# Is the US military secretly killing our planet?

An episode of [7am](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1461999702), 2 Aug 2026, 16 min.

Audio: https://p.podderapp.com/2544644999/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/2fb3740d-3436-44af-8cc0-a91900716aa5/62723a1f-3e96-4fc4-882c-b25e0181da4d/832edd82-0ddd-4673-ad23-b498005a8df8/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=70f29d90-2a63-48aa-bf8f-b25e0181da70

It’s the largest institutional emitter in the world. A bigger polluter than 140 countries. And yet its emissions are hidden from sight. Now a new documentary ‘Earth’s greatest enemy’ is exposing the impact of the US military empire on the planet: the waste, the billion dollar budgets, and the political maneuvering that’s kept it all out of the public eye. Today, Journalist and filmmaker Abby Martin, on what the world’s biggest war machine is doing to our Earth. If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support. Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: Journalist and filmmaker Abby Martin Photo: US Central Command See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:01] Speaker 1: I'm Ruby Jones, and you're listening to seven AM. It's
[0:09] Speaker 1: the largest institutional emitter in the world, a bigger polluter
[0:12] Speaker 1: than one hundred and forty countries, and yet its emissions
[0:15] Speaker 1: are hidden from sight. Now, a new documentary is exposing
[0:19] Speaker 1: the impact of the US military empire on the planet.
[0:22] Speaker 1: The waist, the billion dollar budgets, and the political maneuvering
[0:25] Speaker 1: that's kept it all out of the public eye. Today,
[0:29] Speaker 1: journalist and filmmaker Abby Martin on what the world's biggest
[0:32] Speaker 1: war machine is doing to our earth. It's Monday, August three. Abby, Hello,
[0:48] Speaker 1: and welcome to seven AM.
[0:49] Speaker 2: Hey, thank you so much for having me.
[0:51] Speaker 1: Could you start by talking to me a bit about
[0:53] Speaker 1: just the scale of the US military, the bases, the infrastructure,
[0:57] Speaker 1: the supplies, the sheer size.
[1:00] Speaker 3: Just when you're looking at the bases right the base
[1:03] Speaker 3: is alone, we're talking about eight hundred to one thousand
[1:06] Speaker 3: military installations that our US ran all around the world.
[1:10] Speaker 2: We don't actually know the true count.
[1:12] Speaker 3: But when you're looking at the pollution of just maintaining
[1:14] Speaker 3: this global military empire, the emissions that it brings, just
[1:18] Speaker 3: the consumption of oil every single day is two hundred
[1:21] Speaker 3: and seventy thousand barrels on paper, and that alone makes
[1:26] Speaker 3: the US military as an institution the largest polluter in
[1:31] Speaker 3: the world. I mean, wrap your mind around that. That
[1:33] Speaker 3: is a larger polluter than one hundred and forty countries.
[1:37] Speaker 3: And that's not even including the life cycle emissions. When
[1:40] Speaker 3: we're talking about industry polluting in terms of extracting rare
[1:44] Speaker 3: earth minerals, manufacturing all of the weaponry that we see,
[1:48] Speaker 3: and then of course the application of the weaponry war
[1:51] Speaker 3: it's completely unquantifiable.
[1:53] Speaker 2: And that's just the tip of the iceberg.
[1:55] Speaker 1: And so there's the fossil fuels, the oil that's actually consumed,
[1:58] Speaker 1: and then, as you mentioned, there are all these other
[2:00] Speaker 1: ways that the military contributes to the climate crisis. One
[2:04] Speaker 1: is the impact of the actual weapons being detonated. In
[2:07] Speaker 1: your film, you show how ammunition is actually blown up
[2:10] Speaker 1: on base by the US military when it's unused, instead
[2:13] Speaker 1: of being returned to the Manufacturer's talk me through that.
[2:16] Speaker 3: Yeah, it's called the million dollar minute, and this is
[2:18] Speaker 3: something done out of just pure boredom, and it's also directed.
[2:22] Speaker 4: Just so I'm understanding this correctly. Let's say a company
[2:25] Speaker 4: goes out to a forward operating base, they bring a
[2:29] Speaker 4: big supply of bullets, mortar rounds, artillery rounds, grenades, everything
[2:36] Speaker 4: whatever they don't use. Instead of just bringing it back
[2:39] Speaker 4: with them when they return to the main base, it's
[2:42] Speaker 4: just blown up in the field.
[2:44] Speaker 5: Yeah, you just those of it by blowing it up.
[2:46] Speaker 5: It just is kind of like a self feeding cycle.
