US Military largest polluter on planet Earth causing Climate Change

The US military’s carbon footprint is enormous. Like corporate supply chains, it relies upon an extensive global network of container ships, trucks and cargo planes to supply its operations with everything from bombs to humanitarian aid and hydrocarbon fuels.

Our new study calculated the contribution of this vast infrastructure to climate change.

US military pollution is a significant contributor to climate change. If it were a nation state, it would be the 47th largest emitter in the world.

Their negligence, nuclear testing and disregard for human life has come at a huge environmental cost, and reform needs to be taken into consideration to protect our planet.

This came as a surprise, as ample evidence has been published before the report detailing how dangerous the US military’s climate change contributions are.

In 2019, a report released by Durham and Lancaster University found the US military to be one of the largest climate polluters in history, consuming more liquid fuels and emitting more CO2e (carbon-dioxide equivalent) than most countries.

It established that if the US military were a nation state, it would be the 47th largest emitter of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the world. These figures were from taking into account the emissions from fuel usage alone.

Gathering data about the US Armed Forces can be difficult. With their decision to withdraw from the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, the USA is exempt from reporting their military emissions.

However, gathering statistics from their negligent actions can be obtained through local news organizations, NGO’s, lobbyists and Freedom of Information requests.

Greenhouse gas emission accounting usually focuses on how much energy and fuel civilians use. But recent work, including our own, shows that the US military is one of the largest polluters in history, consuming more liquid fuels and emitting more climate-changing gases than most medium-sized countries.

If the US military were a country, its fuel usage alone would make it the 47th largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world, sitting between Peru and Portugal.

In 2017, the US military bought about 269,230 barrels of oil a day and emitted more than 25,000 kilo-tonnes of carbon dioxide by burning those fuels.

The US Air Force purchased US$4.9 billion worth of fuel, and the US Navy US$2.8 billion, followed by the army at US$947 million and the US Marines at US$36 million.

It’s no coincidence that US military emissions tend to be overlooked in climate change studies. It’s very difficult to get consistent data from the Pentagon and across US government departments.

The Conversation / ABC Flash Point Blog News 2024.