COP-OUT27 Hastens Climate Catastrophe #COP27

Source: “Estimating the military’s global greenhouse gas emissions
report by Conflict and Environment Observatory (CEOB), November, 2022

Following international climate summit COP26 in Glasgow, with a parallel People’s Summit I participated in, the focus on military emissions and their lethal undercount has faded in the war fever of the alleged battle for “democracy” and “freedom” in Ukraine. 

COP27, held in the especially brutal police state of Egypt (thanks, “Arab Spring” color revolution) was swarmed by both fossil fuel lobbyists and private jets. 

Activists temporarily blocked private jets from taking off for Egypt from Amsterdam as an expression of the new climate focus that says billionaires and their greenhouse gas emissions are THE problem.

I disagree.

Multi-millionaires who “lead” the big weapon systems manufacturers are THE problem when it comes to climate. Because the revolving door between U.S. government and the military-industrial complex is always spinning, and this ensures non-stop spending on war planes and bombs which both contribute massively to climate disaster. (And that’s just the tip of the rapidly melting iceberg.)

I’ve been following this thread for years and compiling a collection of links I find especially useful. Groups like the Veterans for Peace Climate Crisis and Militarism Project and researchers like Dr. Neta Crawford continue to focus on the military aspect of the larger climate problem: wealthy nations cause the crisis while people living the Global South suffer the most dire impacts.

CEOBS researchers have taken on the task of monitoring military emissions by nation, reporting on this in a database we can all use.

Since U.S. military spending is so excessive compared with all other nations, it’s not surprising that the Pentagon fears what the chart at the top of this blog post would look like if military emissions were included in the national total.

It used to be said that the first casualty of war is truth but, in the 21st century, 

the first casualty of war might be climate.

COP-OUT27 Hastens Climate Catastrophe

Source: “Estimating the military’s global greenhouse gas emissions
report by Conflict and Environment Observatory (CEOB), November, 2022

Following international climate summit COP26 in Glasgow, with a parallel People’s Summit I participated in, the focus on military emissions and their lethal undercount has faded in the war fever of the alleged battle for “democracy” and “freedom” in Ukraine. 

COP27, held in the especially brutal police state of Egypt (thanks, “Arab Spring” color revolution) was swarmed by both fossil fuel lobbyists and private jets. 

Activists temporarily blocked private jets from taking off for Egypt from Amsterdam as an expression of the new climate focus that says billionaires and their greenhouse gas emissions are THE problem.

I disagree.

Multi-millionaires who “lead” the big weapon systems manufacturers are THE problem when it comes to climate. Because the revolving door between U.S. government and the military-industrial complex is always spinning, and this ensures non-stop spending on war planes and bombs which both contribute massively to climate disaster. (And that’s just the tip of the rapidly melting iceberg.)

I’ve been following this thread for years and compiling a collection of links I find especially useful. Groups like the Veterans for Peace Climate Crisis and Militarism Project and researchers like Dr. Neta Crawford continue to focus on the military aspect of the larger climate problem: wealthy nations cause the crisis while people living the Global South suffer the most dire impacts.

CEOBS researchers have taken on the task of monitoring military emissions by nation, reporting on this in a database we can all use.

Since U.S. military spending is so excessive compared with all other nations, it’s not surprising that the Pentagon fears what the chart at the top of this blog post would look like if military emissions were included in the national total.

It used to be said that the first casualty of war is truth.

In the 21st century, the first casualty of war might be climate.

Reporting On Military’s Role In Driving Climate Crisis Too Negative For Corporate Media?

“Horrific heat descends upon Western Europe:  104° in London”
 Source: Yale Climate Connections (Image credit: tropicaltidbits.com)

Source: India Today

Following an extensive clampdown on information sharing — using the pretext of dangerous wronthink on the covid pandemic — no corporate media outlets and few social media posts in 2022 are in danger of connecting these dots: 

Despite years of research and reporting on the U.S. military’s enormous role in driving climate crisis, and despite record high temperatures and wildfires across the Global North, what messages are corporate media putting out?

Fear Russia and send more weapons to Ukraine. 

By astonishing coincidence, the popular Netflix horror series Stranger Things began production in 2016 and just happens to be set in the 1980’s, getting maximum mileage out of Cold War era bad guys.

Fear China, and conduct RIMPAC war games with South Korea and Japan blowing up battleships in the Pacific.  Also, focus on Taiwan as the location for the next U.S./NATO proxy war.

Remind people how beastly hot it is and how many unnecessary deaths result — but do not address the root cause: fighting wars for access to fossil fuels.

Admonish climatologists to not be so negative.

Spin “protecting the homeland and the United States” (whatever that’s supposed to mean) as necessary because Russia and China might get better access to fossil fuel reserves, rare earth minerals, and potable water in Latin America.

Promote WWIIIignoring the abundance of historical examples of what happened to empires that overextended in the mistaken belief that they were invincible.

Fiddle while Rome burns.

Image courtesy of ARRT! (Artists’ Rapid Response Team) arrteam.org