US military may be greatest contributor to climate change
Saturday, May 9, 2020
Letter to Editor
US military may be greatest contributor to climate change
Having just experienced annual Earth Day, there is growing awareness that we earthlings are causing this climate change which warns us that our future may be bleak. Our youth is demanding that we take our heads out of the sand and act appropriately.
The world’s militaries are largely exempt from emission measurement and reductions according to national and international law. Their contribution to atmospheric pollution has been ignored by the activists, youth and our media.
I refer you to a book, “The Green Zone, the Environmental Costs of Militarism” by Berry Sanders. Although 11 years old, the facts presented are likely worse than they were then. The book’s premise is that U.S. military is the greatest global atmospheric polluter, i.e. contributor to climate change.
A February 2019 article in “Current Anthropology, Cultures Of Militarism” refers to militarism, whether it will signal the end of our existence or whether like other counterproductive actions, it will be eliminated presuming we not are eliminated first.
Military’s gift of climate devastation is unheard of in our media. Let’s blow the lid off and get the word out.
Lew Patrie, M. D., Asheville
