Threat..

 

The U.S. military has recognized climate change as an “existential” threat to national security, spurring conflict and mass migration.  

But critics say it hasn’t done enough to stave off climate change—and that’s partly because it’s not required to share how much it pollutes. The U.S. military is the single largest institutional source of greenhouse gas emissions in the world, according to Brown University’s Costs of War Project. (This is despite reducing emissions from a peak of around 85 million tons in 2004.)

Using Department of Energy data, researcher found that the U.S. military is a major polluter. Since the beginning of the Global War on Terror in 2001, the military has produced more than 1.2 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases. The data is likely incomplete—but even with the available data, she found that the U.S. military emits more than entire countries like Portugal and Denmark, and that the Department of Defense accounts for nearly 80% of the federal government’s fuel consumption.