[pjw] INFO: No Warming, No War - Institute for Policy Studies 4/22

[Peace and Justice Works]

Hello PJW supporters

We got a link to this report from the National Priorities 
Project/Institute for Policy Stuties back on Earth Day (April 22), then 
discussed it at the last Iraq Affinity Group meeting (May 11) and I'm just 
now getting around to sending it out to you all (May 25). Sorry for the 
delay, but please use this information in your organizing to tie together 
climate change and peace issues.

Thanks!
dan handelman
peace and justice works iraq affinity group

  https://ips-dc.org/climate-militarism-primer/
No Warming, No War:
How Militarism Fuels the Climate Crisis -- and Vice Versa
Lorah Steichen | Lindsay Koshgarian

Introduction

     In a strange twist, it has taken a global pandemic to significantly
     reduce the world's fossil fuel emissions.

     The COVID-19 pandemic has utterly changed life as we know it -- but
     it's also laid bare how Washington's militaristic budget priorities
     have left the country woefully unprepared for a crisis. With massive
     shortages in public health resources and shocks to the broader economy
     throwing Americans off their health care, states are left clamoring
     for help from the military to cope.

     All this could be a preview of shocks to come as our climate crisis
     continues unabated.

     While meaningful climate action has stalled on Capitol Hill and in the
     White House, planners at the Pentagon have been quietly preparing a
     militarized, "armed lifeboat" response to climate chaos for years.
     Unfortunately, the tendency to understand climate change as just
     another national security issue has misdirected resources away from
     the programs that we need to mitigate and adapt to a warming climate.

     In this report, we'll lay out how militarism and the climate crisis
     are deeply intertwined and mutually reinforcing. The military itself,
     we explain, is a huge polluter -- and is often deployed to sustain the
     very extractive industries that destabilize our climate. This climate
     chaos, in turn, leads to massive displacement, militarized borders,
     and the prospect of further conflict.

     True climate solutions, we argue, must have antimilitarism at their
     core.

     In the face of both COVID-19 and the climate crisis, we urgently need
     to shift from a culture of war to a culture of care. Funneling
     trillions into the military to wage endless wars and project military
     dominance has prevented us from investing in true security and
     cooperation. If we don't transform our society and the way we confront
     crises, we will face even more unjust and inhumane realities in a
     climate-changed future.

Key Findings:

     Recognizing that the impacts of climate change will dramatically
     increase instability around the globe, this paper examines the role of
     militarism in a climate-changed world. As outlined below, climate
     change and militarism intersect in a variety of alarming ways:

       * The Pentagon is a major polluter. U.S. Militarism degrades the
         environment and contributes directly to climate change. The
         Pentagon is the world's largest institutional user of petroleum;
         just one of the military's jets, the B-52 stratocruiser, consumes
         about as much fuel in an hour as the average car driver uses in
         seven years. Plans to confront climate change must address
         militarization, but "greening the military" misses the point
         entirely. Militarism and climate justice are fundamentally at
         odds.

       * The United States has a well-known history of fighting wars for
         oil. The fossil fuel industry relies on militarization to uphold
         its operations around the globe. Oil is the leading cause of war:
         An estimated one-quarter to one-half of all interstate wars since
         1973 have been linked to oil. And all over the world, those who
         fight to protect their lands from extractive industries are often
         met with state and paramilitary violence.

       * Climate change and border militarization are inextricably linked.
         It is clear that on a warming planet, cross-border migration will
         rise. Estimates project that around 200 million people will be
         displaced by the middle of century due to climate change. As the
         U.S. continues to ramp up border security, so do threats to all
         people's freedom to move and stay. Immigrant justice is climate
         justice, and challenging militarism is critical to achieving both.

       * Over-investment in the military comes at the high cost of
         under-investing in other needs, including climate. For decades,
         the U.S. has invested in military adventurism and prioritized
         military threats above all over threats to human life. Compared to
         the $6.4 trillion spent on war in the past two decades, the cost
         of shifting the U.S. power grid to 100% renewable is an estimate
         $4.5 trillion. The bloated U.S. war economy presents an
         opportunity to redirect significant military resources, including
         money, infrastructure, and people, toward implementing solutions
         to climate change.

       * Workers need a way out. The fossil fuel and military sectors
         mirror each other in the way that workers frequently end up
         funneled into lethal work due to limited options. We need a Just
         Transition for workers and communities in both sectors. In order
         to rapidly transition to a green economy, we must fund millions of
         jobs in the green economy. Funding the green economy instead of a
         bloated military budget would be a net job creator; for the same
         level of spending, clean energy and infrastructure create over 40%
         more jobs and energy efficiency retrofits create nearly twice the
         level of job creation.

       * Racism and racial oppression form the foundation for both the
         extractive fossil fuel economy and the militarized economy.
         Neither could exist without the presumption that some human lives
         are worth less than others, and racial justice would undermine the
         foundations of both.


