{"id":93709,"date":"2024-01-20T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-01-20T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=93709"},"modified":"2024-01-20T10:15:38","modified_gmt":"2024-01-20T10:15:38","slug":"commentary-pentagon-pollution-is-a-global-embarrassment-progressive-perspectives-bc-military-pollution-progressive-commentarymct","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=93709","title":{"rendered":"Commentary: Pentagon pollution is a global embarrassment [Progressive Perspectives :: BC-MILITARY-POLLUTION-PROGRESSIVE-COMMENTARY:MCT]"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last year, world leaders held an international climate forum, COP28<\/a>, in Dubai.<\/p>\n

The forum opened with an embarrassment for the host country, the United Arab Emirates, when the president of the gathering\u2014who also leads the UAE\u2019s state oil company\u2014was caught using the platform to secretly push<\/a> fossil fuel deals.<\/p>\n

But Washington also had cause for embarrassment.<\/p>\n

After all, the United States is responsible for more cumulative fossil fuel emissions<\/a> than any other country. And we\u2019re spending more and more resources on a big part of the problem: the Pentagon. The Department of Defense remains the most carbon-intensive institution<\/a> in the world, responsible for more annual emissions than most countries<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Over the last year, Americans have experienced record-breaking temperatures and dozens of billion-dollar climate disasters<\/a>, including floods, wildfires, winter storms and hurricanes. The American people deserve safety and security\u2014but plowing more money into the military isn\u2019t going to ensure either.<\/p>\n

The United States continues to spend more on its military than the next 10 highest spenders<\/a> combined. Even though the Pentagon recently failed<\/a> its sixth straight audit, Congress just passed a gargantuan $886 billion military spending bill<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On top of that massive Pentagon budget, the White House is calling for an additional $106 billion<\/a> in emergency supplemental funding for military assistance to Israel and Ukraine, and to countries surrounding China\u2014where there is no ongoing war.<\/p>\n

With nations at COP28 approving<\/a> a global climate aid fund to help poorer countries adapt, that number has some added significance: $106 billion is the exact same figure the U.S. owes in climate reparations<\/a> to other countries for all those historic emissions, one Columbia University researcher estimates<\/a>.<\/p>\n

By contrast, President Joe Biden has pledged<\/a> just $1 billion for global climate aid\u201410 times less than an earlier commitment<\/a> he made in 2021.<\/p>\n

Many still applaud Biden\u2019s climate-forward policies, including the historic climate investments made<\/a> as part of the Inflation Reduction Act. However, these efforts still fall short of what is needed.<\/p>\n

We need to shift more of our considerable resources away from the carbon-intensive Pentagon and toward serious efforts to stop rising temperatures and stabilize regions threatened by climate catastrophe. That would make the world\u2014 and the United States\u2014a lot safer.<\/p>\n

Even a modest $100 billion cut to the Pentagon would be transformative\u2014that\u2019s enough to fund solar power<\/a> for every household in the country, with billions of dollars left to spare.<\/p>\n

When it comes down to what makes us safer, we must look at the state of our planet for future generations. After another year plagued by climate disasters and wars, it\u2019s clear we cannot continue down a course of investing in militarism while neglecting our planet.<\/p>\n

As leaders negotiate how to reduce worldwide emissions, they must look critically at their most carbon-intensive institutions. And if the Biden administration is serious about leaving a positive climate legacy, it should start with the Pentagon.<\/p>\n

____<\/p>\n

Alliyah Lusuegro is the Outreach Coordinator for the National Priorities Project at the Institute for Policy Studies.<\/p>\n

____<\/p>\n

This column was<\/em> produced<\/em><\/a> for Progressive Perspectives, a project of The Progressive magazine, and distributed by Tribune News Service.<\/em><\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

\u00a92024 Tribune Content Agency, LLC. <\/p>\n

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Last year, world leaders held an international climate forum, COP28, in Dubai. The forum opened with an embarrassment for the host country, the United Arab Emirates, when the president of the gathering\u2014who also leads the UAE\u2019s state oil company\u2014was caught using the platform to secretly push fossil fuel deals. But Washington also had cause for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=93709"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93709\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93710,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93709\/revisions\/93710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=93709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=93709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=93709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}