Climate change and the US military:

Climate change and the US military: The 800-pound gorilla in the room.

The basics: • 19.5 gal fuel/barrel • 1 gallon gas = 19.4 pounds CO2 • 1 gallon diesel = 22.2 pounds CO2

Context • Average car drives 12,000 miles/year at 24 mpg = 500 gallons/year • Thus emits about 10,000 pounds (5 tons) of carbon/year.

A little context America’s fuel use – largest in world at approx. 20.6 million barrels of oil/day = ¼ of the world’s oil. 40% of that is gasoline for motor vehicles.

Further context • Thus, country pumps a staggering 8 billion pounds (4 million tons) of carbon into the atmosphere every day.

Now for the military: • “The Pentagon is the largest single consumer of oil in the world, using enough energy in one year to run all the transit systems in the country for the next 14 to 22 years.” (Barry Sanders, The Green Zone) • It both “purchases more light refined petroleum than any other singe organization in the world,” and also is the largest single polluter of any single agency or organization in the world. (BS)

The numbers are elusive and enormous • Pentagon admits to 144 million barrels of fuel per year or 400,000 barrels/day, BUT • Hides that consumed free overseas and bought overseas, that consumed by contractors and by the Navy in overseas waters (International Bunker Fuel): more likely 1 million barrels/dayor 365 million barrels/year! • Only fourteen countries exceed that number! As much as the whole country of Spain.

The Pollution • 1 million barrels of oil/day = 400,000,000 pounds of CO2/day = 200,000 tons/day OR 73,000,000 tons/year CO2. • If estimate half as jet fuel, must correct: > 650 million pounds or 325,000 tons/day or over 100 million tons/year CO2 equivalent. • This is between 1 and 2% of the US total.

Pollution worse than carbon • Bunker oil is high sulfur and, combined with carbon, creates more potent greenhouse gas. • Jet fuel has a “radiative forcing ratio of around 2.7,” meaning because of nitrous oxide, soot, sulfur dioxide and water, “the total warming effect of aircraft emissions is 2.7 times as great as that of CO2 alone.”

M-1 Abrams Tank: 0.2 mpg or 252 gallons/hr. Army uses 1800 of them and they require a fleet of 2,000 support trucks.

Apache Helicopter: 0.5 mpg jet fuel.

USS Independence Aircraft carrier uses 5,600 gallons an hour = 112,000 tons of CO2/hour.

Air Force Consumes ~ ½ of DoD fuel. In 2006 consumed 2.6 billion gallons of jet fuel = ¼ of the world’s consumption.

F-4 Phantom: Uses 1600 gal/hr jet fuel > 3x as much as average American uses in driving in a year.With greenhouse gas effect almost 50 tons of carbon/hour!

F-15: 1600 gal jet fuel/hr. With afterburners – 14,400 gal/hr equivalent to > 330 tons or 660,000 pounds of CO2 equivalent/hr!

“Principle gas hog award” goes to B-52 Stratocruiser: uses 3,334 gal/hr STANDARD fuel use producing 200,000 pounds/hr CO2 equivalent.

It requires in-air refueling by refueling aircraft, KC-10 Extenderusing 2,050 gallons per hour = 120,000 lb or 60 tons CO2 equivalents/hour.

War, the military’s product! • In the first three weeks of combat in Iraq, , the Army calculated its branch alone required more than 40 million gallons of fuel. • If assume 1/4 was jet fuel = 600 million pounds of CO2 equivalent. • Non-jet fuel produced 660 million pounds of CO2. • = 600,000 tons of CO2!

Only a small example from the Air Force. 42 Stealth F-117’s each flew 1,300 sorties at the beginning of the Iraq War. 5 hours/sortie, 500 miles/hr produced 26 million tons of carbon. = 328,000 trips by a 747 from LAX to NYC.

The Problem: • “Even if every person in America decided to stop driving today, and even if every polluting factory in the country voluntarily shut down its operations right now, the land and the animals and the water and the air – those things that we generally include by referring to them as the environment – would still face a most serious assault. And, ironically, that greatest single assault on the environment, on all of us around the globe, comes from one agency, that one agency in business to protect us from our enemies, the Armed Forces of the United States.” (Barry Sanders, The Green Zone)

Depleted Uranium • Half-life of 4.7 billion years. In one year –2003 – the US and Britain release 100-200 tons of it in Iraq. A disposal technique for the 750,000 tons of radioactive waste US generates ANNUALLY. • Absorbed by plants and animals as well as humans after it creates its firestorm. Continues to kill long after war ends, esp children.

Bombs • Explosions produce greenhouse gases – the climate change effect of bombing has never been calculated. (1 tank of gas = 100 pounds tnt?) • Further, they destroy all animal and plant life in an area. • Finally, human structures must be rebuilt. • From March 19, 2003 to November of that year the military launched 19,040 guided missiles, 8885 unguided missiles, and 233,000 cluster bombs in Iraq.

Just a few environmental horrors associated with the bombs • Solid rocket fuel (used in delivery of missiles) contains perchlorate. • New and improved Napalm! Banned by international treaty which US did not sign. Tens of thousands of pounds of burning jet fuel and benzene dropped on Iraq and Afghanistan. • White phosphorus also banned by international treaty. • Dense Inert Metal Explosives

Air shows: Westover AFB • 8/5/12 A condensation cloud or vapor cone is produced as an F-15 flies at or near the sound barrier at the Westover Air Show.

4 Thunderbird F-16’s flying for 15 minutes =1 hour of flying time = 1600 gallons of fuel = 50 tons = 10 cars driving for a year. Thunderbirds

Other fly-overs • B-2 Spirit (stealth bomber) Saturday Only-- 1800 gal/hour > 100,000 pounds or 50 tons/hr • US Navy F/A-18 fighter-bomber • US Marines MV-22 Osprey (vertical takeoff and landing troop transport) Navy Legacy Flight (old and new aircraft flying in formation) C-5B Galaxy (heavy airlift)

The 800-pound gorilla! What can we do? Stop air shows – Begin now! Demand accountability for military pollution. Cut military spending. Stop war.

Climate change and the US military: