Can You Fight for Climate Justice Without Being Antiwar?

Demilitarization is one of the most important things we can do for the climate, and for living beings inside and outside conflict zones.

By Teddy Ogborn, LA Progressive

Can organizations sincerely say they are leading the climate justice fight without also being unapologetically antiwar? Short answer – no. Here’s why.

We cannot end climate change without ending war. The United States military is the planet’s largest single emitter of greenhouse gasses and consumer of oil. The US military and its weapons, consistently deployed to secure economic dominance for the few while ensuring suffering for the many, has no place on a just and livable planet. The corporate interests and fascist, militarist tendencies that lead humanity into conflict are the very same that view our Earth, its atmosphere, and its abundant life as a resource to be exploited for profit. Ending war means ending the war economy – the colonial system of extraction and exploitation that got us into this mess in the first place.

That a more peaceful world could be a result of the broad system change climate activists are calling for is no coincidence. But the theoretical intersection alone isn’t enough! Environmentalists and climate change activists must make a commitment to peace explicitly. Our planet depends on it.

There are already plenty of reasons to oppose war such as the threat of nuclear destruction, massive civilian casualties, and violence against women and the concentration of fascist imperialist powers into corporatized hands. But if that is not enough for folks doing important work in climate justice to also oppose all wars, then let’s also consider – militarism and the war economy.