Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

To Take Climate Change Seriously, the U.S. Military Needs to Shrink
TIME via MSN ^ | February 17, 2022

Posted on 02/18/2022 8:03:26 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer

… Military vehicles, along with the forces that use them and the industries that supply them, represent a huge climate problem, accounting for 5% of the world’s carbon emissions every year. And there’s no bigger actor in that space than the U.S. military, which sucks up more petroleum than any other institution on earth to fly jets, heat buildings, and ferry food and supplies to 750 bases spread across the world.

That might be changing, though. The Department of Defense (DOD) has embarked on a decarbonization push in recent months, claiming to be in the process of building a greener American fighting force. But many environmentalists and academics say that fully decarbonizing the country’s current military and its vast network of overseas bases simply isn’t realistic. Carbon cuts, they argue, will come with trade-offs, and at some point we will have to make a difficult choice to scale down our armed forces to avert ecological catastrophe.

Doug Weir, research and policy director at the U.K.-based Conflict and Environmental Observatory, says the military will have to bite the bullet eventually and start reducing fuel use in ways that don’t necessarily have strategic upsides. “There’s going to have to be a point where they [make] emissions cuts because there’s a climate emergency which is going to destabilize the planet and human civilization,” he says.

Some researchers say that emissions implications of conflict need to be a bigger consideration as the U.S. chooses how to meet those threats. But as climate change ratchets up tensions around the world, some worry that nations will further militarize in response, creating a vicious cycle of military emissions. “You can’t win a climate change war,” says Nick Buxton, a researcher at the Amsterdam-based Transnational Institute.

(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: brandon; demagogicparty; globalwarming; globalwarminghoax; greennewdeal; hoax; military; panicporn; propaganda; socialism
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-36 next last

1 posted on 02/18/2022 8:03:26 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Oldeconomybuyer

There it is, the end goal! Weaken and compromise the US security.

Mask has slipped!


2 posted on 02/18/2022 8:04:42 AM PST by Skwor
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Oldeconomybuyer

I agree. Fire everyone in the Pentagon and make it into condos.


3 posted on 02/18/2022 8:07:06 AM PST by jjotto ( Blessed are You LORD, who crushes enemies and subdues the wicked.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Oldeconomybuyer

Or we could surrender to china. No need for a military, and no one ever complains about their ecological record. That would be racist, anyway.


4 posted on 02/18/2022 8:09:12 AM PST by Telepathic Intruder (Democracy is two dead Democrats and a Republican voting who's brains are for dinner.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Oldeconomybuyer

More treason.


5 posted on 02/18/2022 8:10:53 AM PST by Seruzawa ("The Political left is the Garden of Eden of incompetence" - Marx the Smarter (Groucho))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Oldeconomybuyer

I imagine that probably half the Pentagon budget is wasted - deep state MIC corruption, political and woke BS, inefficiency, bloated bureaucracy.

But, you can’t change Washington DC, so what you gonna do?


6 posted on 02/18/2022 8:15:07 AM PST by PGR88
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Oldeconomybuyer

When do we invade the Sun? Or, if their bunk is believed, China?


7 posted on 02/18/2022 8:17:04 AM PST by Ingtar
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Oldeconomybuyer

It’s as if the CCP were dictating US military policy to Brandon.


8 posted on 02/18/2022 8:25:02 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum ("Communism is not love. Communism is a hammer which we use to crush the enemy." ― Mao Zedong [FJB])
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Oldeconomybuyer

The US is turning into a third rate power.

“Climate change” will just give the politicians cover.


9 posted on 02/18/2022 8:26:45 AM PST by cgbg (A kleptocracy--if they can keep it. Think of it as the Cantillon Effect in action.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Oldeconomybuyer

Don’t worry, one nuke will offset everything.


10 posted on 02/18/2022 8:28:15 AM PST by DownInFlames (P)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Oldeconomybuyer

And we need to give up our nuclear weapons, to “promote world peace and environmentalism” Meanwhile Putin and Xi build up their forces. We also have to absorb a first nuclear strike before launching back. How idiotic is that?


11 posted on 02/18/2022 8:31:12 AM PST by Thunder90 (All posts soley represent my own opinion.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Oldeconomybuyer

Complete idiots.


12 posted on 02/18/2022 8:32:16 AM PST by ConservativeInPA (Scratch a leftist and you'll find a fascist )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Oldeconomybuyer; Greetings_Puny_Humans

Obviously the Dems want to shrink the military. They also want to give up all of our nukes.


13 posted on 02/18/2022 8:32:45 AM PST by Thunder90 (All posts soley represent my own opinion.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: All

This comes from a UK based peace nic, eco geek.

Not based in reality.


14 posted on 02/18/2022 8:35:12 AM PST by rbmillerjr
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Oldeconomybuyer

Yes, that’s the answer, remove all the jets. What took them so long.


15 posted on 02/18/2022 8:40:42 AM PST by Tommy Revolts
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Thunder90

Dmitry Orlov (author of “The Five Stages of Collapse”) has some fascinating writings comparing the current US with the old Soviet Union.

In this interview he argues that while the US elites are paranoid about Russia, the Soviet Union considers the US a decaying empire that will collapse on its own:

https://kunstler.com/podcast/kunstlercast-348-revisiting-reinventing-collapse-with-dmitry-orlov/


16 posted on 02/18/2022 8:40:54 AM PST by cgbg (A kleptocracy--if they can keep it. Think of it as the Cantillon Effect in action.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Oldeconomybuyer

Nothing humans do can change the climate by a degree or raise/lower the sea levels an inch.

If every human disappeared tomorrow, the Earth would continue in its slightly irregular orbit of the Sun, with its little wobble, as it has since God set it spinning. Winter, spring, summer and fall would progress as always. Natural cycles would continue; global temperatures would change periodically, glaciers would advance and retreat, ocean levels would rise and fall, deserts would become savannahs and savannahs would become forests or wetlands. Some forests and wetlands would revert to desert. Over eons of time tectonic forces would push up mountains and volcanoes would erupt, and over more eons they would be worn down by wind and rain.

This would continue until the day of the Lord’s choosing.
The main difference is that there would be no liberals around to lie about it.


17 posted on 02/18/2022 8:43:12 AM PST by JimRed (TERM LIMITS, NOW! Militia to the border! TRUTH is the new HATE SPEECH.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: E. Pluribus Unum; All
It’s as if the CCP were dictating US military policy to Brandon.

Funny about that. Is is almost as if China's declared strategy of "capturing ruling elites" is working as planned.

18 posted on 02/18/2022 9:01:07 AM PST by marktwain (Amazing people can read a persons entire personality and character from one photograph.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Oldeconomybuyer

Let’s really roll back Government. . . .prohibit Air Conditioning in Federal Offices....


19 posted on 02/18/2022 9:02:34 AM PST by Salgak (You're in Strange Hands with Tom Stranger. . . .)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: jjotto

Imagine the asbestos in the pentagon. N


20 posted on 02/18/2022 9:04:17 AM PST by ealgeone
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-36 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson