In fiscal year 2015, Pentagon and related spending will total $598 billion, accounting for 54 percent of all federal discretionary spending. That's roughly the size of the next seven largest military budgets around the world, combined.
The largest industrial military in the world is also one of the biggest polluters. Maintaining a massive military requires significant investment in carbon-intensive infrastructure and gas-guzzling equipment. The carbon footprint of the military is tremendous. So why isn’t “greening the military” a good solution?
The United States was the biggest driver of this growth, with its $732 billion in 2019 accounting for a full 38% of global military spending. That's more than the next 10 countries combined, a marked increase from the previous year when it was merely larger than the next seven combined.
Climate change and militarism intersect in a variety of alarming ways: 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.
The time has come for an end to the United States ill-conceived wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the moment is ripe for a new peace dividend. Today’s threats are mostly non-military in nature: climate change, global economic inequality, and rising nationalism all do not have military solutions.
