{"id":273708,"date":"2024-09-16T12:00:38","date_gmt":"2024-09-16T11:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=273708"},"modified":"2024-09-14T04:23:43","modified_gmt":"2024-09-14T03:23:43","slug":"planetary-cancer-us-militarism-a-lead-driver-of-climate-catastrophe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2024\/09\/planetary-cancer-us-militarism-a-lead-driver-of-climate-catastrophe\/","title":{"rendered":"Planetary Cancer: US Militarism a Lead Driver of Climate Catastrophe"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

U.S. combat soldier in the rubble at one of Saddam Hussein\u2019s palaces in Baghdad, 24 Apr 2003.
(U.S. Air Force, Cherie A. Thurlby, National Archivers, Public domain)<\/p><\/div>\n

Washington\u2019s military interventions are not just wars on people \u2014 they\u2019re also wars on the planet’s climate.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

13 Sep 2024 <\/em>– This week marks 23 years since George W. Bush declared a U.S.-led \u201cwar on terror\u201d and the people of Afghanistan and Iraq are still suffering its consequences.<\/p>\n

After the U.S. invaded Iraq, an estimated half a million Iraqis were killed<\/a> and at least 9.2 million were displaced. From 2003-2011, more than 4.7 million Iraqis suffered from moderate to severe food insecurity.<\/p>\n

Over 243,000 people have been killed<\/a> in the Afghanistan\/Pakistan war zone since 2001, more than 70,000 of them civilians. Between 4.5 and 4.6 million<\/a> people have died in the post-9\/11 wars.<\/p>\n

The U.S.\u2019 \u201cwar on terror\u201d also escalated the climate catastrophe, resulting in local water shortages and extreme weather crises that are only getting worse. In 2022, Afghanistan had its worst drought in 30 years and it is facing a third consecutive year of drought.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe war has exacerbated climate change impacts,\u201d Noor Ahmad Akhundzadah, a professor of hydrology at Kabul University, told<\/a> The New York Times.<\/em><\/p>\n

Meanwhile in the current moment, U.S. military assistance to Israel\u2019s genocidal campaign is also intensifying the climate crisis.<\/p>\n

As we look back across more than two decades of the \u201cwar on terror,\u201d it is clear that many lives will be saved if we can bring a halt to U.S. military interventions throughout the world and simultaneously target the U.S. military\u2019s catastrophic contributions to the climate crisis that threaten us all.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe U.S. military is the single largest institutional consumer of fossil fuels in the world,\u201d Taylor Smith-Hams, U.S. senior organizer at 350.org<\/a>, a global climate justice organization, said at a workshop<\/a> on the Impact of Current Wars on Climate Crisis at the Veterans For Peace (VFP) Convention on Aug. 17.<\/p>\n

\u201cMilitarism and war are key drivers of the climate crisis,\u201d she added, citing fighter jets, warships and the U.S.\u2019s massive constellation of military bases throughout the world.<\/p>\n

Climate Effects of \u2018War on Terror\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Bush delivering an address on the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to a joint session of Congress on Sept. 20, 2011. (U.S. National Archives, Public domain)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

On Sept. 11, 2001, 19 men committed suicide and took roughly 3,000 people with them by flying two airliners into the World Trade Center, one into the Pentagon and one into a field in Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

None of the hijackers hailed from Afghanistan or Iraq; 15 came from Saudi Arabia. Nevertheless, the Bush administration illegally invaded Afghanistan and Iraq and overthrew their governments, then killed, injured and tortured nearly three-quarters of a million of their people.<\/p>\n

Beyond the terrible death tolls in both countries, a lesser known consequence of the \u201cwar on terror\u201d was the exacerbation of the climate catastrophe, both in the countries targeted by the war and globally.<\/p>\n

Since the 1997 Kyoto Protocol excluded military emissions from the counting of national emissions figures, U.S. military emissions are significantly undercounted. Although militaries are a significant source of carbon emissions, little is understood about their carbon footprint.<\/p>\n

One of the first studies to expose direct and indirect military emissions as a result of combat was conducted by Benjamin Neimark, Oliver Belcher, Kirsti Ashworth and Reuben Larbi.<\/p>\n

