Addressing the climate crisis is one of the most important challenges of our time. The U.S. military is the world’s largest consumer of oil and causes more greenhouse gas pollution than 140 nations combined. Yet 64% of our discretionary spending is siphoned off to the Pentagon every year and the private weapons companies that the Pentagon contracts with continue to place their short term profit above the future of our planet. Funding endless war is an existential threat to human life and one of the leading causes of climate change.
When our public institutions invest public money in weapons corporations like Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, General Dynamics, and Northrop Grumman, they are underpinning the war machine that draws public dollars away from projects that benefit our communities and puts them instead into an already bloated defense budget. Moreover, those same weapons are a major factor in conflicts that lead to migration by asylum seekers.
A movement to divest from the war machine will remove the social licenses that allow weapons corporations to literally make a killing on killing, and the Pentagon budget to increase annually even when our military budget far-outpaces the military budgets of all other nations.
The opportunities for divestment from the war machine abound. Cities, public pension funds, and university endowments invest public dollars in private corporations that often include weapons corporations, and elected public servants often accept campaign contributions from weapons makers. Together we can demand that they divest, that it is morally unacceptable to build our communities on top of global conflicts, and at the same time we must demand that we instead invest our public resources in projects that positively impact our communities, starting first with a rapid response to the climate crisis that is exacerbated by endless wars.
If we’re going to avert a climate disaster, we have to hold companies like BlackRock, which invests billions of dollars in weapons manufacturers and millions in companies fueling the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest, accountable. And if we want to drastically reduce our carbon emissions, we have to demand that our universities divest their endowments from weapons manufacturers, that our cities divest public dollars from weapons corporations, and that our elected officials refuse campaign contributions from weapons makers.
Take Action!
1. Join Jane Fonda's FireDrillFridays actions
2. Share our #WarisNotGreen graphic and tell us why you stand for a #PeacefulGreenFuture. Make sure you tag CODEPINK on twitter, facebook, and instagram
Here are some photos you can share (click to open PDF version you can download)…
3. Share talking points on social media about #WarisNOTGreen:
- Did you know the Pentagon is the single largest institutional consumer of fossil fuels in the world? #WarisNOTGreen! we need to cut the Pentagon budget and invest in a Green New Deal NOW! www.codepink.org/wing
- Did you know If the Pentagon were a country, its fuel use alone would make it the 47th largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world? If we’re going to address the climate crisis, we need to #DivestFromWar NOW! #WarIsNotGreen www.codepink.org/wing
- Instead of spending $740 billion on the Pentagon budget every year, we should invest in a Green New Deal and cultivate our local peace economies #WarIsNotGreen www.codepink.org/wing
- US military emissions come mainly from fueling weapons and equipment. That means that asset managers like @blackrock are contributing greatly to climate change when they invest billions in weapons manufacturers like Raytheon and Lockheed Martin. #WarIsNotGreen www.codepink.org/blackrock
4. Take Action for a #PeacefulGreenFuture by….
Telling the 2020 Presidential Candidates to Divest from the Pentagon and Invest in a Green New Deal!
Asking AOC to include a New Peace Deal in the Green New Deal!
Learning more about why War is Not Green and sharing with your communities
Global Days of Action on Military Spending 2020: Toolkit
Take action locally to divest from the war machine!
Addressing climate change and U.S militarism starts with people organizing for change in their local communities.
Take action to Include a New Peace Deal in the Green New Deal
Learn More
- No Warming, No War: How Militarism Fuels the Climate Crisis — and Vice Versa
- Will America’s Corruption End on a Ventilator or in a Mushroom Cloud?
- Maine Natural Guard Resources on Climate Change
- We Can’t Confront Climate Change While Lavishly Funding the Pentagon
- Why are we being herded into buying part of the world's biggest polluter? (Pension funds will be stuffed with Saudi Aramco shares after the oil giant’s floatation this weekend)
- Oil fuels war and terrorists like Isis. The climate movement can bring peace
- WAR ON THE WORLD: Industrialized Militaries Are a Bigger Part of the Climate Emergency Than You Know
- 10 Ways that the Climate Crisis and Militarism are Intertwined
- Major Media Bury Groundbreaking Studies of Pentagon’s Massive Carbon Bootprint
- Pentagon Fuel Use, Climate Change, and the Costs of War
- US military is a bigger polluter than as many as 140 countries--shrinking this war machine is a must
- Why Green New Deal Advocates Must Address Militarism
- Study Links Climate Change and War Refugees
- If American can find $761bn for the military, it can fund the Green New Deal
- A Green New Deal Needs to Fight US Militarism
- To Save the Planet, Cut the Pentagon
- Limited nuclear war could wreck Earth’s climate
- We Need to Interrupt Climate Catastrophe—by Divesting From the War Machine
- CODEPINK Activists Participate in the Global Climate Strike