This Earth Day, I’m thinking about budget cuts. Not the ones that I staunchly oppose, but the ones that I would be ecstatic about. If you think about the budget cuts that would be best for the people and planet, what comes to mind? I hope it’s obvious at this point that the top item on the list is the Pentagon — the part of the budget that's sole focus is death, destruction, and extraction. The Pentagon accounts for around 70% of the US government’s energy expenditure. And it is the largest institutional polluter in the world, with over 800 bases globally that leak toxic chemicals and facilitate land grabs that trample on indigenous sovereignty and environmental safety.
I know that for many, “pivoting” to “Earth Day” might feel like a bit of a meaningless distraction, amidst an ongoing genocide, US bombing of Yemen, increased political repression within the US, and tariffs. However, a movement addressing the climate by necessity must address the war economy. The movement for Palestine and for the US out of everywhere is a climate movement. This month, we’ve hosted a webinar series titled “Disarming Earth Day.” We want to disrupt traditional associations of Earth Day. That means sounding the alarm that war is the greatest contributor to environmental catastrophe. And, from within the eye of the hurricane, that starts with disarming the US and cutting the Pentagon.
Look, I don’t want to sound naive. I know that it might be a bit of a stretch to tell the government that plans to allocate $1 trillion to the Pentagon’s budget to make cuts to this extractor of wealth and resources. But we’re also moving away from facades, which we can expose while clarifying our goals in the process. Previous justifications for Pentagon budget increases that Democrats have used, like “national security for climate threats” (the logic of which was a complete oxymoron), aren’t being used anymore, as the Trump administration is denying the existence of the climate crisis altogether. The only reason for the Trump administration to build up the Pentagon is for escalation: against China, Iran, and any other country that threatens or competes with the U.S.’s dominance and accumulation. Nothing is “efficient” about this constant warmaking, and it definitely doesn’t make Trump the “peace president” that he has claimed to be. And, as Vijay Prashad pointed out in our panel last week*, escalating a New Cold War with China or other nuclear powers isn’t just destructive and deadly for some, it’s just stupid for everyone.
We know a few things: the Trump administration is not going to put the environment first, nor is it going to divest from fossil fuels. From here, we can learn from our Disarming Earth Day speakers about national liberation struggles to free the land from US Bases and war games*. In Palestine, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, Korea, and the Congo, these struggles are freeing themselves. We can play our role best from within the belly of the beast by learning from them. The movement to evict the US Navy from Vieques was cross-sectoral: environmentalists, independence supporters, church groups, various political parties, fishers, and concerned people from across the world. They recognized how the movement to oppose US militarism was a movement for life. This can come from an anti-militarist climate movement that recognizes that our struggles must remain interconnected. Join with the 70+ organizations in signing onto our open letter calling out the global destruction caused by the US military. And if you see some climate organizations missing, invite some of them to sign-on using this form!
We know our tax dollars are going towards increased militarism. Just last week, the average U.S. taxpayer spent $3,707 on weapons (a lot of which goes directly to contractors like Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and General Dynamics), while $1,430 went to the Pentagon directly. This fuels the death and destruction of the planet and its people. We all know that money is not coming back to us for things that actually matter, like healthcare, education, and housing. In demanding that we end war and empire to save the planet, we will be saving ourselves.
Join the War Is Not Green movement!
👉 For more:
- Check out our Earth Month webpage to view resources.
- *Check out our Disarming Earth Day series that just concluded!
- Read about our open-letter and 'The Fires in Gaza are the Fires in LA'
- Sign up to organize and engage locally!
Until Liberation,
Aaron, Jodie, and the entire CODEPINK team
