Veterans Arrested at Protest Condemning US Military’s Role in Climate Crisis
Several U.S. veterans and their allies were arrested outside the nation’s Capitol building on Wednesday as they protested the military’s role in driving the climate crisis, from its massive greenhouse gas emissions to its large-scale release of toxic chemicals overseas and at home.
Veterans for Peace (VFP), a national anti-war group that organized the demonstration, said that the police arrested at least seven veterans and supporters at the Capitol Hill protest, where advocates demanded cuts to the Pentagon budget, transparency from the military on its carbon emissions, an end to all U.S.-led wars, and a climate emergency declaration.
“The military has done next to nothing to reduce their carbon footprint, either ignoring the climate mandate completely or just focusing on creating more advanced weapons systems that can continue to operate under worsening climate conditions,” said VFP executive director Garett Reppenhagen, a U.S. Army veteran.
“From the burn pits to nuclear waste to water contamination in Hawai’i, the U.S. military is responsible for an unprecedented amount of climate disasters,” Reppenhagen added. “It is past time for Congress and the president to hold the U.S. military accountable for their catastrophic effects on the planet.”
The Pentagon is the biggest consumer of energy in the U.S. and the world’s “single largest institutional producer of greenhouse gases,” according to Brown University’s Costs of War Project. Neta Crawford, a political science professor at Boston University, has estimated that the U.S. military emits more carbon dioxide than entire countries, including Denmark and Portugal.
The demonstration came weeks after the U.S. House passed legislation authorizing $839 billion in military spending for the upcoming fiscal year, rejecting amendments that would have modestly cut Pentagon funding. The Senate, meanwhile, is poised to approve a bill greenlighting an even larger military budget—$847 billion in total.
Originally published at Commondreams.org.
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