Photo credit: Charlotte Otto (Airshow Protest in Brunswick 3 weeks ago)

By Christine DeTroy and  M. Spiess.

November 2021

All eyes turn to Glasgow this fall- to the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (the COP26 summit)- arriving only months after a United Nations report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned that the world is warming faster than previously thought. We in Maine are in tune with that warning about warming. In fact, Maine is predicted to be disproportionately impacted by warming. Maine is home to Bath & Bath Iron Works, a subsidiary of General Dynamics, which builds warships alongside the Kennebec River. For years, we have been acutely aware of the Military’s massive carbon boot print. Mainers understand that the Pentagon is the largest institutional consumer of fossil fuels in the world and a key contributor to climate change. WILPF Maine was one of many organizations to protest a recent Navy Blue Angels Air Show, with those concerns in mind.

So, as we attend Scotland’s activities in November, we demand that the Pentagon’s pollution no longer be exempted from any climate negotiations. We demand accountability -for the quantities being produced and for their inclusion in GHG totals.  And for their reduction.  Acting on these demands, we plan a joint shared virtual presentation by World Beyond War and Veterans For Peace on Oct 30 (follow our FB Page), sign WBW’s petition and schedule a VFP Climate Crisis slide show & discussion with your chapter. 

The petition and the slide show are game changers that expand popular awareness of the connections between the Military & Warming. To demand any less would be at our peril.