War Industry

Learn about the war industry’s impact in places where the military operates. The war industry imposes serious environmental harm through chemical contamination of air, water, and soil, as well as ecosystem destruction. In addition, it causes significant societal harm, such as loss of life, life-altering injuries, forced migration, and impoverishment.

• Military operations and arms production are emissions-intensive. The U.S. Department of Defense is the world’s single largest institutional oil consumer and, subsequently, is also one of the largest single contributors to global warming. From 2001 to 2017 alone, U.S. military operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, and Syria produced 400 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions.
• War degrades land. Military operations in the Middle East and South and Central Asia have contaminated key water sources, disrupted wildlife habitats, and exposed hundreds of thousands of civilians and soldiers to toxic pollutants from chemical burn pits. Within the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency estimates that the Pentagon and its affiliated contractors have contaminated over 40 million acres of land through improper chemical disposal.
• The war industry has a global impact. Here are free, open-source databases that collect information on ongoing conflicts worldwide, international arms transfers, the financial data for arms companies, and the military expenditure for nearly every country in the world.

Call for action from your government. Governments play a key role not only in initiating involvement in foreign wars but also in approving yearly defense spending. By contacting your representative, you can make your voice heard about reallocated spending.

• Call your senators’ or House representative's office to demand that they vote against increases in defense spending. You can learn more about how U.S. defense spending has increased over time and how Pentagon funding is allocated here and here.
• Ask elected officials to state their positions on your country’s defense spending and involvement in foreign wars publicly. Here is a guide on how to craft effective messages to your congressional representatives.
• Elect officials who have shown a commitment to investing in social programs. Use these scorecards for climate change mitigation and civil rights.

Find out if your employer provides goods, services, or technology to your country’s defense forces. If your employer has a partnership with the military, you can start a petition to end it. You can not only exert internal pressure on company management but also call widespread attention to the role technology companies play in supporting the war industry.

• For example, at Microsoft, workers demanded the cancellation of the company’s 2019 contract with the U.S. military and called for stricter ethical guidelines regarding the use of its augmented reality technology.
• Google did not renew its Maven contract after four thousand employees petitioned against providing artificial intelligence technology to the Department of Defense.

Support movements to remedy land degradation caused by military forces. Building upon centuries of caring for the land, Indigenous peoples have led the way in restoring ecosystems damaged by military operations. Some examples include:

• In Hawai’i, Kānaka Maoli water defenders, joined by military residents and the local Sierra Club, are leading protests and demands for the U.S. Navy to remove leaking fuel tanks poisoning a major source of O’ahu’s drinking water. Get involved with the O’ahu Water Defenders Coalition to shut down Red Hill, write to the Secretary of Defense, or donate.
• Over the sixty years following the U.S. military detonation of sixty-seven nuclear bombs on the island of Rongelap, Marshallese Islanders have continued to suffer serious health issues caused by radiation poisoning, as well as devastating coral reef losses. Although the Nuclear Claims Tribunal ruled in 1988 that the U.S. government owed the Marshallese over $2 billion, it has provided neither compensation nor recognition of the continued toll of the nuclear testing on the Marshall Islands and on the U.S. servicemembers deployed to aid initial cleanup efforts. To learn more, visit the Coalition of Nuclear Justice Advocates site or the Marshall Islands’ Environmental Data Portal. Here are Marshallese-led organizations advocating for nuclear justice.
• In Japan, Indigenous Okinawans continue to protest against the construction of a U.S. airbase due to the impact on local forests, marine wildlife, and soil. Despite the most recent 2020 incident, in which the U.S. military contaminated the drinking water used by 450,000 people—a third of the island’s population—with PFAs, Okinawa still hosts over half the U.S. troops stationed in Japan and over 75 percent of the military bases.

Consider alternative careers to military service. In addition to increased weapons sales and military activity, the growth of the war industry also relies on increased numbers of military personnel. In 2021 alone, the U.S. military recruited over 118,000 active-duty servicemembers. If you are thinking about a career in the military, consider alternative forms of service. For those concerned about the environmental impact of the war industry, here are programs focused on conservation and sustainable development:

• The Corps Network provides paid terms of service for young adults and post-9/11 veterans to engage in meeting conservation and community needs throughout the United States.
• The International Voluntary Service Project is a British peace organization working for the sustainable development of local and global communities throughout the world.

Elevate journalists’ coverage of the harms caused by war. Journalists’ on-the-ground reporting plays a vital role in increasing public awareness of the human cost of war.

• Key examples of humancentric journalism include Lynsey Addario’s photo series on the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, Isobel Yeung’s coverage of the ongoing war in Yemen, and Azmat Khan’s reporting on the U.S. airstrikes in the Middle East.

Support legislation that encourages the suspension of weapons sales. The suspension of weapon sales is a key first step to stopping the defense industry in that it halts escalating arms production and prevents manufacturers from profiting further from drawn-out conflict. It would also allow for the hundreds of millions of dollars spent annually on defense contracts to be reallocated to programs that provide essential services.

• Although U.S. Congress’s joint resolution of disapproval to block the Biden administration’s proposed $650 million arms sale to Saudi Arabia was ultimately not successful, the bipartisan effort is a blueprint for future cooperative efforts to suspend weapon sales.

Advocate for carbon-reduction mandates on defense activities. Urging the military’s inclusion in climate legislation can help reduce one of the most significant sources of government emissions. In the U.S., the Department of Defense produces an estimated 56 percent of all federal emissions.

• In January 2022, twenty-eight members of Congress sent a joint letter to President Biden calling for an end to the Department of Defense’s exemption from the 2021 executive order mandating that the U.S. government achieve 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2030, net-zero emissions by 2050, and eliminate greenhouse-gas emissions from federal buildings and vehicles.

Join veterans accountability and advocacy groups. As former military employees, veterans are in a unique position to call for change from the military. Here are examples of movements founded by veterans:

• About Face is a U.S.-based organization of post-9/11 servicemembers and veterans using their knowledge and experience to share the truth about U.S. wars overseas and to advocate for an end to the policy of permanent war.
• Veterans for Peace is a global organization of military veterans and allies working to inform the public of the true costs of wars, seek justice for veterans and victims of war, and advocate for peaceful approaches to resolve conflict.

Investigate where your products or services are going. Regardless of whether they provide military equipment, companies can still indirectly contribute by participating in military supply chains. If your company's products or services are being utilized by the military or a military-held firm, consider ending or phasing out the contract.

• In July 2021, ice cream maker Ben & Jerry’s announced that they would not be renewing their license agreement in the Occupied Palestinian Territories due to inconsistencies with the company’s values.
• In January 2022, French energy company TotalEnergies, formerly the largest shareholder of Myanmar’s Yadana natural gas project, withdrew from the country as a result of shareholder pressure and human rights abuses by the military.
• South Korean steel company POSCO C&C terminated its partnership with Myanmar Economic Holdings, a military-controlled firm, following a 2021 coup in which hundreds of Burmese protesters were killed.

How the Private Military Industry Went Global by CNBC (12 mins.)

Costs and Consequences of US Post-9/11 Wars: Focus on Climate Change by Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs (65 mins.)

War: How Conflict Shaped Us by Margaret Macmillan / Random House Trade Paperbacks

“How Google Could Help End War” by John Horgan / Scientific American

"How War Impacts Climate Change and the Environment" by Joe McCarthy / Global Citizen

"The Civilian Casualties of America’s Air Wars" by The New York Times (38 mins.)