The US military alone emits more greenhouse gas than Sweden, Denmark, Portugal, and most other countries. The US military would rank as the 55th worst polluter in the world if it were a country, according to a new paper from the Costs of War project.
The U.S. military emitted 1.2 billion metric tons of CO2 between 2001 and 2017, according to the report’s estimates, “Although the Defense Department has significantly reduced its fossil fuel consumption since the early 2000s, it remains the world’s single largest consumer of oil.”
Department of Energy data was used for the calculations because the Pentagon doesn’t report to Congress how much fuel the military uses. The researchers found that the US military makes up 77 to 80 percent of the US government’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Photo: “Vehicle Position” by The U.S. Army is licensed under CC BY 2.0
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