The war machine is one of the largest contributors to the climate crisis, yet some of the biggest and most well-resourced environmental groups are not speaking out about the cost of war.
The National Audubon Society is a go-to resource for birders around the world, with comprehensive databases, centers, sanctuaries, and chapters around the United States. They also have influence in much wider climate, environmental, and related philanthropic spaces. They were recently a sponsor of the Climate Group’s official events for New York Climate Week — a convening where the conversations neatly skirted around the actual core issues threatening habitats, ecosystems, and our collective survival. In 2024, a survey found that roughly 96 million people, or 37% of the U.S. population, is engaged in bird watching, with numbers only rising. Given Audubon’s expansive reach and almost $200 million in revenue, we are asking them to use their resources to speak out about the threats to the planet posed by a $1.5 trillion war budget proposed by Pete Hegseth and Donald Trump, which is currently being deliberated by Congress.
This is a moment that calls for organizations with resources and influence to speak out. The U.S. military is one of the most environmentally destructive forces on the planet and is a threat to every part of Audubon’s mission. This moment demands that organizations like Audubon speak out against this budget, and join this larger movement.
We, the undersigned, are writing to the National Audubon Society because, as you say on your website, you work to preserve the natural resources and ecosystems that birds — and all living creatures —- need to survive, across borders and political boundaries. One of the largest threats to this mission is a historic and horrific $1.5 trillion war budget that has been submitted to Congress by War Secretary Hegseth.
The U.S. military is the inverse of birds: it too spans across borders or political boundaries (as your website emphasizes), but unlike birds, its impact on the planet is catastrophic, and it does not respect the sovereignty or life of the places that it is in. It is the world’s largest institutional polluter. With military bases on every continent, the U.S. occupies 90% of all of the world’s foreign bases; each base carries with it a story of native habitat destruction and contamination by toxic chemicals like PFAS. The Department of War also acts as one of the largest enforcement mechanisms for the fossil fuel industry, establishing bases in resource-rich regions and starting wars to ensure the continued extraction of fossil fuels and minerals. Poisonous AI data centers are being built around the country, including on military bases without regulation, and are financed by companies contracted through the war budget and often by the Pentagon itself. We should all be thinking about what could be done alternatively with all the money, water, and land that this environmental monster is hoarding.
Israeli strikes in Southern Lebanon have caused substantial changes in migratory patterns for the 500 million birds that annually make their way through this corridor, both due to the destruction of habitat and the drones that can target birds. In Ukraine, a study on the direct and indirect impacts of war documented the damage of over 712,321 acres of natural habitat. Prior to October 2023, Gaza has been home to over 250 different bird species — after three years of nonstop bombardment, almost all of Gaza’s biodiversity has been destroyed, and mercury and depleted uranium have been found in the air, along with countless chemicals in the water supply significantly harming the ability for life to sustain, human and bird alike. These are the impacts of the current state military spending, as the war budget ensures continued weapons sales to make all of this possible, from Ukraine to Palestine. This year’s proposed budget is a $500 billion increase from the last — you can well imagine how the environmental impacts will compound if we keep pouring money into the military budget.
In short, cutting this $1.5 trillion budget could be a generational win for the environmental movement. And we have a real opportunity here: Senate Democrats recently voted to block the NDAA, and there has been a bill introduced by Ed Markey to cut the proposed budget in half. This is historic progress.
CODEPINK has been working to bridge the anti-war and environmental movements for decades, and this is one of the most decisive moments that we have seen to join forces. There is momentum to cut the budget for the first time in decades, because this budget would expand and solidify the all-out destruction and occupation of land around the world.
In writing this, the words of Palestinian Poet, Marwan Makhoul come to mind:
In order for me to write poetry that isn’t political
I must listen to the birds
and in order to hear the birds
the warplanes must be silent.
We are available to meet to share more and help you find ways to join the movement to stop this war budget that threatens the ecosystems, habitats, birds, bird lovers, and all life around the world. We look forward to speaking with you.