To all my readers, this post is a bit long, and even with its length, I still feel like I have not scratched the surface of my concerns. Thanks so much for taking the time to read it. Peace and Blessings, Nana Baakan
INTRO VIDEO DESCRIPTION: Speaking to Press TV, head of the center for International Affairs and Conventions at the Environmental Protection Agency, Arman Khoursand, described Israeli attacks on Iranian oil reserves and refineries as war crimes. https://t.me/presstv/145908
War Is Always An Environmental Hazard.
Last night we had a huge thunderstorm. The thunder clapped so loud it actually sounded like a bomb went off. It scared my cat so badly she hid for several hours afterwards. I thought to myself, that was just thunder… Just imagine hearing that several times throughout the day and knowing that afterwards there was going to be structural damage, possibly deaths, pain and suffering.
We watched Iran launch its missiles on social media. They crossed the sky, high up in the upper atmosphere like shooting stars. And they landed like a brick falling from an open window. To be honest, I was so conflicted in my view of this spectacle. Who doesn’t want the bad guy to get a severe beating for terrorizing the neighborhood? But the other side of me nudged me saying, “those stars are not stars.. they are missiles and they are probably punching severe holes into the ozone layer. Remember, there is no planet “B”.
War Is Not A Game, No Matter How Many Video Games Glamorize It.
I remember after the Vietnam war when the media was urged to refrain from depicting casualties of war. The blood, the missing limbs, the blown out brains, the fear-filled eyes on both sides. No, don’t depict that, just show the men carrying their weapons into enemy territory. Show them knocking down a few doors. Always show them behind their weapons but never show the target the weapons hit. Eventually, the press releases and videos of war showed less and less the utter tragedy of war and more and more its machismo. Trucks, tanks, soldiers, yelling, marching, guarding, screaming, and shooting, shooting, shooting. But we never see the targets.
Gaza has brought the utter destruction of war home. It has not been brought to us by the mainstream media, but by doctors, footballers, teachers, students etc., turned war journalists on the ground. We see body parts, blood and gore, though often blurred out, we still can see it. These wounded, maimed and murdered people don’t just get up and run away. It is not Pallywood, even though many believed it was staged during the first few days after October 7, 2023.
As I watch the bombs strike, the explosions blowing body parts into the air, the white and/or dark smoke billowing, the buildings collapsing into rubble, I can’t help but wonder about the lungs of the individuals in the nearby vicinity. How many of us suffer from seasonal allergies, now imagine breathing in all that toxic dust? How many people exposed to that toxic dust will have long time respiratory illnesses? The aftermath of 911 and the illnesses that the first responders suffered comes to mind. I wonder about the people who promote these destructive tactics to address their grievances. What type of planet will be left for them after they’ve destroyed it all? Do they plan to spend the rest of their existence safely in underground bunkers? Or perhaps escape to Mars via one of Elon Musk’s starships?
The Entire World Is Militarized.
It is so ironic that in one breath the world has been inundated with the fear of a “climate crisis” and yet on the other hand, every country with this mouthpiece is steadily building more and more munitions that wreak havoc on the planet, even if they are not deployed to kill people directly. These weapons have to be built and tested for proficiency. Which means these munitions and especially missiles are being deployed somewhere on this planet. It seems that the Global War Machine is on overdrive as each country tries to outmatch the other countries ability to reign down death and destruction on each other. The human species’ propensity towards creating the instruments of war and then waging wars against one another befuddles me. It specifically puzzles me that in the same breath they talk about “saving” the planet. As if using paper straws, taking shorter showers, 15 minute cities and reusable shopping bags will curtail the full scale destruction of the planet caused by the Global War Machine.
Arms Fashion Shows
Representatives from countries around the world go to these “arms fashion shows” where they display their bombs and other munitions to one another. They walk around proudly dressed in military gear and pay homage to the God of War. They hobnobbed among themselves, share movies, books and other literature vying for the attention of the Arms Dealers. Their bombs, shaped like giant penises, fill the display areas some so humungous you can barely see from end to end. The praise and adulation of the war machine is so overwhelming there’s barely a peep outside the showroom from “climate activists.” The disconnect is so galling it can only be described as a cult. The cultish disregard for anything outside of the devastation these munitions cause to the planet is keenly evident among the attendees. I would imagine their eyes would literally glass over if asked, “do you realize that what you are buying and selling could literally kill the planet’s eco-system a hundred times over?” Instead it’s like a fashion show of who has the prettier, mightier, most extreme missile to show off and get the prospective buyers to take it home.
The Information Blind Spot and the Gap in Global Climate Agreements
The lack of transparency, often referred to as the “military emissions gap,” arises from the voluntary reporting of military emissions within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The 1997 Kyoto Protocol and the 2015 Paris Agreement exempted military emissions reporting, citing national security concerns. Consequently, many governments choose not to report them.
In 2020, 40 industrialized nations spent approximately $1.27 trillion on their armed forces, but only five countries reported their military emissions in line with United Nations guidelines. Furthermore, 15 other countries, including China, India, and Saudi Arabia, spent a combined total of about $510 billion on their military yet failed to provide any disaggregated data on military emissions (Lancaster University 2021). Emissions from U.S. military activities abroad, including operations such as jet flights, naval sailings, and military exercises, have been exempt from reporting requirements.
