The Environmental Impact of War and the Military Industrial Complex

Hot take: all environmentalists should be anti-war. Not only for humanitarian reasons (human justice IS climate justice) but also because of the insane emissions that war creates. Didn’t know war was bad for the planet? Let’s dive into it today!

Before we even get started, I’m an Air Force veteran. I don’t like to share that, but I want to show that even veterans can be anti-war. I feel weird about my service since I’m an environmentalist but, you can hear my full thoughts here.

Something else to note, war isn’t just the act of dropping a bomb. It’s the entire war machine. It’s training troops, restationing troops every 2-3 years and moving goods and supplies to 100s of overseas bases, it’s weapons testing and so much more. Yes, I will be heavily focusing on the US military since they are the most pollutive and that is who I belonged to, but it’s all militaries that are pollutive. All militaries contribute massively to climate change and the loss of human lives.

One last thing, these numbers are likely going to be way below what they actually are. It’s hard to accurately calculate the true carbon footprint of the US military, let alone every military in the world. It’s hard to measure how much land they are truly destroying. Not all of this is public information. So, if this sounds bad, just know it’s actually worse.

Anyway, let’s get into it. It’s going to be heavy, but it’s important. Thank you for reading this post.

Emissions

Probably what most people associate the military with when it comes to waste is their carbon footprint. According to The Atlantic, the DoD (Department of Defense) reported their own emissions at 51 million metric tons in 2021. That’s the same as the entire country of Sweden produced in one year. That’s just our military.

What causes these emissions? So much! It’s flying jets, it’s operating boats, it’s transporting goods and troops, it’s manufacturing aircraft, it’s dropping bombs, and so much more. The emissions of the military run deep.

Now, something I don’t think enough people realize is that dropping bombs releases emissions. Of course it takes huge amounts of resources to manufacture such weapons which contributes to the carbon footprint, but the dropping of bombs is not just detrimental to the people that are being targeted, but the environment as well. And since emissions know no borders, people in large geographic areas will be affected by such emissions, not just the targeted people.

Again, it’s hard to calculate the exact number of emissions from each type of bomb, so let’s use Israel’s genocide of Palestine for the numbers here. According to TRT World, just in the first two months of Israel’s bombing, they dropped 10,000 bombs which resulted in 6689 tons of emissions. Just two months, just one country. But, they’ve been committing this genocide for 9 months. So, the total emissions just from bombs, just from Israel would be around 30,100 tons of emissions. Look at this list and see how many countries this surpasses. This is a list of countries by their TOTAL emissions for an entire year and Israel surpassed so many of them in 9 months just from BOMBS.

It makes it even more infuriating when governments and corporations tell US to reduce our emissions. My personal carbon footprint for one year is around 5 metric tons. It’s still a lot, but how dare they pressure ME when militaries produce 6000 times more than me just from bombs?

Anyway, if this isn’t enough to deter you from being anti-war, let’s keep going. There is more environmental harm from war than just emissions.

Destruction of biodiversity

Speaking of bombs, they not only release harmful emissions that are warming this planet and causing extreme weather that is harming us, bombing also kills biodiversity. It makes a lot of sense, right? When you drop a bomb on a city, it’s not just destroying building and lives but also forests, farms, riverbeds, meadows, and more. It destroys animal habitats, kills plants, kills animals, and leaves animals defenseless as well. Defenseless against humans and other predators. It can destroy an animals food source, too.

Of course, this goes farther than just warzones. Missiles, bombs, and other military equipment must be tested. Where is it tested? Often in remote areas that may not have many people (but there are still indigenous peoples affected by these testing such as in White Sands, NM and in Bikini Atoll) but they do have animals and plants. When we were living in Las Vegas, the military wanted to buy part of the Desert National Wildlife Refuge, the largest NWR outside of Alaska. They wanted to buy this for missile testing. But, there are several important species here (well, they’re all important in the overall food chain, but you know what I mean) such as Joshua trees and desert big horn sheep. The military buying this land would mean destroying biodiversity.

