{"id":857,"date":"2012-09-04T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-09-04T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pachamamitaecu-org-720647.hostingersite.com\/2012\/09\/04\/el-departamento-de-defensa-de-eeuu-el-mayor-contaminador-del-planeta\/"},"modified":"2024-02-29T00:48:52","modified_gmt":"2024-02-29T00:48:52","slug":"el-departamento-de-defensa-de-eeuu-el-mayor-contaminador-del-planeta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pachamamitaecu.org\/en\/2012\/09\/04\/the-us-department-of-defense-is-the-biggest-polluter-on-the-planet\/","title":{"rendered":"The US Department of Defense: the biggest polluter on the planet"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The US military is responsible for the most atrocious and widespread pollution on the planet. Yet this information and the supporting documents are virtually never published. Despite the evidence, the US military's impact on the environment is not at all an issue addressed by environmental organisations, nor was it the focus of any discussions or proposals for restrictions at venues such as the United Nations Climate Change Conferences. <\/span><\/div>\n

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This conclusion is drawn from a study conducted by Project Censored, a multidisciplinary collective of professors and researchers at the University of Sonoma, California, United States.<\/span><\/div>\n

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This impact includes the indiscriminate use of fossil fuels, large production of greenhouse gases and a gigantic emission of radioactive and chemical contaminants into the air, water and soil. <\/span><\/div>\n

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The US's extensive global military operations (wars, interventions and covert operations, more than 1,000 bases worldwide and 6,000 facilities in the US) are exempt from greenhouse gas emissions limitations. <\/div>\n
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Political researcher Sara Flounders wrote: \u201cBy any measure, the Pentagon is the largest consumer of petroleum products and energy in general. Yet the Pentagon is completely exempt from all international climate agreements.\u201d For example, during the negotiations for the Kyoto Accords in December 1997, the US demanded as a condition for signing the agreement that it be exempt from limits or reductions on all its military operations around the world, including actions involving the UN and NATO; it ultimately did not sign.<\/div>\n

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While official U.S. reports indicate military use of 320,000 barrels of oil per day (50.9 million liters), that figure does not include fuel consumed by contractors, or at leased or private facilities, or in weapons production.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The U.S. military is the largest producer of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that most scientists believe is responsible for causing climate change. Steve Kretzmann, director of Oil Change International, reported that \u201cthe Iraq war was responsible for at least the equivalent of 141 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from March 2003 to December 2007. \u2026 That war emitted more than 60 percent of what every other country emits \u2026 This information is not readily available, since overseas military emissions are exempt from domestic reporting under U.S. law and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.\u201d <\/div>\n
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Some key examples:<\/div>\n
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\u25cf Depleted uranium: Tens of thousands of pounds of highly toxic radioactive waste microparticles contaminate the Middle East, Central Asia and the Balkans.<\/div>\n
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\u2022 US-made landmines and cluster bombs spread across large areas of Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East continue to cause death and destruction, even after the wars have ended.<\/div>\n
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\u2022 Thirty-five years after the Vietnam War, dioxin contamination is three to four times higher than \u201csafe\u201d levels, resulting in severe birth defects and cancer that extend into the third generation of those affected.<\/div>\n
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\u2022 US military policies and the war in Iraq have caused severe levels of desertification in 90% of the lands of this country, a former food exporter, turning it into an importer of 80% of its food products.<\/div>\n
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\u2022 In the US, military bases top the Superfund list of the most polluting sites, while perchlorate and trichloroethylene are filtering into drinking water, aquifers and soil.<\/div>\n
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\u2022 Nuclear testing in the southwestern U.S. and Pacific Islands has contaminated thousands of acres of land and water with radiation, while uranium waste damages Navajo reservations.<\/div>\n
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\u2022 Barrels of rusty chemicals and solvents and millions of rounds of ammunition are illegally dumped by the Pentagon at military bases around the world.<\/div>\n

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