They examined the use of concrete \u201cblast walls\u201d by U.S. forces in Baghdad, Iraq, from 2003-2008, the first five years of Bush\u2019s \u201cOperation Iraqi Freedom,\u201d to measure the carbon footprint of the war. Concrete walls and barriers were also used in U.S. counterinsurgency operations in Kandahar and Kabul, Afghanistan, from 2008-2012 during \u201cOperation Enduring Freedom.\u201d (Although these two wars did not bring freedom, their effects on the climate crisis are enduring.)<\/p>\n

While occupying Baghdad, the U.S. military erected hundreds of miles of blast walls in order to control the urban population pursuant to its counterinsurgency strategy. \u201cEffective weaponisation of concrete has an extraordinary carbon footprint,\u201d Neimark, Belcher, Ashworth and Larbi wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe large carbon footprint comes mainly from the amount of heat and energy in cement production, the main ingredient in concrete.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Concrete blast walls in Baghdad, 2016. (David Stanley, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The logistical movement of troops, convoys, weapons, supplies and equipment, as well as firepower itself, carry a direct carbon cost. Jet propulsion fuel for fighter jets is a major culprit. U.S. military fuel use is \u201cone of the largest single institutional carbon polluters in modern history,\u201d the researchers wrote.<\/p>\n

But the indirect emissions in blast walls that result from the concrete supply chains that furnish the U.S. military are also substantial, Neimark and his coauthors argue.<\/p>\n

\u201cParts of Afghanistan have warmed twice as much as the global average\u201d New York Times<\/em> international climate reporter Somini Sengupta wrote<\/a> in 2021, and the war has intensified the impact of climate change.<\/p>\n

Afghanistan ranks in the top 10 countries undergoing extreme weather conditions, including droughts, storms and avalanches, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported<\/a> a year ago. Afghanistan ranks fourth among countries with the highest risk of a crisis and eighth on the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Index of nations most vulnerable and least prepared to deal with climate change.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Open-air burn pit emissions at Forward Operating Base Sharana in Afghanistan in May 2013. (Special IG for Afghanistan Reconstruction, Flickr, CC BY 2.0)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The story of what happened in Afghanistan provides a chilling example of the long-term consequences of war on climate change. Decades from now, Gaza, which was already vulnerable to the climate crisis before Oct. 7, 2023, will invariably suffer increased climate effects from Israel\u2019s current genocidal campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cClimate consequences including sea level rise, drought and extreme heat were already threatening water supplies and food security in Palestine,\u201d Nina Lakhani wrote<\/a> in a January article in The Guardian<\/em>. \u201cThe environmental situation in Gaza is now catastrophic.\u201d<\/p>\n

US-Aided Israeli Genocide\u2019s \u2018Immense\u2019 Climate Effect<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Israeli military during ground invasion of the Gaza Strip on Oct. 31, 2023. (IDF Spokesperson\u2019s Unit, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Israel\u2019s ongoing genocide in Gaza has killed at least 41,000 Palestinian people, and likely many more. During the first two months of Israel\u2019s genocidal campaign, emissions that warmed the planet exceeded the annual carbon footprint of over 20 of the world\u2019s most climate-vulnerable countries, according to a study<\/a> by Benjamin Neimark, Patrick Bigger, Frederick Otu-Larbi and Reuben Larbi.<\/p>\n

Roughly 281,000 metric tons of war-related carbon dioxide were emitted in the first two months of the war following Oct. 7, 2023. More than 99 percent<\/a> of these emissions resulted from Israel\u2019s bombing campaign and ground invasion of Gaza and U.S. supply flights to Israel.<\/p>\n

The climate cost was equivalent<\/a> to the burning of at least 150,000 tons of coal. Almost half of the emissions were caused by U.S. cargo planes flying military supplies to Israel. Hamas rockets fired into Israel accounted for the equivalent of 300 tons of coal, an indicator of the asymmetry of Israel\u2019s war on Palestine.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe role of the U.S. in the human and environmental destruction of Gaza cannot be overstated,\u201d said<\/a> Patrick Bigger, coauthor of the study and research director at the thinktank Climate + Community Project (CCP). During the VFP workshop, Bigger called it an \u201cenvironmental Nakba.\u201d<\/p>\n