And this is just one example. The US military tests in other areas currently and historically such as White Sands, New Mexico; many island nations in and around the Marshall Islands; many parts of Alaska; parts of Utah; and more. Again, this not only affects plants and animals, but us, too. For example, the people of Alamogordo during the test of the first nuclear bombs became the first people to face nuclear fallout and faced the consequences for their entire lives.

If you don’t care about war for the loss of human lives, care about war for the animals and the planet.

Loss of human lives

Humans are also part of biodiversity and the loss of human lives in unacceptable. We belong to the environmental web. The loss of human lives is tragic in and of itself but also since we are part of the ecosystem. Once again using the genocide of Palestinians, they are indigenous to those lands just as we have indigenous peoples here in North America. Indigenous peoples know how to properly take care of and steward their lands. When we erase them, we erase their knowledge and wisdom.

Again, if you don’t simply care about the loss of human lives from war, care about the planet. We need indigenous peoples and their wisdom for fighting climate change.

Pollution

As you can see, this is all tied together. The dropping of bombs not only destroys biodiversity instantly in the blast, but also for years and decades to come in the form of pollution. And not only do bombs pollute, but the vessels do, too. Aircraft use jet fuel and even DUMP fuel when loads are too heavy to land. Navy vessels are allowed to dump whatever they want into the ocean even when it’s illegal for any other vessel. This includes plastic.

The pollution runs deep with militaries, not just the US military. Yes, I’m picking on them, but it’s all militaries. You can’t have a military and be eco-friendly, that’s an oxymoron.

Pollution isn’t just emissions, it’s physical waste and it’s waste that pollutes our air, water, and soil, too. Once again, this isn’t just war, either. It’s training, it’s testing, it’s transporting goods and troops that all pollute.

Wasting resources

Lastly, for today, is wasting resources. I talked about this a lot in the video where I talk about my experience in the military, but this goes largely unreported and unknown to civilians. So many resources are wasted in the military.

Every unit gets an annual budget. If that budget is not spent by Oct 1st, the start of the fiscal year, they lose that money for the next fiscal year. But what if the unit NEEDS the full budget the next year? The only way to keep your full budget is to spend 100% of the money. This means quite often things are purchased that are unnecessary. I’ve been part of units that bought new chairs just to spend the money but we didn’t need them. The “old” chairs were thrown away.

The military also doesn’t recycle its tech. I understand why, they don’t want just anyone having access to old government computers, even if wiped, so they’re landfilled instead. But can’t the military create their own tech recycling program? If only to save themselves money??

Speaking of recycling, the military largely does not recycle either. They do recycle aircraft via the boneyard but other than that, not even paper gets recycled. They truly do not care about wasting resources. I mean, why would you when your budget is nearly at 1 trillion dollars. This organization has endless money, there’s no need to be frugal and reuse or recycle.

And this is just the surface

We never truly know the depth of the wastefulness of the military. The military industrial complex runs deep in the US and I’m sure it does elsewhere, too. From contractors to food supplying and more. But even this surface level proves not only how wasteful the military is, but it shows us how wasteful war it. It’s extremely destructive to people, a gigantic cost of taxpayer dollars, and clearly has a massive impact on the planet. Not just a direct impact either through destruction of land and species, but huge impacts that we will be feeling for years and decades to come in the form of pollution and climate change.

I’ll say it again: all environmentalists should be anti-war. And if you don’t consider yourself an environmentalist, think again. All it takes to be an environmentalist is to care about the planet. So, if you care, you’re an environmentalist.

Let’s protect our planet and all it’s species, including ourselves and one another.

If you’re still here, I’m fundraising for two families in Gaza. They have lost everything except for their hope. Until our governments step up, we can step up and help them. If you can donate monetarily, please consider donating, even just $5. If you can’t donate, please share their links with friends and family who can. Please support this content so that this message and their story can be spread.

Donate to Taher and his family of 8. They have been homeless since the start of the genocide and need to evacuate everyone.

Donate to Roaa and her family of 9. Roaa has been displaced to Jordan and has not seen her family (including small children) for over 9 months.

Thank you for reading and sticking with me on this hard topic. I can only hope for a peaceful world for our future generations to live in.

As always, remember that your small actions make a big difference in the long run.

Emma