A SUPPLY CHAIN AND LIFE CYCLE ANALYSIS OF THE US MILITARY’S ENVIRONMENTAL FOOTPRINT
Recent Press
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Emissions from Israel’s war in Gaza have ‘immense’ effect on climate catastrophe
The Guardian, 2024
Link: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/09/emissions-gaza-israel-hamas-war-climate-change
“This study is only a snapshot of the larger military boot print of war … a partial picture of the massive carbon emissions and wider toxic pollutants that will remain long after the fighting is over,” said Benjamin Neimark, a senior lecturer at Queen Mary, University of London (QMUL).
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Climate crisis on Gaza battlefield: CO2 emissions surge from Israel-Hamas war
Jerusalem Post, 2024
Link: https://www.jpost.com/environment-and-climate-change/article-782168
“There is very clearly an emissions asymmetry here, in the same way, that there are a lot of asymmetries in this conflict,” said Patrick Bigger, research director of the Climate and Community Project US-based think tank, who co-authored the study.
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E-mission impossible: Why the war in Ukraine ispushing Europe’s militaries to decarbonize
Politico, 2023
Announced during the Iraq war, the U.S. Navy’s Great Green Fleet initiative promotedthe use of biofuels for warships, said Benjamin Neimark, a senior lecturer at QueenMary University of London…“You’re already at a disadvantage if you are relying on long, heavy, vulnerable fossil fuel infrastructure,” Neimark said.
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World’s militaries urged to account for their outsized carbon footprints
Chemistry World, 2023
Reuben Larbi , a research associate at Lancaster University’s environment centre in the UK and co-author of the call to action, explains that some sectors like the concrete and transportation industries have their own framework for tracking their emissions and reporting them, as well as roadmaps for decarbonising their activities. ‘We are saying that the militaries should also have a roadmap for decarbonising…’
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“We Must Do Our Part to Mitigate Climate Change”—The Military’s Pollution Problem
The War Horse, 2022
Link: https://thewarhorse.org/us-military-has-a-pollution-problem-but-no-accountability/
“They can’t just switch off [the F-35 program],” says Oliver Belcher, a professor at Durham University who has studied military emissions by tracking Defense Logistics Agency fuel purchases. “Despite these sort of pronouncements to green the military and all the rest of it, every major weapon system developed, from fighter jets to aircraft carriers to you name it, is extremely carbon-intensive. … Weapons systems lock in certain carbon-intensive technologies.”
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Can war be net-zero? NATO pledges massive revamp of energy-guzzling equipment
CNBC, 2022
Link: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/28/nato-outlines-climate-strategy-amid-russias-war-in-ukraine.html
“It’s an empty pledge. I would actually call it — albeit encouraging that they are speaking about it — somewhat disingenuous,” Ben Neimark, senior lecturer at Lancaster University, told CNBC via telephone. Neimark is part of a group of social scientists calling for improved government transparency over the scale of carbon emissions from their armed forces.
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Authoritarian Nationalism—and Western Militarism—Are Climate Problems
The New Republic, 2022
Link: https://newrepublic.com/article/165543/authoritarian-nationalism-western-militarism-climate-problems
Rich governments, warns geographer Patrick Bigger, research director of the Climate and Community Project, could “use deficits as an excuse not to spend on aid, so the only functional response we’ll have to climate change is with the military. You can characterize this as maladaptive in and of itself, if we’re thinking about responding to low-intensity conflict with more military intervention.”
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Green groups warn of ‘loophole’ for military in EU’s new sustainable batteries pitch
Politico, 2022
EU militaries’ special status on batteries fits into a “history of exemptions” for militariesglobally, said Benjamin Neimark, a senior lecturer at Lancaster University who studiesthe sector’s emissions.
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Das Militär ist für fünf Prozent des weltweiten Treibhausgasausstosses verantwortlich.
Neue Zürcher Zeitung , 2022
Daraus erstellten die Forscher ein Länder-Ranking. «Wäre das US-Militär ein Staat, so würde es sich weltweit auf Platz 47 einreihen, zwischen den gesamtnationalen Emissionen von Peru und Portugal», sagt der Studienautor und politische Ökologe Benjamin Neimark von der Lancaster University.
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US Army draws praise, criticism with new net-zero plan
Grist, 2022
Link: https://grist.org/accountability/us-army-draws-praise-criticism-new-net-zero-pl/
Neimark, from Lancaster University, similarly criticized the Army’s approach for “tinkering around the edges,” and recommended a reduction in military spending.
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How the US military fuels climate change
Boston Globe, 2021
Link: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/12/23/science/how-us-military-fuels-climate-change/
“Just because emissions come from the tailpipe of a F-15 fighter jet doesn’t mean they aren’t subject to the laws of physics,” said Patrick Bigger.
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Scorched earth: The climate impact of conflict
Deutsche Welle, 2021
Link: https://www.dw.com/en/the-bootprint-of-war-carbon-emissions/a-57682807
One solution will be "to shut down the military machine in a way, to slow it down and shrink it," said Benjamin Neimark, senior lecturer at the Lancaster University Environment Centre — including shutting some of the 800 US military bases maintained in over 70 countries.
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Synthetic fuel flight signals start of UK military’s push to cut emissions
Financial Times, 2021
Link: https://www.ft.com/content/58a1df48-842a-4bef-9539-f2e86dcff92e
“This is about full transparency. Otherwise, we have no idea what we are even up against,” said Ben Neimark, senior lecturer at Lancaster University and part of a group of social scientists calling for greater transparency from governments about armed forces’ emissions. Neimark estimated that total direct emissions from the MoD would be much higher than currently declared.