On Earth Day, we have a message to share: if you truly care about the environment and climate change’s impact on our world, you need to join the fight against US imperialism and the war machine. So long as the US empire stands, so will some of the biggest polluters of our environment.
Earthday.org details the harms of plastics, promotes tree planting, and gives opportunities for people to get plugged into local cleanups, all as tactics to protect the planet, but what the official Earth Day website doesn’t share is one of the most violent and dangerous polluters: The US Military.
The US military is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases of any institution on Earth and one of the largest polluters in history. Since the first Earth Day in 1970, “reduce, reuse, recycle” has become blatantly insufficient when it comes to combatting the dangerous rate of climate change we find ourselves in today. While in recent years that been growing concerns over holding large polluting corporations accountable rather than just relying on individual actions (which alone are insufficient), what continues to lack is the fact that the US military is not often included in this push toward accountability.
In fact, the US government has lobbied against having to release its military emissions data and has withdrawn from the UN-developed Paris Climate Accords, but hard evidence of the detriment the US military has wreaked on the global environment does exist.
By the Numbers
The US military exceeded nearly 140 national governments, ranking 47th globally in emissions
The US army generated 4.1 million tons of greenhouse gases (2020)—1 million tons greater than Switzerland’s entire heat and electricity emissions in 2019
Military jets require a massive energy supply—55% of total energy used over the past century is by US military jets–sorry Taylor Swift, you’ve been beat.
In one day, it goes through 269,230 barrels of oil, making up 100 million barrels that year.
The US military makes up 75% of the global military presence, being the biggest emitter of them all.
US military carbon emissions equate to 257 million passenger cars annually. Public transit is cool, but the struggle goes beyond a greater quality of life for those living in the imperial core. That’s not what the NGOs and non-profits want, because they’re in a cushy position at the cost of the people of the world/global majority, and fighting the root cause of US imperialism isn’t easy—it requires a mass movement and a dedication to fighting for the people of the world, not something everyone wants to put genuine effort into.
Cost
In 2025, the Trump administration announced a $1.01 trillion national defense budget, 13.4% higher than the previous year’s
In 2017, the US Air Force purchased $4.9 billion in fuel. The Navy purchased $2.8 billion. The Army $974 million. The Marines $36 million.
*but it’s okay, because the army released a pledge to hit net-zero emissions by 2050 and to electrify its military vehicle fleet and shift bases to carbon-free electricity! Bombing schools and hospitals will soon have zero emissions!
Internationally
Between 1946 and 1958, the US used the Bikini Atoll, which they dubbed the Pacific Proving Grounds, of the Marshall Islands, to test nuclear bombs. They carried out a total of 67 atomic bomb detonations. The result was mass displacement for the people of the atolls, polluting the land with levels of radiation as high as the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and 1,000 times greater than the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima, causing high rates of cancer in the population that was displaced, which later began to return in the 1980s.
In 1945, the US infamously dropped two nuclear bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. The natural landscape and the infrastructure were incinerated. Incredible amounts of radiation and toxic gases were released. Land remained uninhabited for years afterward; the soil alone was radioactive and extremely dangerous, which increased the possibility of cancer and birth defects from the effect it had on agriculture.
During the US wars on Iraq and Afghanistan, soldiers would create “burn pits”—some as large as football fields—where they disposed of and incinerated toxic waste, including plastics, electronics, and medical waste. As a result, Iraqi and Afghan civilians have suffered from not only the impacts of the types of weaponry utilized against them, but also from just inhaling the smoke. To this day, Iraqi children are still born with genetic defects.
US soldiers also faced the negative effects of burn pit exposure. In 2024, after years of lobbying, the government now acknowledges this and offers specialized care for veterans who were exposed ot this, Agent Orange, and other toxic substances. Yet the toll it had on the Iraqi people and environment goes unacknowledged. The people of those nations have not been included in any moves toward restitution.
In 2017, a US Naval Air Station in Norfolk, Virginia, was found to have spilled 84,000 gallons of jet fuel into a waterway.
In 2019, it was revealed that the Air Force had been dumping toxic solvents into the ground surrounding the Tucson International Airport for almost 30 years; over 1,000 South Tucson residents suffered from cancer and other illnesses, claiming their water remains polluted to this day.
In 2021, there was a massive fuel spill at a naval facility in Hawaii, contaminating drinking water. As a result, 90,000 people had to be evacuated.
Nationally
The US military tests weapons on US soil as well, to this day.
New Mexico is home to White Sands National Park, home of two US military bases, in an area known as the White Sands Missile Range. Formerly known as the White Sands Proving Grounds, at 3,200 square miles, it is the country’s largest military installation. While the National Parks Service website brags about the history and mission of this site, it is actually a stain on US history and the land.
After Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, a US naval base on illegally stolen Hawaii, the US military established the White Sands Proving Grounds to develop and test the atomic bomb, 4 years later dropping two on Japan. According to the US Army website, to this day, they proudly conduct more than 3,000 tests annually.
The Navajo and Hopi reservations, also in the Southwest, were utilized for nuclear weapons testing for almost half a century. The cherry on top was the uranium mining that took place across the tribes’ homelands for almost three decades. 16 million tons of radioactive debris remained after the mining ended. While the land is progressing in the restoration efforts, the result is the communities of the former milling districts suffer higher rates of cancer and birth defects today.
True environmentalism is anti-imperialism. We cannot see an end to the crisis against our earth and its resources so long as the US war machine continues its strikes across the globe.
Each year, new records are set: high temperatures, shortening seasons, catastrophic storms, all the while the US military continues to unleash horror after horror across the globe. This is the reality that young people are growing up in, an environment that is deteriorating and an empire that is hungry for death and destruction. All the while, the US military continues to prey on young people to join their death cult, with recruiters working tirelessly to find fuel for their war machine.
So this Earth Day, we need to send a big fuck you message to them. Don’t become another foot soldier for the US war machine. Refuse to enlist! Sign the pledge that you will not join the US military.
Instead, join Behind Enemy Lines in building a mass anti-imperialist movement within the belly of the beast. This July 4th, the US turns 250 years old—that’s 250 years too many. All empires fall, but some need a push. Join Behind Enemy Lines in Philadelphia this “independence day” to be a part of that push.
Do it for the people of the world! Do it for the planet!
Sources:
https://gizmodo.com/its-time-to-kill-earth-day-1846739135
https://earth.org/us-military- pollution
https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/us-military-carbon-footprint
https://www.newsweek.com/climate-change-us-military-pollution-carbon-emissions-2094434
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/map-military-toxins/.
https://www.va.gov/resources/the-pact-act-and-your-va-benefits/
https://www.amacad.org/news/carbon-footprint-military-environmental-impacts-war
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1903421116
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/mapped-every-known-u-s-military-base-overseas/
https://www.studyiq.com/articles/list-of-us-military-bases-around-the-world/
https://www.davemanuel.com/us-military-bases-worldwide.php
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/us-overseas-military-bases-by-country
https://shunwaste.com/article/how-did-the-atomic-bomb-affect-japan-environment
https://www.sltrib.com/news/2026/02/15/radioactive-waste-cleanup-moab/
https://www.nps.gov/whsa/learn/historyculture/white-sands-missile-range.htm
Behind Enemy Lines 