[2:48] Speaker 3: They actually are instructed to blow up all of their
[2:50] Speaker 3: excess ammunition when they are on a forward operating base
[2:53] Speaker 3: before they bring it.
[2:54] Speaker 2: Back to the central hub.
[2:56] Speaker 3: And this is basically to justify ongoing expenditures. It is
[3:00] Speaker 3: an industry, it is a for profit corporation, or at
[3:02] Speaker 3: least it acts as such, so you have to continue
[3:06] Speaker 3: to get rid of everything that you have in order
[3:09] Speaker 3: to justify why you are getting more money the following year. So,
[3:13] Speaker 3: for example, we leave Afghanistan, yet the defense budget continues
[3:16] Speaker 3: to go up and up and up.
[3:17] Speaker 2: And it's the same thing with all the oil.
[3:20] Speaker 3: When they're out there, they're told to dump all the
[3:22] Speaker 3: oils and then they can refuel once they go back
[3:24] Speaker 3: to the base.
[3:24] Speaker 2: It's just a completely senseless, wasteful.
[3:28] Speaker 3: Exercise, just for profit, just for profit, and it's all
[3:33] Speaker 3: been really clear watching the Wars today, how big of
[3:36] Speaker 3: a polluter war is what is less obvious, what's more
[3:40] Speaker 3: invisible is the pollution that's ongoing in relative peacetime. I mean,
[3:46] Speaker 3: every single base is a story of not only legacy contamination,
[3:49] Speaker 3: but current ongoing toxic dumping munitions testing, the toxic contamination
[3:56] Speaker 3: of just cleaning the engine parts of the boat Pegasus,
[4:00] Speaker 3: is the B fifty two bombers, the Bradley fighting vehicles,
[4:03] Speaker 3: just to clean those engines is doing an untold amount
[4:07] Speaker 3: of damage. So this is relative peace time, just to
[4:09] Speaker 3: maintain the arsenal of the weaponry.
[4:11] Speaker 5: Hundreds of military bases across the country, including one here
[4:14] Speaker 5: on would be Island in Washington State, have a toxic
[4:17] Speaker 5: legacy from forever chemicals that are threatening the lives of
[4:20] Speaker 5: families to this day.
[4:22] Speaker 3: The DD revealed that in March of this year they
[4:24] Speaker 3: notified more than two thousand agricultural operations across the country
[4:29] Speaker 3: about potential p fast contamination. And then when you have
[4:32] Speaker 3: these jets, I mean, the US military has air forces
[4:36] Speaker 3: that are five times bigger than the next you know,
[4:38] Speaker 3: the next five biggest air powers combined that alone, I
[4:42] Speaker 3: mean the amount of waste and emissions that.
[4:45] Speaker 2: Are just being used just to.
[4:47] Speaker 3: Fly around in pointless patrols, just to maintain mission readiness.
[4:51] Speaker 3: I mean, just to wrap your mind around that. Comparing
[4:54] Speaker 3: to the average Australian driver road, it would be comparable
[4:56] Speaker 3: to like twenty years driving straight to one flight mission
[5:00] Speaker 3: of a Boeing Pegasus.
[5:01] Speaker 1: And you made this film over several years. How difficult
[5:06] Speaker 1: was it to get information about how the US military
[5:09] Speaker 1: was contributing to emissions.
[5:11] Speaker 3: It's extraordinarily difficult because for the longest time they have
[5:15] Speaker 3: obscured all of their data under the pretense of national security,
[5:20] Speaker 3: just as they carved an exemption for their emissions back
[5:23] Speaker 3: during the nineteen ninety seven Kyoto treaties.
[5:26] Speaker 2: And so all the data from the movie.
[5:27] Speaker 3: Comes from independent scientists trying to quantify the life cycle
[5:31] Speaker 3: emissions and things like this, because the military still will
[5:35] Speaker 3: not incorporate that data. So it's really tough to wrap
[5:41] Speaker 3: your mind around. All we actually know is how much
[5:43] Speaker 3: oil they consume.
[5:44] Speaker 1: And you mentioned that when the US counts its missions,
[5:47] Speaker 1: the military is exempt. How did that happen?
[5:50] Speaker 3: Yeah, in nineteen ninety seven, the Clinton administration, during the
[5:52] Speaker 3: first attempt for all countries to convene to try to
[5:56] Speaker 3: address climate change, seriously and to try to curb and
[5:58] Speaker 3: count their totals and work together to try to curb
[6:02] Speaker 3: those cooperatively. The US carved an exemption for its military,
[6:06] Speaker 3: and so all other countries followed soon.
[6:08] Speaker 6: I am very pleased that the United States has reached
[6:12] Speaker 6: a truly historic agreement with other nations in the world
[6:15] Speaker 6: to take unprecedented steps to address the global problem of
[6:19] Speaker 6: climate change. It reflects a commitment by our generation to
[6:23] Speaker 6: act in the interest of future generations.
[6:26] Speaker 3: And so it wasn't until the Paris Accords in twenty
[6:28] Speaker 3: fifteen that this was a voluntary measure. Why would any
[6:31] Speaker 3: country voluntarily put up their military missions if the United
[6:35] Speaker 3: States refuses to. And so every single year after year
[6:39] Speaker 3: after year, at these COP conferences, where all these delegates
[6:42] Speaker 3: are patting themselves on the back, no one is actually
[6:45] Speaker 3: talking about the totality of our emissions.
[6:48] Speaker 2: Therefore they are a farce.
[6:51] Speaker 3: Speaker Pelosi, you just presided over a large increase in
[6:54] Speaker 3: the Pentagon budget. This Pentagon budget is already massive. The
[6:58] Speaker 3: Pentagon is a large polluter than one hundred and forty
[7:02] Speaker 3: countries combined.
[7:03] Speaker 1: And you actually went to one of the cops COP
[7:05] Speaker 1: twenty six in Scotland and your search for answers on this.
[7:10] Speaker 1: What did you take away from that conference?
[7:12] Speaker 3: You know, I took away that there's a huge problem
[7:16] Speaker 3: with the entire neoliberal establishment, where it's an obsession with
[7:20] Speaker 3: free market capitalism and an obsession with individual rights while
[7:24] Speaker 3: you are completely ignoring the main drivers of the problem,
[7:28] Speaker 3: the main perpetrators, and you're actually including them as the
[7:31] Speaker 3: solution to the very problem they are exacerbating.
[7:34] Speaker 4: I don't see what we're doing in any way or
[7:37] Speaker 4: you know, increasing the defense budget as being something that's
[7:40] Speaker 4: inconsistent with climate action.
[7:42] Speaker 2: I really don't imever.
[7:43] Speaker 6: Just to add that of national security advisors all tell
[7:48] Speaker 6: us that the climate crisis is a national security matter.
[7:53] Speaker 3: It was panel after panel of people literally saying the
[7:57] Speaker 3: military is the solution for climate change, while on the
[8:01] Speaker 3: other side of their mouth they're saying, no, we shouldn't
[8:04] Speaker 3: count their emissions. I mean, they refused to answer a
[8:06] Speaker 3: simple question about whether or not the military should be included.
[8:09] Speaker 2: In this, and instead they're saying it's the solution.
[8:11] Speaker 3: It's really ceding to this inevitability that there's no imagination,
[8:16] Speaker 3: and so that's where we're in.
[8:17] Speaker 2: We're in a.
[8:17] Speaker 3: Collective suicide death spiral led by liberalism that has basically
[8:23] Speaker 3: just given up any sort of control to the military.
[8:30] Speaker 1: Coming up, what happened when Abby went head to head
[8:33] Speaker 1: with some of the military's top brass So Abby, in
[8:47] Speaker 1: putting together this documentary, you did try to go to
[8:50] Speaker 1: the military for answers. You were a guest at an
[8:53] Speaker 1: international wargames event. You spoke to a number of high
[8:56] Speaker 1: ranking military officials. What was your experience trying to extract
[9:01] Speaker 1: a response from them.
[9:02] Speaker 3: I mean, it's like beating your head against a brick wall,
[9:04] Speaker 3: because these people are so obsessed with their self preservation
[9:08] Speaker 3: and they just justify their position in this huge apparatus
[9:13] Speaker 3: where you know, I'll ask them these point of questions
[9:15] Speaker 3: about have you ever thought about how these wargames hurt
[9:18] Speaker 3: marine life? And they'll say, you know, I don't know
[9:20] Speaker 3: if these wargames are worth it to the environmental costs.
[9:22] Speaker 3: But then in the next breath they'll be like, but
[9:24] Speaker 3: we have to train, we have to get the oil,
[9:26] Speaker 3: we have to drill, and you're just like, you can
[9:27] Speaker 3: see their brains working real time to try to kind
[9:32] Speaker 3: of absolve and like justify what they are doing.
[9:35] Speaker 2: I would push back a little bit and say I don't.
[9:37] Speaker 3: Personally, I think it has to be a balance.
[9:39] Speaker 5: We have to exercise, we have to train, but we
[9:41] Speaker 5: also want to respect the environment and make sure that
[9:43] Speaker 5: we're not doing harm.
