225 / The Bootprint Of Empire / Oliver Belcher

In this episode, I speak with Oliver Belcher, Assistant Professor in Human Geography at Durham University and co-author of, Hidden carbon costs of the “everywhere war”: Logistics, geopolitical ecology, and the carbon boot‐print of the US military, with Patrick Bigger, Ben Neimark, Cara Kennelly. A summary of their research was published at The Conversation, US military is a bigger polluter than as many as 140 countries – shrinking this war machine is a must. This discussion is about the often obscured impacts the United States’ global military presence has on the planetary climate system at large. Oliver and his colleagues’ research points to the fact “[g]reenhouse gas emission accounting usually focuses on how much energy and fuel civilians use. But recent work, including our own, shows that the US military is one of the largest polluters in history, consuming more liquid fuels and emitting more climate-changing gases than most medium-sized countries. If the US military were a country, its fuel usage alone would make it the 47th largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world, sitting between Peru and Portugal.” We discuss why this reality is often overlooked in climate and environmental studies, and how the Military-Industrial-Complex is one of the largest purveyors of environmental and climate change in the world today. When it comes to international efforts to mitigate climate change, the overbearing effects of the maintenance and expansion of the United States Empire is the “elephant in the room” in addressing the global climate crisis. What’s also examined in this research is the awareness the US military has of its own impact on the climate system, as the “US military has long understood that it isn’t immune from the potential consequences of climate change – recognising it as a “threat multiplier” that can exacerbate other risks.” Despite this, the “American military’s climate policy remains contradictory. There have been attempts to "green" aspects of its operations by increasing renewable electricity generation on bases, but it remains the single largest institutional consumer of hydrocarbons in the world. It has also locked itself into hydrocarbon-based weapons systems for years to come, by depending on existing aircraft and warships for open-ended operations.” (http://bit.ly/396LbnZ) // Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/oliver-belcher // Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness // Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast