Peace and Climate

Being the observant sort, I noticed that the People's Climate March and the International Day of Peace happen to fall on the same day, Sunday, September 21. Both are extremely significant, deserving close attention. Which one should I promote and support? It's not that I won't continue to give attention to both, but I can't be in two places at once. It seems as though I need to focus on one event or the other, but in truth the two causes are closely related, even though the specific events may not be.

Climate Change and Conflict

• Eric Holthaus
  • Climate change (especially drought) is already destabilizing nations and leading to wars.
  • Climate change has been discussed as a "threat multiplier" for recent and future conflicts.
  • Climate change worsens the divide between haves and have-nots, hitting the poor the hardest.
• David Biello
  • The genocide in Darfur was sparked, at least in part, by a decline in rainfall over the past 30 years just as the region's population doubled.
  • One degree Celsius warmer temperatures are associated with a 50 percent higher likelihood of civil war.
  • Temperature change offered a better prediction of impending conflict than even changes in rainfall.

Militarism and Climate Change

• Alan Maki
  • The U.S. military-industrial complex leaves the largest carbon footprint of any industry.
  • What kind of carbon footprint is created in preparation for wars, by wars and rebuilding in the aftermath of wars?
  • The most effective way to fight global warming and climate change is to fight for peace by "beating swords into plowshares."
• Barry Sanders
  • Until we address the attack that the US military is waging on the global environment, the things we do at home won't change a thing.
  • Military activity is the single-greatest contributor to the worldwide environmental crisis:
    • fuel emissions
    • radioactive waste
    • defoliation campaigns
• H. Patricia Hynes
  • Militarism is the most oil-exhaustive activity on the planet, and growing more so.
  • The US Air Force (USAF) is the single largest consumer of jet fuel in the world.
  • The opportunity costs involved in fighting a war, rather than investing in clean technology, mean forfeiting future global health for militarism.

Please join the conversation at Friend to Friend on Climate