U.S. military.
No Reporting = No Accountability
Note that the bases previously mentioned are not U.S. bases in Europe. Much of the pollution that is not reported is in the Pacific area. All bases worldwide have some pollution with burn pits and PFAS for firefighting and CO2 from jet fuel. But these bases are on Indigenous lands where the Indigenous populations are treated shabbily, to say the least, by the U.S., with long histories of colonization. This is true in Africa as well where the U.S. military protects the interests of U.S. multinational corporations that virtually steal the resources of African countries. The people who live in these areas are already the most affected by the climate crisis and have the most yet to lose.
Some other examples of military contamination:
PFAS in toxic levels was found in the water at Minnesota’s Camp Ripley and among most other military bases around the U.S.[7]
Depleted uranium (DU) is a radioactive by-product of uranium enrichment used to coat ammunition such as tank shells and “bunker busting” missiles because its density makes it ideal for piercing armor. DU was used extensively in wars in Iraq and was found to contaminate the water and soil and cause birth defects. It is also thought by some to be a cause of Gulf War Syndrome, affecting many Iraq veterans.[8]
Burn Pits are the most common means of toxic exposure; they have been used extensively since 1990 to protect privacy and leave as little footprint behind as possible. Service members use jet fuel to burn waste including chemicals, paint, medical and human waste, metal/aluminum cans, munitions and other unexploded ordnance, petroleum and lubricant products, plastics, rubber, wood, and discarded food.[9]
Agent Orange is an herbicide and defoliant used extensively during the Vietnam War to remove the tree leaves and tropical foliage, affecting thousands of veterans and Vietnamese. Exposure can cause multiple cancers and other serious health problems. It is now affecting their grandchildren.[10]
COP Conferences, the Paris Agreement, and Net Zero
In order to understand the role of the military it is necessary to look at the background of the United Nations COP conferences attended by nations worldwide and industrialists every year.
What is COP? COP stands for Conference of the Parties. In diplomatic language “the parties” refers to the 197 nations that agreed to a new environmental pact, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, at a meeting in 1992.[11] These are the meetings where representatives from the nations of the world and the industrialists make decisions. The 26th COP meeting was held in November 2021.
What is Net Zero? To “go net zero” is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and/or to ensure that any ongoing emissions are balanced by removal from the atmosphere so global warming stops.[12] COP21 in 2015 is best known for the Paris Agreement, which asked countries to go net zero to achieve this balance and also asked wealthy countries to give money to developing countries to help them reach net zero goals.[13] When Donald Trump was chosen as president he delayed participation and finally turned his back on the whole Agreement.[14]
The military is the elephant in the room at all COP gatherings. For example, at COP26, independent reporter Abby Martin of The Empire Files confronted Nancy Pelosi for overseeing massive increases in the Pentagon—a greater polluter than 140 countries combined—while touting “historic” leadership on climate change and skirting around the issue of U.S. imperialism, stating clearly that “security” (military control) was most important, all the disastrous effects of the climate crisis being nothing but a big etcetera.[15]
Mia Motley, Prime Minister of Barbados, at the Opening Ceremony of COP26, November 1, 2021 sounded an alarm:[16]
CODE RED. Code Red to the G7 countries. Code Red to the G20. Earth to COP — that’s what it said. Earth to COP. For those who have eyes to see, for those who have ears to listen, and for those who have a heart to feel, 1.5 is what we need to survive; 2 degrees, … is a death sentence for the people [of the Global South.] We’ve come here today to say ‘try harder’ because [we] need our actions now, not next year, not in the next decade.
In her speech she identified several areas that need to be heeded: nationalism, technology, and financing solutions to the climate crisis. She pointed out that these areas are dependent on technology that has not yet been developed, especially in the case of net zero, which is the inadequate plan of the industrialists that the U.S and other nations have signed onto, and is not the same as zero emissions, which means no emissions at all.
