To avert climate catastrophe, defund the military
As many of us are biting our fingernails waiting to see where Manchin will land on the infrastructure bill, to get a glimpse of what climate action from the US might look like over the next decade, a bill that passes with large bipartisan support every year is helping drive us to climate catastrophe: the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
This year’s NDAA, which just passed Congress and now heads to Biden’s desk, allocating nearly $778 billion to the military — which is $25 billion more than was even requested by Biden, and $36 billion more than Trump’s final defense budget. All this for the highest institutional emitter in the world, which alone emits more carbon than most countries.
Shirking this reality, politicians on both sides of the aisle have deployed a steadily growing rebrand effort with the concept of “climate security” — tying the sprawling US national security empire with the need to address the climate crisis, and rolling out a slew of technocratic measures included in this year’s NDAA with that aim. To a casual observer, this could sound enticing: avert the overwhelming warmaking resources of the military to actually address the climate crisis. But in reality, legitimizing the concept of “climate security”, and resources with it, recommits us to a system that continues to fail the vast majority of people on the planet, for the profit of a small few. The US military is inextricably tied to the preservation of the fossil fuel economy as the driver of US empire — and the Black, Indigenous and/or migrant communities already hit worst by the climate crisis cannot afford us legitimizing this dangerous concept.
“Climate security” is a growing justification to continue to fund the military at the same or higher levels, even as Joe Biden championed the supposed ending of the “forever wars.” This is evidenced by Nancy Pelosi’s remarks last month at COP26 at Glasgow, where she focused her brief remarks on the “climate crisis [as] a national security matter” due to “migration” and “conflict over habitat and resources,” while defending the Pentagon budget increase. This push also aligns with the noted shift in right-wing, nationalist movements from climate denialism to increasing xenophobia and nativism worldwide, as climate-related displacement grows. While Biden reinstates the Trump-era policy of locking out asylum seekers at the US southern border, Modi continues to foment violence against Bangladeshi and/or Muslim migrants — and they both stand up to applause at COP26.
This setup also helps further militarize police departments in the US, who already cite climate change as a reason to collect more Pentagon equipment — which will be used to further terrorize, criminalize, and incarcerate Black and Indigenous folks. Police have already used this military-grade equipment to attack water protectors protesting fossil fuel infrastructure projects like the Line 3 and Dakota Access pipelines, likely obtained through the federal government’s 1033 program. This is the natural end of the falsehood of “climate security.” To accept it is to acquiesce to a growing, global right-wing consensus that sets up the security of some (read: white, global north) and intensifies state violence against others.
While pushing “climate security” vilifies climate refugees, it celebrates a much different, smaller group — billionaires. The NDAA sent to the Senate includes a $10 billion gift of taxpayer money to multibillionaire Jeff Bezos to continue space exploration under his private Blue Origin venture.,This alignsing with Trump’s previous boost for now Time Person of the Year Elon Musk’s SpaceX — inviting immense carbon emissions to fuel the tech-bro ego-driven space race. As Bezos noted, his end goal was to “move high-polluting industries off of Earth”– so funding this competition aligns with the US and other states’ investment in “carbon capture” technologies, which continue to sacrifice communities already hardest hit by the effects of fossil fuel pollution. But why should we believe private military contractors can achieve benevolent aims, when all they’ve shown us is they’ve managed to rake in profits while killing during 20 years of the so-called ‘war on terror’? Imagine Blackwater private mercenaries, but in space, with the power to potentially dim the sun. If we accept the military and its private contractors as key players in “saving the world” from the climate crisis, then we’ll continue to invest in an apparatus that has only caused irreparable harm around the world.
As politicians continue to legitimize the concept of “climate security,” we must understand the deep danger of continued investment in the military as an entity that will save us. The only thing that will allow us to navigate the escalating crisis we’re facing is to fundamentally reimagine what true safety even means — and that is to defund the military and invest in true climate justice: A decarbonized power infrastructure. Land back to Indigenous peoples who protect more than 80% of the world’s biodiversity. Resilient food and water systems. Alternative economies and infrastructure beyond the fossil fuel economy. The possibilities could be endless, and the opportunity humans have to reimagine our relationship with each other and the Earth in the face of this crisis is unprecedented. But in this year’s NDAA, we see the set up for an infrastructure invested in more violence, while we’re continually told what can create true climate resilience just costs too much.
The NDAA is heading to Joe Biden’s desk with broad bipartisan support. For everyone who wants a livable future, we need this consensus on our shared destruction to end.
