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War is Warming!
By maudeaster on 2008-10-27 10:05:02
Last week, as the chill of winter settled in, I was extra cautious about turning up the thermostat, swaddling instead in
thickening layers of sweaters and long winter underwear. For months I've been on a campaign to turn off unnecessary lights,
and now that I get up in the dark, I notice how much I relied on daylight to navigate this summer. Partly I'm doing all this
because of energy costs and partly because I am truly frightened by the increasingly urgent calls for rapid action to prevent a
climate meltdown. (See the the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.) I do think individual efforts are sorely
needed to combat climate change, but when I look at the US's energy balance sheet, I am overwhelmed by the contrast
between my energy use and the enormous, globe-warming impact of the daily operations of the military machine supported
by my taxes. Think of the Iraq War's contribution to climate change: Shock and Awe bombing, 5 years of missiles fired from
heavy army vehicles, serial bombardments of Falluja, Ramadi & Baghdad, and burning pipelines. The Pentagon is estimated
to be the single largest consumer of oil in the world. This adds a whole other dimension to Sara McCain's excellent post last
week on The Co$t of War. The new Climate Security Project describes how self-defeating the gigantic carbon footprint of
the US military truly is. As even the Department of Defense has pointed out, unchecked climate change will itself generate
more future military conflicts. It will weaken failed states, cause population shifts, famine, poverty and competition for
scarce water resources. Already, in drought-scorched Darfur, we see the world's new climate change refugees. Instead of
promoting an expanded US military (as both Obama and McCain have pledged during the campaign), the next president
needs to address global problems with diplomacy, not the warming path of war. This will retain a livable earth and will also
reduce warming-induced conflicts in the future. A win-win solution.