The Military and Climate Change

    The Pentagon is a major polluter.

     Funded by an annual budget of more than $700 billion, the United
     States has a massive military presence across the globe. With
     extensive infrastructure and operations both domestically and abroad,
     the largest industrial military in the history of the world is also
     among the biggest polluters.

     Maintaining an expansive military sprawl requires significant
     investment in carbon-intensive infrastructure and gas-guzzling
     equipment. Just one of the military's jets, the B-52 Stratocruiser,
     consumes about as much fuel in an hour as the average car driver uses
     in seven years.

     Beyond a significant carbon "boot print," the U.S. military operations
     wreaks havoc on the environments it occupies and wages war. Plans to
     confront climate change must address militarization. With that said,
     "greening the military" or finding ways to wage eco-friendly war miss
     the boat. The climate justice movement calls for a restructuring of an
     extractive economy that is harming people and ecosystems. Such
     aspirations and militarism are fundamentally at odds.

Killing for Oil

    The United States has a well-known history of fighting wars for oil.

     Beyond accounting for fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse
     emissions, the U.S. military's contributions to the climate crisis are
     even greater when considering that oil is the leading cause of war. An
     estimated one-quarter to one-half of all interstate wars since 1973
     have been linked to oil. The U.S. military spends an estimated $81
     billion a year to protect the world's oil supplies.

     In addition to causing war, the fossil fuel industry also relies on
     militarized state violence to uphold its operations around the globe.
     Those who fight to protect their lands from extractive industries and
     infrastructure are often branded as "eco-terrorists" and met with
     state-military or paramilitary violence.

     Indigenous peoples are disproportionately subject to this violence.
     While Indigenous people make up about 5% of the world's population,
     they account for about a quarter of those murdered for defending land
     and the environment. In the United States, increasingly militarized
     local police departments acquire surplus military equipment from
     federal agencies. Particularly in the context where a bloated military
     budget leaves climate change mitigation and adaptation severely
     underfunded, we face increasingly militarized responses to the climate
     crisis.

Climate Change, Immigration, and Militarization

    Climate change and border militarization are inextricably linked.

     People around the world are already experiencing the devastating
     impacts of climate change. In the coming decades, climate change will
     make corners of the globe increasingly uninhabitable. These new
     ecological realities will compound existing conflicts, cause more
     political instability, and dislocate unprecedented quantities of
     people. Commonly cited estimates project that around 200 million
     people will be displaced by the middle of the century due to climate
     change.

     It is clear that on a warming planet, cross-border migration will
     rise. But instead of responding with solidarity or compassion and
     sharing the resources that could provide safe refuge to those forced
     to travel across borders, migrants are met with expanded border
     enforcement and repression. Around the globe, governments allocate
     more of their budgets to build walls, hire armed guards, and
     militarize borders to keep migrants out.

     Having played such an outsized role in causing the crisis, the United
     States bears a disproportionate share of the responsibility to address
     it, including a debt to displaced people around the world. We must
     reverse our decades-long trend of border militarization and all
     anti-immigrant operations carried out by ICE and CBP and in doing so
     uphold all peoples collective freedom to move and stay.

The Federal Budget and Militarized Spending

     Over-investment in the military comes at the high cost of
     under-investing in other needs, including climate.

     Proposals to meaningfully address the climate crisis at the rate and
     scale necessary are often characterized as unrealistic pipe dreams.
     The same scrutiny is seldom applied to ever-expanding military
     spending.

     The reality is that there's no shortage of funds for a Just Transition
     to a green economy. Compared to the $6.4 trillion spent on war in the
     past two decades, the cost of shifting the U.S. power grid to 100%
     renewable energy over the next ten years is an estimated $4.5
     trillion. Instead of funding endless wars, we could have already
     transformed our fossil-fueled energy system, with money to spare.

     Enormous and unnecessary military expenditures have warped our sense
     of what's possible, too often tricking us into believing we can't
     afford to improve our lives or keep our planet livable. When we take
     back our resources from elites who profit off violent wars, weapons,
     and walls we can reinvest trillions of dollars back into our
     communities and begin to repair the harm inflicted on people and the
     planet by militarization at home and around the world.
     Download Full Primer

Green Jobs and a Just Transition for Workers and Communities

    Workers need a way out.

     In both the fossil fuel and military sectors, workers end up funneled
     into lethal work due to limited options. Like the workers in the
     fossil fuel industry will need to transition into new jobs, there must
     be alternative pathways to good employment for individuals and
     communities whose livelihoods are tied to the military.

     In order to rapidly transition to a green economy, we must fund
     millions of new jobs and convert a major share of the economy from
     building weapons of war to building a 100% clean energy economy by
     2030. Compared to the same level of military spending, clean energy
     and infrastructure create over 40% more jobs and energy efficiency
     retrofits creates nearly twice the level of job creation by military
     spending.