[9:44] Speaker 3: How can you say that, though, when you guys are
[9:46] Speaker 3: using live ordinance dropping, you know, actual real missiles, using
[9:50] Speaker 3: live ammunition. I mean, the thing is, they just feel
[9:52] Speaker 3: like they have no choice because you know, these people
[9:54] Speaker 3: are taught military brass, They've never been asked a difficult
[9:56] Speaker 3: question in their life.
[9:57] Speaker 2: They're pampered as hell, but you see their brain short circuiting.
[10:00] Speaker 3: It does seem like a contradiction for so many nations
[10:03] Speaker 3: to get together to not deal with an actual existential
[10:07] Speaker 3: threat of environmental collapse and climate change and instead exacerbate
[10:11] Speaker 3: the problem because military is such a large contributor to
[10:13] Speaker 3: pollution and climate change.
[10:16] Speaker 4: Really, the purpose of what we're doing here with RINPAK
[10:19] Speaker 4: is to build these capable, adaptive partners that can help
[10:22] Speaker 4: uphold international norms and rules.
[10:25] Speaker 3: But it is just so insane that I'm surrounded at
[10:27] Speaker 3: these conferences by access journalists to our extensions of the
[10:31] Speaker 3: military industrial complex.
[10:32] Speaker 2: There's no real journalism being done, and everyone.
[10:34] Speaker 3: Just acquiesces and thinks that the status quo is all great,
[10:40] Speaker 3: that the military should be this dominant force that is
[10:43] Speaker 3: polluting the hell out of the planet and destroying any
[10:45] Speaker 3: ability to sustainable future, and no one's questioning these people.
[10:49] Speaker 1: It's insane, and the mainstream climate movement it's meant years
[10:53] Speaker 1: campaigning against fossil fuel companies call in oil. Tell me
[10:57] Speaker 1: a bit more about why you think the military has
[10:59] Speaker 1: remained in such a peripheral subject.
[11:01] Speaker 3: Yes, I think that for decades, neoliberalism has not only
[11:06] Speaker 3: co opted the environmental struggle, the progressive movements and tried
[11:11] Speaker 3: to essentially hijack the language and folded into the same
[11:15] Speaker 3: systems of oppression that we're trying to fight and mobilize against.
[11:18] Speaker 2: But this has all.
[11:19] Speaker 3: Been very revealed and exposed in the last couple of years,
[11:22] Speaker 3: the collapse of all these international norms and rules, and
[11:26] Speaker 3: so I think people are realizing, at least in my lifetime,
[11:28] Speaker 3: kind of the foundational current that's driving all of this,
[11:31] Speaker 3: which is capitalism. And so all of us have been
[11:33] Speaker 3: isolated and siloed into these movements without understanding how all
[11:37] Speaker 3: of them connect, just as Americans and Australians are kind
[11:41] Speaker 3: of unaware of our imperial role in the world, and
[11:45] Speaker 3: so it really kind of takes us getting a bird's
[11:48] Speaker 3: eye view and just saying wait, wait, we are all
[11:50] Speaker 3: children of this military empire. And no, I don't want
[11:54] Speaker 3: to be complicit anymore. I don't want to collaborate with this.
[11:56] Speaker 3: I want a peaceful future for Australia and the United States.
[11:59] Speaker 3: I don't want to host new nuclear submarines basically threatening
[12:03] Speaker 3: China's doorstep. Like that doesn't need to be the inevitability
[12:06] Speaker 3: of the future here.
[12:07] Speaker 1: Yeah, in the film, you talk about expansion into the
[12:10] Speaker 1: Arctic as well as US military build up in regards
[12:13] Speaker 1: to China. So how do you think those are going
[12:16] Speaker 1: to escalate and what impact do you think they will
[12:18] Speaker 1: have on the climate.
[12:20] Speaker 3: I mean it's going to have devastating impacts on the
[12:21] Speaker 3: climate because another aspect of this is the great power
[12:24] Speaker 3: competition and the continuous military build up around the world
[12:27] Speaker 3: that encroaches countries like Russia and China, and then their
[12:30] Speaker 3: reaction to it. So because of the belligerent nature of
[12:35] Speaker 3: my government to continue to encroach on these countries, they
[12:39] Speaker 3: are responding.
[12:40] Speaker 7: I appreci the Arctic heavily. It is the place that
[12:43] Speaker 7: most don't care about, and they're just don't understand what's
[12:46] Speaker 7: up there for minerals, natural gas, rarer oil and the
[12:51] Speaker 7: Russians actually trying to mark claim to that territory, to
[12:55] Speaker 7: try to control that body of water, so we cannot
[12:58] Speaker 7: relinquish that space.
