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DonViejo

(60,536 posts) Thu Jun 13, 2019, 08:07 AM Jun 2019

The Pentagon emits more greenhouse gases than Portugal, study finds

Source: The Guardian

Pentagon released 59m metric tons of carbon dioxide and other warming gases in 2017, research shows

Reuters

Wed 12 Jun 2019 20.46 EDT

The United States creates more planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions through its defense operations alone than industrialized countries such as Sweden and Portugal, researchers said on Wednesday.

The Pentagon, which oversees the US military, released about 59m metric tons of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in 2017, according to the first study to compile such comprehensive data, published by Brown University.

The Pentagon’s emissions were “in any one year ... greater than many smaller countries’ greenhouse gas emissions”, the study said.

If it were a country, its emissions would make it the world’s 55th largest contributor, said Neta Crawford, the study’s author and a political scientist at Boston University.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jun/12/pentagon-greenhouse-gas-emissions-portugal

5 replies

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The Pentagon emits more greenhouse gases than Portugal, study finds (Original Post) DonViejo Jun 2019 OP

Its from all the windbag politicians visiting there Bayard Jun 2019 #1

..The Pentagon called climate change "a national security issue" in a January report to Congress and riversedge Jun 2019 #2

Watch out Portugal... Gumboot Jun 2019 #3

Spam deleted by MIR Team jamkid23 Jun 2019 #4

That headline is blowing it out of proportions... TomVilmer Jun 2019 #5

Bayard

(22,077 posts)

1. Its from all the windbag politicians visiting there

Reply to DonViejo (Original post)

Thu Jun 13, 2019, 10:33 AM

Jun 2019

Actually, the article says 70% is from travel/fuel to move troops and weapons around.

riversedge

(70,242 posts)

2. ..The Pentagon called climate change "a national security issue" in a January report to Congress and

Reply to DonViejo (Original post)

Thu Jun 13, 2019, 07:27 PM

Jun 2019

..............The Pentagon called climate change “a national security issue” in a January report to Congress and has launched multiple initiatives to prepare for its impact.

Global temperatures are on course for a 3C to 5C (5.4F to 9.0F) rise this century, far overshooting a global target of limiting the increase to 2C or less, the UN World Meteorological Organization said in November.

Four degrees Celsius of warming would increase more than five times the influence of climate on conflict, according to a study published in Nature magazine on Wednesday.

Crawford said the Pentagon had reduced its fuel consumption significantly since 2009, including by making its vehicles more efficient and moving to cleaner sources of energy at bases.

It could reduce them further by cutting fuel-heavy missions to the Persian Gulf to protect access to oil, which were no longer a top priority as renewable energy gained ground, she said.

Gumboot

(531 posts)

3. Watch out Portugal...

Reply to DonViejo (Original post)

Thu Jun 13, 2019, 10:56 PM

Jun 2019

... Mike Bombpeo will be dealing with you next. And your oil.

Response to DonViejo (Original post)

jamkid23 Spam deleted by MIR Team

TomVilmer

(1,832 posts)

5. That headline is blowing it out of proportions...

Reply to DonViejo (Original post)

Fri Jun 21, 2019, 01:50 PM

Jun 2019

The Portugal quote from the report is comparing liquid fuel consumption, where the the United States military only consumes about ONE PERCENT of the full national consumption of the United States.

The big environmental problem with the military is not really the armies themselves, though it would be much better if they were eliminated. The biggest damages occurs when they are trashing other countries, and all that then needs to be cleaned up, restored and rebuild.

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