There is an elephant in the climate debate that by U.S. demand
cannot be discussed or even acknowledged. This agreement to ignore the
elephant is now the accepted basis of all international negotiations on
climate change.
It is well understood by every possible measurement that the
Pentagon, the U.S. military machine, is the world’s biggest
institutional consumer of petroleum products and the world’s worst
polluter of greenhouse gas emissions and many other toxic pollutants.
Yet the Pentagon has a blanket exemption in all international climate
agreements.
Ever since the Kyoto Accords or Kyoto Protocol negotiations in 1998,
in an effort to gain U.S. compliance, all U.S. military operations
worldwide and within the U.S. have been exempt from measurement and from
agreements on reduction. The U.S. Congress passed an explicit provision
guaranteeing U.S. military exemptions. (Interpress Service, May 20,
1998)
The complete U.S. military exemption from greenhouse gas emissions
calculations includes more than 1,000 U.S. bases in more than 130
countries around the world, its 6,000 facilities in the U.S., its
aircraft carriers and its jet aircraft. Also excluded are its weapons
testing and all multilateral operations such as the giant U.S.-commanded
NATO military alliance and Africom, the U.S. military alliance now
blanketing Africa. The provision also exempts U.S./U.N.-sanctioned
activities of “peacekeeping” and “humanitarian relief.”
After gaining this giant concession, the U.S. government still
refused to sign the Kyoto Accord, thus sabotaging years of international
effort to forge an agreement.
The provisions of the Kyoto Protocol nevertheless became the basis
of all future proposed international meetings on a climate treaty,
including Copenhagen 2009, Cancun 2010, Durban 2011, Doha 2012 and the
United Nations upcoming 21st Conference of the Parties on Climate Change
meeting in Paris in 2015.
In all past international conferences it was again and again the U.S.
government that sabotaged the meetings and refused to be bound by any
treaty. The Obama administration on Aug. 27 again confirmed that at the
U.N. meeting in New York in September to prepare for the 2015 Paris
meeting, only a nonbinding agreement could be put forward.
Role of grassroots activists
Unless the climate activists at the grassroots level challenge this
exemption of the U.S. military and begin to focus a laser light on the
most dangerous source of global warming and climate change, the movement
will become lost in vague generalities, utopian hopes and toothless
accords.
The only hope that the mass outpouring in September in New York City
will have an impact is if independent voices can begin to consciously
challenge the greatest global polluter.
Exposing the horrendous social costs of U.S. militarism must also
be part of the challenge. Washington’s military role acts to constantly
reinforce at every level the repressive state apparatus.
For decades, and at an accelerated pace since 2001, the military has
provided an endless stream of free war equipment to local city and state
police, National Guard units and sheriffs’ offices. Youth of oppressed
nations within the U.S. become targets of a vastly expanded police
state. The fresh images of tanks and armored police in Ferguson, Mo.,
confirmed for millions the results of this racist policy.
Exposing the devastation of U.S. wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya
is essential. These U.S. wars have spread hundreds of tons of
radioactive waste from depleted uranium missiles. They have contaminated
the soil and water of vast regions under U.S. occupation with benzene
and trichloroethylene from air base operations and perchlorate, a toxic
ingredient in rocket propellant. More than 1,000 military sites in the
U.S. are contaminated with these toxins. Military bases top the
Superfund list of contaminated sites. The poorest communities,
especially communities of color, are the most severely impacted by this
continuing military poisoning.
It is essential to connect the Pentagon exemption from international
negotiations to its primary role as the protector and expander of
corporate power on a global scale. The most powerful and profitable
corporations are the oil and military corporations. These are the other
primary polluters.
Pentagon admits climate change
Unlike the right-wing fanatics and climate change deniers in
Congress, the Pentagon does not deny the devastating impact that climate
change will have on every aspect of life on the planet.
Its own published studies confirm the danger. But the U.S. officer
corps is committed to what they call “full spectrum dominance.” So every
study of climate change by the military planners is based on evaluating
how to take advantage of the future crisis to more firmly entrench U.S.
corporate power and protect the irrational capitalist system that has
created this crisis that threatens all humanity.
The Pentagon studies are not on plans to deliver emergency aid in the
face of climate disasters such as floods, droughts, famines, epidemics,
typhoons, tornadoes, hurricanes, ice storms, water shortages and damage
to infrastructure. The plans of their war colleges and think tanks are
on how to extract political concessions on docking rights and future
military access during a besieged country’s hour of greatest emergency
need.
For example, the U.S. Department of Defense releases every four years
a Quadrennial Defense Review. This is a broad outline of U.S. military
strategy. (tinyurl.com/pn4awm8)
The 2014 QDR describes the threat of climate change as “a very
serious national security vulnerability.” Similar to the 2010 QDR, it
poses the problem of how to maintain global U.S. military hegemony in
the face of ever-worsening global climate disruptions.
The military officer caste is focused on maintaining Wall Street rule
and capitalist property relations during a crisis. There is concern
with preserving the authority of their puppets, allies and
collaborators. The report stresses the importance of developing new
policies, strategies and plans.
“Climate change poses another significant challenge for the United
States and the world at large. As greenhouse gas emissions increase, sea
levels are rising, average global temperatures are increasing and
severe weather patterns are accelerating.
“The impacts of climate change may increase the frequency, scale and
complexity of future missions, including defense support to civil
authorities. … The Department’s operational readiness hinges on
unimpeded access to land, air and sea training.”
Military and corporate planning is callously focused on how to take advantage of the life-threatening changes.
A most frightening example is the “National Strategy for the Arctic
Region.” This White House report opens by praising the Arctic as “an
amazing place.” But then quickly defines the need for focusing on
strategic priorities to meet the challenges and opportunities ahead.
The essence of the report is that the melting of the polar ice cap
and the “new Arctic environment” means “ocean resources are more readily
accessible as sea ice diminishes.” This is an opportunity to access the
vast untapped oil, gas and mineral resources and increase the flow of
fossil fuels. In other words, big profits for Big Oil. (tinyurl.com/cw2dvhk)
The Center for Naval Analyses has also prepared ominous reports of
U.S. policy in this period of global climate crisis. Eleven retired
generals and admirals came together in 2007 to examine the security
implications of climate change.
In 2014, this federally funded research and development center
produced a study headed by Michael Chertoff, former secretary of
Homeland Security, and Leon Panetta, former secretary of Defense, and
titled “National Security and the Accelerating Risks of Climate Change.”
This report sees climate change as the source of international
instability and the greatest threat to the established capitalist order.
This study, once again, is not on how to use the enormous
technological ability of the U.S. military machine to provide solutions
or emergency assistance. Everything is posed in terms of national
security in the face of alleged potential terror threats.
“In Africa, Asia and the Middle East, we are already seeing how the
impacts of extreme weather, such as prolonged drought and flooding — and
resulting food shortages, desertification, population dislocation and
mass migration, and sea level rise — are posing security challenges to
these regions’ governments. We see these trends growing and
accelerating.
“Climate change acts as a threat multiplier for instability in some
of the most volatile regions of the world. … It poses a serious threat
to America’s national security.”
The report calls for “improved U.S. combat power” and “assessment
of the impact on U.S. military installations worldwide due to rising sea
levels and extreme weather events.” (tinyurl.com/lreswx8)
Based on these reports and on the destructive, self-serving U.S. role
in every climate meeting in over 20 years, it is clear that U.S.
corporate power and the monstrous military machine it has funded by
expropriating more than half the federal budget every year for decades
is an enemy of the people of the whole world and a threat to all forms
of life on earth. This must become a focus of class-conscious climate
activists. This would contribute greatly to an understanding of the
source and the real solutions to this global crisis.
By Sara Flounders Global Research, September 09, 2014 Workers World
By Sara Flounders Global Research, September 09, 2014 Workers World
Modern Mongol: Fritz Kraemer's "On Excellence" and his student Heinz Kissinger and their 45 years together in the USA Pentagon! Fritz Kraemer's "On Excellence" and his student Heinz Kissinger and their 45 years together in the USA Pentagon: Modern Mongols!
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