Advertisement

US military is a bigger climate change contributor than many nations

US military is a bigger climate change contributor than many nations Researchers say the US military is one of the biggest global contributors to climate change, with emissions that top most of the world's countries.In a study by scientists from Durham and Lancaster University published in Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, researchers examine emissions stemming from the US military's logistical supply chains.Just taking into account emissions stemming from fuel usage the researchers say that if the US military were a country, it would be the 47th biggest contributor to climate change worldwide, in between Peru and Portugal according to World Bank data. The US military is large enough to rival many industrialized nations around the world int terms of greenhouse gas emissions according to a new report. File photoIn 2017, the US military purchased 269,230 barrels of oil per day according to researchers, with the Navy topping all other branches by spending a whopping $4.9 billion on fuel.The study's authors note that the US military has long acknowledged the threat posed by unfettered climate change, but have yet to fully confront their own role in it. '[The military's] climate policy is fundamentally contradictory,' said report co-author Dr Patrick Bigger in a statement. Another recent study by a researcher at Brown University seems to corporate such findings.According to Neta C. Crawford, a professor at Boston University and the co-director of the Cost of War project, between 2001 to 2017 the US Department of Defense has emitted 1.2 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.  In 2017, Crawford says the US military's emissions also exceeded those of fully industrialized countries like Sweden and Denmark. While parts of the the US government -- particularly the White House -- have wavered on the threat posed by climate change, the US military has continually addressed the effects of global warming from a national security perspective. The US Department of Defense must release a Congressionally-mandated report annually on the effects of climate change, the most recent of which details increasingly extreme wildfires, droughts, and sea level rise as they pertain to US military operations.  The Airforce is the biggest contributor to emissions and also burns the most dangerous type of fuel. File photo HOW MUCH GREENHOUSE GAS DOES THE US MILITARY EMIT?  In 2017 alone, the US military purchased about 269,230 barrels of oil per day and emitted more than  In the same year, the Air Force purchased $4.9 billion worth of fuel and the Navy $2.8 billion, followed by the Army at $947 million and Marines at $36 million.If the US military were a country, it would sit between Peru and Portugal in terms of volume of fuel purchasing, according to data form the World Bank country liquid fuel consumption.In 2014, the scale of emissions was roughly equivalent to total emissions from Romania according to the Department of Defense data obtained by the researchers.The Air Force is by far the largest e

dailymail,sciencetech,climate-change-&-global-warming,

Post a Comment

0 Comments