David Boyd, U.N. special rapporteur for human rights and the environment, said<\/a>, \u201cThis research helps us understand the immense magnitude of military emissions \u2014 from preparing for war, carrying out war and rebuilding after war. Armed conflict pushes humanity even closer to the precipice of climate catastrophe, and is an idiotic way to spend our shrinking carbon budget.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom an ecological perspective, there is no such thing as an \u2018effective\u2019 or \u2018green\u2019 technology or military,\u201d Neimark, Belcher, Ashworth and Larbi, coauthors of the concrete blast wall study, found<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While Israel touts itself as a global leader in climate change adaptation and mitigation, it is actually engaged in \u201cgreenwashing\u201d \u2014 misleading marketing practices to make policies appear more environmentally friendly. Indeed,<\/p>\n

\u201cIsrael\u2019s green technologies are fundamentally structured by the Zionist project of appropriating Palestinian lands,\u201d Sara Salazar Hughes, Stepha Velednitsky and Amelia Arden Green argue<\/a> in their 2022 article, \u201cGreenwashing in Palestine\/Israel: Settler colonialism and environmental injustice in the age of climate catastrophe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s systems of waste management, renewable energy and agricultural technologies (\u201cagritech\u201d) are actually mechanisms for appropriation and dispossession of Palestinian territory, according to Hughes, Velednitsky and Green. Although Israel promotes itself as a responsible steward of Palestinian lands, \u201cIsraeli sustainability sustains settler colonialism.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cClimate crisis in Palestine cannot be detached from the Israeli occupation. The brutal and extensively<\/a> documented<\/a> apartheid regime that Israel imposes and maintains over Palestinians is fundamentally incompatible with the tenets of climate justice,\u201d Patrick Bigger, Batul Hassan, Salma Elmallah, Seth J. Prins, J. Mijin Cha, Malini Ranganathan, Thomas M. Hanna, Daniel Aldana Cohen and Johanna Bozuwa wrote<\/a> for the think tank CCP.<\/p>\n

Bigger and his coauthors cite Israel\u2019s settler-colonial campaign to replace native olive groves with nonnative plants that reduce biodiversity, increase susceptibility to fire and put unsustainable pressure on natural resources. Palestinians, they write, are much more vulnerable than Israelis to the effects of climate change.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile Palestinians are displaced to support Israel\u2019s renewable energy industry, Palestinian solar projects are destroyed<\/a> as \u2018illegal constructions,\u2019 having failed to secure permits from Israeli authorities.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the largest provider of military hardware to the Israeli regime, the U.S. government is \u201cdirectly complicit\u201d in Israel\u2019s genocide, ethnic cleansing and apartheid.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn immediate, permanent ceasefire and the end of U.S. funding for Israeli apartheid and occupation is needed to halt the ongoing violence and address the driving forces of climate breakdown in Palestine,\u201d Bigger and coauthors wrote.<\/p>\n

About 20 percent of the U.S. military\u2019s annual operational emissions is devoted to protecting fossil fuel interests in the Gulf, which is warming twice as rapidly as the rest of the world, according to<\/a> Neta Crawford, author of The Pentagon, Climate Change and War.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, the U.S. and other NATO countries are largely concerned with climate change as a national security threat. They don\u2019t focus on their contributions to it.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere in the U.S., our government continues to dump enormous amounts of money into death and destruction at home and around the world, while cutting social programs and refusing to adequately contribute to international climate finance commitments, always with the excuse that there isn\u2019t enough money,\u201d Smith-Hams said at the VFP workshop.<\/p>\n

Our anti-militarism work should target the U.S. military\u2019s devastating contributions to the climate crisis. Our future depends on it.<\/p>\n

For more information, see the Climate Crisis & Militarism Project<\/a> of Veterans For Peace.<\/p>\n

_______________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Marjorie Cohn is professor emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, dean of the People\u2019s Academy of International Law and past president of the National Lawyers Guild. She sits on the national advisory boards of Assange Defense and Veterans For Peace. A member of the bureau of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, she is the U.S. representative to the continental advisory council of the Association of American Jurists. Her books include <\/em>Drones and <\/em>Targeted Killing: Legal, Moral and Geopolitical Issues.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original – consortiumnews.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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