How can we trust technology even if it is successfully developed for net zero? How can we trust the Big Oil companies who, with inflated prices, collectively made 93.3 billion dollars in the first quarter of 2022.[17]
Let’s ask the families of some who died in the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico (2010) about how reliable technology is. Net zero is dependent on technology that has not yet been developed.[18] To achieve what they call “the balance” with net zero is expensive, not guaranteed to be effective, and allows the Big Polluters their profits. It is a slow solution at best when a slow solution will not save the planet.
Military Omissions and Emissions
There’s a Pentagon-size hole in President Biden’s plans to cut government CO2, carbon, and greenhouse gas emissions. Biden signed an executive order in January 2022 directing the government to reach 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2030 and net-zero emissions by 2050 [in line with COP26 goals.] It also calls for eliminating climate pollution from federal buildings and vehicles.[19]
But the executive order exempts anything related to national security, intelligence, or military combat and training. That means Biden’s order covers only a fraction of federal emissions. While military leaders insist they share the president’s decarbonization goal there is no plan for them to meet it. The military has actually done very little to decrease CO2 emission and other pollutants, greenwashing their actions to end climate change. Since 2001, the military has accounted for 77 to 80 percent of federal energy use, according to a 2019 study released by Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs.[20]
In the April 2022 webinar “Ecology of War,” Prof. Neta Crawford, co-director of the Costs of War project at Brown University’s Watson Institute, and Prof. Alan Robock discuss the role of the military in the climate crisis.[21]
Crawford says most technological innovations the military produce are only useful for military purposes: “I wouldn’t want the military leading us to the green transition that we need. Commercial, that is civilian technology, would be much better suited to making a rapid transition.”
Prof. Roback elaborates: “There’s enough wind and sun on the earth to power the whole earth with solar panels and windmills, and we just need to a little bit better storage and ways to transmit it. So we don’t need them to help, we need them to get out of the way and stop emitting CO2.”
Neta Crawford goes on to say that ‘the climate crisis will kill people: it already is.” The solution to global warming is to leave the fossil fuels in the ground and switch as quickly as we can to renewable sources:
We are up against two massive power centers though, the fossil fuel industry and the military-industrial complex. They make lots of money and have armies of lobbyists going to Congress telling them other things and giving them money so that they can run for re-election. It’s very frustrating fighting against that, but that’s what we’re up against.
Addressing the climate crisis requires holding the military-industrial-congressional complex accountable and dismantling that complex, as well as holding President Biden accountable for exempting the military from cutting federal emissions.
Michael T. Klare, whose latest book is All Hell Breaking Loose: The Pentagon’s Perspective on Climate Change, offers a bleak view of what will happen if we follow the warfare state instead of choosing to save the planet—the latter being a track the leaders of state are now pursuing instead of cooperating around the climate crisis.[22] While Biden frames perpetual war as being about freedom and democracy, others see it as raw imperialism—as U.S. corporate wars of hegemony and empire—and continued oppression by the ruling elites to maintain their own power and profits at great expense to the poorer countries on earth in the Global South.
Above all, U.S. corporations continue to drag their feet as they have for decades now by not addressing climate change until it has become a climate crisis.
Another barrier is that prominent environmental groups and individuals do not make the connections between militarism and the climate crisis. Early on in their activism they thought they could sway major military and gas and oil corporations and thus did not wish to alienate them, a practice they still basically follow. However, many antiwar groups nationwide, including Women Against Military Madness (WAMM) and Veterans for Peace, have stepped forward to address militarism and the climate crisis.
In spite of the obstacles, activists are not without hope. Thousands of people representing many climate justice organizations worldwide attended COP26 and held their own conference. The growth of communities coming together to address climate issues and the peace and justice issues that go along with them is also work toward an equitable regenerative economy. The young people who will inherit this planet are stepping into organizing and resistance and solidarity is growing across the planet. These are all signs of hope.
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ACTION: WAMM’s Military Madness Against the Earth (EMMAE) action group is a new committee looking for more members (call the office at 612-827-5364). On Mondays from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m., join us in bannering at the Governor’s Mansion to Stop Line 3 and related issues.
