It's not good for the Environment, either.

AuthorScipes, Kim
PositionThe Green Zone: The Environmental Costs of the Military - Book review

The Green Zone: The Environmental Costs of the Military, by Barry Sanders, AK Press, 2009, 160 pp., $14.95. ISBN 978-1904859949

As a US military veteran--USMC, 1969-73, who turned around while on active duty--I have been incredibly frustrated at the impotence of the anti-war movement in the United States to stop the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and, increasingly, Pakistan. I am obviously not alone. Many other people--veterans, as well as many more civilians--share this frustration.

Barry Sanders's new book, The Green Zone, takes a different angle from any I've seen before, and I believe it's an approach that we all need to consider: Sanders focuses on the environmental costs of militarism, particularly those from the US military.

Sanders recognizes the threat posed by green-house gases to the well-being of the world's peoples and, in fact, to our very survival. Sanders also knows the environment is threatened not just by greenhouse gases, but also by pollution of the water, air and soil, which joins with greenhouse gases to imperil us all.

Yet he makes an important point, trying to put things into perspective and to focus our attention, writing, " ... here's the awful truth: even if every person, every automobile, and every factory suddenly emitted zero emissions, the Earth would still be headed head first and at full speed toward total disaster for one major reason. The [US] military--that voracious vampire--produces enough green-house gases, by itself, to place the entire globe, with all its inhabitants large and small, in the most imminent danger of extinction." To put it in plain language, that social institution that is said to protect Americans is, in fact, hastening our very extermination along with all the other people of the planet.

Sanders addresses the military's effects on the environment in many ways. He starts off with trying to figure out how much (fossil) fuel the military uses, with their resulting greenhouse emissions. Despite diligent efforts, he cannot find out specific numbers, so he is forced to estimate. After carefully working through different categories, he comes to what he calls a conservative estimate of 1 million barrels of oil a day, which translates to almost 20 million gallons each and every day! He puts this number into international perspective: "If that indeed turns out to be the case, the United States military would rank in fuel consumption with countries like Iran, Indonesia, and Spain. It is truly an...

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