
US military is terrified of climate change – but is the world's biggest polluter - ajhaupt7
https://thecompost.io/articles/the-war-machine
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sdinsn
The DoD is the world's largest employer. Unsurprisingly, they are the largest
polluter. That doesn't make them hypocrites automatically.

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runarberg
I fail to see a causal relationship between employment and carbon emissions?

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sdinsn
How do you fail to see that?

More employees = More buildings, More work, More everything, etc.

"I fail to see a casual relation between city size and carbon emissions. Why
does New York City have higher emissions than McMullen, Alabama?"

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runarberg
I mean the causation could very well be reverse (more building require more
employees etc.)

It could also be from a third factor (population growth demands more work and
more infrastructure which leads to more carbon emissions).

I’m not denying the correlation as it exists today (bigger employers probably
emit more carbon into the atmosphere; or at least intuitively; I haven’t
looked at the data), but that correlation is by no means neither necessary
(you could theoretically employ a lot of people without having any carbon
emissions) nor sufficient (you can be a very large polluter with only robots
doing all the work; like a big automatic aluminum smelter).

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est31
I've recently seen an interesting documentary [1] about then-senator Al Gore
asking the CIA to study the vast satellite image archives to figure out what
was going on with the arctic. They half-heartedly started a project but it
really only took off when Bill clinton became president and Al Gore vice
president. They'd invited scientists of all disciplines to the CIA, gave them
clearances in an accelerated process and gave them access to the images. They
even went to russia to study _their_ reports of the arctic. With Bush, the
project was cancelled until Obama revived it and even established a dedicated
office [2].

[1]:
[https://sales.arte.tv/fiche/ESPIONS_POUR_LA_PLANETE](https://sales.arte.tv/fiche/ESPIONS_POUR_LA_PLANETE)

[2]: [https://www.cia.gov/news-information/press-releases-
statemen...](https://www.cia.gov/news-information/press-releases-
statements/center-on-climate-change-and-national-security.html)

~~~
Fjolsvith
From 2 above:

"Its charter is not the science of climate change, but the national security
impact of phenomena such as desertification, rising sea levels, population
shifts, and heightened competition for natural resources."

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IXxXI
China contains 14 of the top 30 most polluted cities on the planet. China is
constructing new coal power plants, while the united states closes down more
coal plants every year. There's a weird thing going on in the news where real
polluters like china get a free pass to destroy the earth and the environment
and light polluters like the united states are harshly criticized for running
operations in a more environmentally friendly manner.

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devoply
When the aliens want to destroy a planet they give them capitalism, science,
and technology. The people do rest of the work. Because power corrupts. The
greater the power the worse the eventual catastrophe.

~~~
BubRoss
Going to need a source for that.

~~~
runarberg
We do have a sample size of one. We’ve tried global capitalism once, and
combined with a global industrial revolution we’ve so far increased the global
average temperature by a whole degree celsius[1].

1: [https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-
climate/...](https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-
climate/climate-change-global-temperature)

~~~
Fjolsvith
Ah, that's good. We've got a bit of leeway before we reach boiling point.

~~~
runarberg
Indeed. While the industrial revolution is kind of irreversible, global
capitalism isn’t. Logic dictates we use this leeway to reverse global
capitalism.

~~~
Fjolsvith
I kinda figured we'd find a cure for cancer so that we could survive the
cancer-causing air-particulate matter from hot climate change.

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saagarjha
The headline is misleading, since it suggests that the military is scared of
_someone else_ , when in fact _they_ are the biggest polluter.

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kohanz
No, the headline says they are scared of climate change (which is not a
"someone", but a collection of serious consequences) and then includes the
irony that they are contributing to that very threat as a big polluter.

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saagarjha
You may have seen the updated headline, which is much clearer.

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kohanz
Very possible - I didn't realize it had been changed. My apologies.