Sue Ann Martinson is a member of WAMM’s End Military Madness Against the Earth action group and an associate member of Veterans for Peace, Chapter 27. She edits and publishes an online alternative news and news analysis source, Rise Up Times: Media for Justice and Peace (riseuptimes.org).
[1] Sha Merirei Ongelungel, Indigenous Peoples Network, tinyurl.com/43txdwam. Part of a larger panel entitled ‘End Militarism to Stop Climate Change’ at COP26., tinyurl.com/rtrbkxbj.
[2] Federal Land Ownership Overview and Data. Congressional Research Service, 21 Feb. 2020.
[3] End Militarism to Stop Climate Change. 10 Nov. 2021, tinyurl.com/rtrbkxbjtinyurl.com/rtrbkxbj. Supporting groups include Center for Constitutional Rights, Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, MADRE and Indigenous Peoples’ Network. This video is on Facebook.
[4] Ibid
[5] Wright, Ann. “Imminent Peril of Drinking Water Contamination by U.S. Navy Fuel Tanks.” ScheerPost.com, Popular Resistance, 29 Dec. 2021, tinyurl.com/2pmt6wwz.
[6] Mitchell, Jon. “US Military Hid Fuel Pipeline Flaws from Public in Okinawa.” The Intercept, 22 Dec. 2021, tinyurl.com/3ktwbb92.
[7] “Tests Find Notorious “Forever Chemicals” at Elevated Levels in Drinking Water at Minnesota Army Base.” EWG.org, 12 Sept. 2019, tinyurl.com/5n7k2j97.
[8] Chughtai, Shaheen. “Washington’s Secret Nuclear War.” Aljazeera.net, 7 Sept. 2004, tinyurl.com/mrxeyr35.
[9] “Burn Pits.” IAVA.org, tinyurl.com/4eb4px3a.
[10] Harvey, Ian. Agent Orange’s Long Legacy: Its Now Affecting Vets’ Grandchildren. 31 May 2018, tinyurl.com/2tzj23pj.
[11] “What Does COP Stand For?” The New York Times, 13 Nov. 2021, tinyurl.com/u9aveb8z.
[12] “What Is Net Zero?” Net Zero Climate, tinyurl.com/bdfp48um.
[13] “The Paris Agreement.” The United Nations, Climate Action, tinyurl.com/33wp9cb9.
[14] Daley, Jim. “U.S. Exits Paris Climate Accord after Trump Stalls Global Warming Action for Four Years.” Scientific American, 4 Nov. 2020, tinyurl.com/yc3zrekk.
[15] “Solving Climate Change Requires Ending US Imperialism and Militarism.” ProPeace Report, tinyurl.com/2h95kb3b. Accessed 15 May 2022.
[16] Goodman, Amy. “Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley: 2 Degrees of Global Warming Is “Death Sentence” for Millions.” Democracy Now!, 4 Nov. 2021, tinyurl.com/4vzamh8s.
[17] Milman, Oliver. “Largest Oil and Gas Producers Made close to $100bn in First Quarter of 2022.” The Guardian, 13 May 2022, tinyurl.com/bdzmk82c.
[18] Goodman, Amy, Mia Mottley. Democracy Now! Ibid.
[19] Aton, Adam. “Military Exempt from Biden Order to Cut Federal Emissions.” Climate Wire, E&E News, 22 Dec. 2021, tinyurl.com/2zn7dra6.
[20] Crawford, Neta C. “Costs of War.” Costs of War, Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, 13 Nov. 2019, tinyurl.com/4x27vut5.
[21] “The Ecology of War.” Coalition for Peace Action, tinyurl.com/3v3d7knk. Accessed 24 Apr. 2022.
[22] Klare, Michael T. “The Ukraine War’s Collateral Damage.” TomDispatch.com, 22 May 2022, tinyurl.com/mr2ukfx4.