Every year on April 22nd, people celebrate and honor Earth Day through neighborhood clean-ups, community festivals, and projects to educate the public about the need to reduce our carbon footprint. Veterans For Peace has honored Earth Day by discussing how militarism impacts the environment. We hope to spread the message about the environmental costs of war, a topic that isn’t often discussed when leaders debate climate change and enact environmental policies. Instead of working for a cleaner, cooler future, our tax dollars are being spent on human death and environmental destruction.
For centuries, war has not only involved the annihilation of human life, but also environmental destruction, in the forms of both 'collateral damage' and deliberate damage to environments. Modern day warfare and technological advances have increased the ecological disturbances associated with war, both in the manufacturing and development of weapons.
“The environment has long been a silent casualty of war and armed conflict. From the contamination of land and the destruction of forests to the plunder of natural resources and the collapse of management systems, the environmental consequences of war are often widespread and devastating.” -Ban Ki-moon, UN secretary general
Take Action
- Read VFP's Statement on Environmental Costs of War
- Schedule a presentation on Climate and Militarism for your local group!
- NEW! Download the updated VFP's Environmental Costs of War handout
- Distribute our half-page flyer that links to the above PDF!
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Members will be able to print the half page flyers and distribute them at actions, leading folks back to the full Environmental Costs of War PDF.
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How to use QR codes: Hover your phone camera over the QR code and it will allow you to click a link that will take you to the document!
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Averting Climate Catastrophe: No New Arms Race!
Tune into our webinar April 22, 2022 at 7 pm EDT/4 pm PDT
You are invited to Veterans For Peace Climate Crisis & Militarism Project’s (CCMP) Earth Day Webinar - Averting Climate Catastrophe: No New Arms Race!
- Dr. David Vine, Professor, Department of Anthropology, American University. Dr. Vine is a widely sought-after speaker, authoritative source on militarism and Empire, and the author of The United States of War and Base Nation: How U.S. Military Bases Abroad Harm America and the World.
- Col. Ann Wright, retired U. S. Army Colonel, and former high ranking U.S. State Department official, who resigned her position in protest of the U.S. illegal invasion of Iraq and has continued to be a powerful voice for peace and the environment. She is the co-author of Dissent: Voices of Conscience.
- Erik Edstrom, A West Point graduate and infantry platoon leader in Afghanistan and Presidential Escort Platoon Leader during the Obama administration. He studied climate change at Oxford University earning a Master of Science degree. Author of UN-AMERICAN: A Soldier’s Reckoning of Our Longest War.
Panel discussion will be preceded by a brief presentation by CCMP members describing the links between the Ukraine war, militarism, and the worsening climate crisis.
Register for the webinar here!