[13:00] Speaker 3: You know, I think that it's going to have an
[13:01] Speaker 3: enormous effect when we're seeing look at the Iran war today,
[13:04] Speaker 3: the intentional targeting of oil depots, the black soot, the
[13:08] Speaker 3: black rain, all of this is.
[13:09] Speaker 2: Going to be generationally felt.
[13:10] Speaker 3: It's not going to be isolated to Gaza in Lebanon
[13:13] Speaker 3: or Iran. So we haven't even felt the brunt of
[13:17] Speaker 3: what the you know, the cataclysmic effects of this war
[13:19] Speaker 3: that is ongoing, which we know is explicitly about oil.
[13:23] Speaker 3: I mean, this is the thing about this military industrial complex.
[13:26] Speaker 3: It necessitates its own existence. I mean, the expansion of
[13:30] Speaker 3: the military comes hand in glove with these warps, right,
[13:35] Speaker 3: I mean, when you acquire all the natural resources, when
[13:38] Speaker 3: when you go after Venezuela and Iran and explicitly state
[13:41] Speaker 3: that it's for pillaging and plundering their oil supply, and
[13:44] Speaker 3: then it further justifies the expansion of the military. That
[13:48] Speaker 3: pillaging and plundering the oil supply. I mean, it's just
[13:50] Speaker 3: a self fulfilling prophecy.
[13:52] Speaker 1: What kind of responses have you been getting here in
[13:54] Speaker 1: Australia or as you been touring the film.
[13:56] Speaker 3: I have been to Perth where they're going to set
[13:59] Speaker 3: up one of the Oaks sites to host nuclear subs,
[14:02] Speaker 3: and people are really upset. I mean, I went and
[14:04] Speaker 3: saw the beautiful coral reefs that are inevitably going to
[14:08] Speaker 3: be dredged. Everywhere I go across Australia, it's the same
[14:11] Speaker 3: story as everywhere in the rest of the world where
[14:15] Speaker 3: US military bases are housed. People do not want them there.
[14:22] Speaker 3: People understand the risk and it's not coming from China.
[14:25] Speaker 3: It's coming from the armed soldier that's dumping their pollution overboard.
[14:29] Speaker 3: It's coming from the pifa's contamination that's housed at the
[14:32] Speaker 3: base in your backyard. The media is telling us to
[14:35] Speaker 3: be terrified of Hamas and about China, and what I'm
[14:39] Speaker 3: seeing are people are terrified of a world where genocide
[14:42] Speaker 3: has become the status quo and our leaders say nothing.
[14:45] Speaker 3: And so this is incredibly motivating to see so many
[14:48] Speaker 3: Australians standing up and saying no. They are not going
[14:51] Speaker 3: to accept nuclear submarines hosted here. No, they're not going
[14:54] Speaker 3: to accept their country as a battering ram in this
[14:56] Speaker 3: inevitable madness. And it's very inspiring and I continue to
[15:01] Speaker 3: be motivated by everyone that I meet. That's I'm trying
[15:03] Speaker 3: to push out us bass.
[15:06] Speaker 1: Well, Abby, thank you so much for speaking with me.
[15:08] Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Ruby appreciate it.
[15:13] Speaker 1: Abby's film Earth's Greatest Enemy is out now. Also in
[15:26] Speaker 1: the news, authorities are investigating where the bird flu is
[15:29] Speaker 1: behind a mass mortality event in a South Australian island
[15:32] Speaker 1: called bored and Rock. More than eighty dead and sick
[15:34] Speaker 1: greater crested turns were found on the island. Experts say
[15:38] Speaker 1: mirrors what's happened overseas with the outbreak, which has caused
[15:40] Speaker 1: significant illness and deaths in poultry, wild birds and mammals,
[15:45] Speaker 1: and the Prime Minister is under pressure from the Opposition
[15:47] Speaker 1: to stand aside Northern Territory Labor MP Luke Gosling as
[15:51] Speaker 1: an envoy for Defense that are in affairs and Northern Australia.
[15:54] Speaker 1: Gosling was charged last week over an alleged assault in
[15:57] Speaker 1: the Northern Territories Administrator, a role equivalent to state governor.
[16:01] Speaker 1: Gosling has declined to comment as the matter is before
[16:03] Speaker 1: the courts. I'm Ruby Jones. This is seven am. Thanks
[16:07] Speaker 1: for listening.

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