Efforts are underway to address this blind spot. Environmental groups and scholars are employing research papers, letter-writing campaigns, and conferences to promote the incorporation of military emissions into global carbon accounting. In just the first five months of 2023, 17 peer-reviewed articles on this topic were published, indicating a growing awareness and concern (Mcfarlane and Volcovici 2023).
Of course we could blame the climate crisis on the industrialization of the world. But a massive piece of the industrialization of the planet, the big elephant in the room, is the destructive global military industrial complex. The planet’s ecosystem is destroyed to a much more higher degree by it, yet, little is said about it, and the world becomes more and more militarized. I wrote about that here 👇🏾
Hypocrisy: Climate Change Narrative vs The Global War Agenda
The “Global” Military Industrial Complex that countries have are not held accountable for the damage the production, testing and deploying of their armaments have on the “climate crisis”. And the weak efforts they make to address their “carbon” footprint, barely make a difference or the evening news. Humans went from bows and arrows to bombs, missiles, aircraft carriers, warships, bunker buster incendiaries and arsenals of war planes. Humans seem to have no shortage of ideas when it comes to thinking of ways to kill other humans, and the planet to boot. Nowadays, AI technology is making it even easier to deploy these weapons. If this issue of destroying the ecosystem of the planet by every “military means necessary”, and its impact on the climate, is not addressed, then the argument about saving the planet remains mute because the major problem is not even being considered.
VIDEO DESCRIPTION: Dec 6, 2019. In this Our Changing Climate environmental video essay, I look at the environmental and social cost of the military and militarism. I narrow in on the United States military-industrial complex because it is by far the biggest military machine in the world. I look at how the military and the military-industrial complex is a massive polluter in terms of both emissions and chemical waste. In addition, the video looks at whether or not these environmental and monetary burdens caused by the military-industrial complex are justified. Have the multitude of wars the United States has wage been just, or are they manifestations of imperialism. Ultimately, the video connects environmental destruction with military imperialism and concludes that demilitarization is the only truly effective answer to the carbon footprint of the military.
How 5 Companies Are Keeping The World At War
Jun 24, 2025 They lost the war - but made billions. This doc uncovers how U.S. defense contractors turned global conflict, from Afghanistan to Gaza, into a profit machine. Investigative journalist Abby Martin, host of @empirefiles, helps break down this story.
The Biggest Casualty of War Is the Entire Planet.
The “war” is never, ever, “over there”! The militarization of the planet, no matter how idealized it may be with noble proclamations of deterrent, to protection, to restrictions of just enough, to outright murder… is still violence to and destruction of the very eco-system that all life forms on this planet depend on. War Is Always An Environmental Hazard and we are only fooling ourselves if we think that countries who manufacture huge arsenals of destructive weapons have any genuine desire or wish to protect the planet. The fact that they openly flaunt their military might shows a dynamic disconnect from any claims of concern about the so-called “climate crisis.”
What About the Threats Against National Security?
Humanity has evolved from small clans to huge metropolises. People are packed by the thousands even millions, into smaller and smaller areas. Instead of having to safeguard a small portion of land, now human beings are thrusted into the need to safeguard whole countries, large and small. In addition, International bodies were “supposedly” created to peacefully and constructively manage these countries. Somewhere along the line, the management of each of these countries needed a military to protect its sovereignty from other countries who may pose a threat. The arms race became more and more destructive and deadly, yet it persists, without even a hint of what these instruments of destruction would have on the planet overall. National security became much more important.
Watch the video below👇🏾. Look at the oil spill. Think about the sea life endangered by this so-called victory. Ask yourself…. “What have we become that we would applaud such a devastating display of conquest.”
Today we see countries feeling threatened by other countries that are no where near their national borders. They are now threatened by countries thousands of miles away. At this rate, no country is safe anywhere, especially since weapons can be deployed over thousands of miles at Mach 5, faster than the speed of sound.
A world at war with itself, will always feel threatened within and outside of its borders. When we add the financial incentive, it will always have a reason to go to war or it will always create one. The Global War Machine is a ticking time-bomb that, at this point in the cycle, has the entire world on the edge of nuclear Armageddon. But look no further, just be sure to take shorter showers, use paper straws, recycle your plastics, re-use your shopping bags and walk instead of driving your car. If the world goes up in smoke, it won’t matter anyways.
Addendum
I must admit that I am not too sure that the establishment of International bodies like the UN, ICC, ICJ, WHO, etc., was really designed for the betterment of human beings on this planet, or the other lifeforms on this planet for that matter. It seems to me that these structures are all just paper tiger mouth pieces who make baseless proclamations. They have no real relevance or power to do much of anything but sit in their extremely large halls and pontificate. When it comes to actually doing something that would be effective in establishing world peace or saving the planet, they are useless and are merely taking up space. They should all be shut down and have each member go home and plant a garden instead.
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