The defense department’s budget in the United States is over $700 billion on average. Such a budget inevitably has an impact on the environment: “The use of Military force requires a lot of energy, largely in the form of fossil fuel,” says the study conducted by a professor of political science at Boston University, Neta C. Crawford, also co-director of the Costs of War project at Brown University.

Thus, the US Department of Defense is the largest institutional user of oil in the world, says the study. And at the same time, the largest producer of greenhouse gases: “In 2017, for example, the Pentagon’s greenhouse gas emissions were higher than those of industrialized Countries like Sweden or Denmark.”

Global warming: a security issue

From 2001 to 2017, the US military emitted 766 million tons of CO2. “The United States has been continuously at war since the end of 2001, with the US military and state department engaged in more than 80 countries involved in counterterrorism operations.”

Among the greediest are the aircraft and also the buildings of the army. The study also highlights ongoing efforts to be less polluting: the use of alternative fuels, closing some military bases and reducing the number of operations in the world.

If the US military takes a closer look at what it can do for the environment, it is also because prevention is better than cure: “The Pentagon could play a major role in reducing the effects of climate change and the potential consequences for the security of global warming, rather than react or clean up after these effects,” concludes the study.