CCMP is promoting Just Transition. Not only the fossil fuel industry, but also the military-industrial complex must be reeled in. The issues of climate crisis, workers and labor, environmental justice and militarism together must all be addressed. Through a great coalition of all concerned we have the best chance of uniting for justice, peace, a healthy planet and our collective survival and well-being.

Just Transition means creating alternative high road union jobs to continued employment in the fossil fuel and military/arms industries and facilitating reparations and justice to communities that have been damaged by toxins and corporate pollution. We seek members of the armed forces to be part of Just Transition. Workers in unions, because of their position in the economy have the potential power to stop climate disaster, in a way that other groups do not.

We bring militarism into the picture because its relationship to the global environment is of grave importance yet remains mostly ignored. The simple fact is that war and preparation for war are great polluters. The Pentagon is responsible for 5% of global greenhouse gasses emitted every year. A large percentage of Super Fund sites are located on military bases. The strategic orientation of our military power is to act as the enforcer of last resort to insure our unrestricted access to oil and gas resources throughout the world. Our armed forces must not be used to interdict climate refugees or otherwise suppress climate protest.

Just Transition can be paid for by reductions in military spending that bring it in line with realistic defense needs. Year after year the military and associated industries use their clout to continue the never-ending escalator of spending whose goals are often divorced from real national priorities. What savings could be gained if the role of our armed forces were aligned with energy solutions and not the further extraction and burning of carbon? It remains true that spending in the civilian sector creates more jobs and products that are socially useful than an equivalent one in military production.

For further reading, please check out these excellent resources:

Growing the Labor Climate Movement From the Roots Up

by Labor Rise - Climate Jobs Action Group

FROM A MILITARIZED TO A DECARBONIZED ECONOMY: A CASE FOR CONVERSION

By Costs of War Project, Brown University

Excerpt:

Looking at two case studies, HybriDrive and CALSTART, the paper illustrates how the military can redirect its weapons and technological production capacity towards civilian uses and decarbonize the U.S. economy...

Six Stops on the National Security Tour: Warfare Economies

Excerpt:

The U.S. military economy incorporates hundreds of American communities. This is the first book to connect our national security apparatus to the local level via deeply reported portraits of six carefully selected locations, including military Meccas and out-of-the-way places. They are woven into the warfare economy by bases, nuclear weapons labs, and production sites.

Contact us at climate@veteransforpeace.org. We welcome your questions, comments, participation, and requests for speakers.

Photo credit: Andrew Baker