Military
During times of peace people create pollution,
unintentionally killing other people.
During times of war people purposely kill other people.
Petro-dictators can use their nation's military, and their petro-wealth, to start wars:
Vladimir Putin's "war machine has been funded, fed, and fuelled by the coal, oil and gas industries."
See also: Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman's military intervention in Yemen (2015), among many others.
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This dynamic can work in reverse as well:
"The depletion of resources and violent disputes reinforce one another, forming a vicious cycle."
"The environment has long been a silent casualty of ... armed conflict:” U.N. General Secretary Ban Ki-Moon.
"The US Military Has Cared About Climate Change Since ... The Cold War – For Good Reason.”
Michael Klare wrote about the military's perspective in his book, All Hell Breaking Loose:
Forward-thinking leaders within the Department of “War" have been concerned about:
- U.S. military installations being damaged by fires and floods
- increasingly more Humanitarian Assistance / Disaster Relief missions
- simultaneous multiple disasters
- "threat multiplier" problems: food, water, shelter, commerce, transportation, etc.
- global instability leading to civil wars or foreign invasions
While the US military makes plans to
keep foreign oil accessible, climate refugees at bay, and its installations secure,
they discharge mega-giant amounts of pollution.
- "The DOD is the world’s largest institutional user of petroleum."
- The US Dept of Defense (DOD) emits "333,000,000 tons [of pollutants] per year".
- "The Pentagon does not acknowledge that its own fuel use is a major" problem.
"In Minden, Louisana, the military was found to be burning ... munition waste ...
with no environmental emission control measures."
"Residents complained, so the military moved the burning of these toxic substances to Colfax, Louisana."
The Penatgon has "locked itself into hydrocarbon-based weapons systems for years to come."
Who on God's Green Earth is going to protect us from all that pollution?