April, 15 2021, 12:00am EDT
Veterans Deliver Letter to Special Climate Envoy John Kerry
Veterans ask Kerry to recognize U.S. militarism is a key contributor to the climate crisis.
WASHINGTON
Veterans For Peace delivered a letter to Special Climate Envoy John Kerry on April 14th, asking Kerry to recognize that militarism is a key part of the climate crisis and the need to promote redirection of military expenditures to address the climate crisis and provide for human needs.
Executive Director Garett Reppenhagen, OIF veteran, Board President Adrienne Kinne, Army veteran, and Vince Dijanich and Steve Morse, Viet Nam veterans, met yesterday with Senior Advisors to the U.S. Special Envoy, Elan Strait and Stephanie Epner to discuss concerns and deliver a letter signed by over 200 climate, environmental, peace and veterans organizations. [Full text of letter here]
Veterans ask Climate Envoy Kerry to:
1. Include military Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions in all reporting and data on GHGs (they never should have been excluded).
2. Use his public platform to promote major reductions in the military and its expenditures, including eliminating hundreds of overseas bases, rejecting nuclear modernization and endless war.
3. Promote bilateral accords with Russia and China to stop funding fossil fuel projects and promote cooperation toward green economies.
4. Fight for the US to pay its fair share to the Green Climate Fund.
5. Promote a Just Transition with union jobs and prevailing wages for workers displaced from the fossil fuel and weapons industries, and for low-wage workers.
6. View grassroots climate, environmental justice and anti-war groups as allies and work with them as partners.
"John Kerry famously testified before Congress 50 years ago how as a soldier he could not hold his silence on the destructive nature of the war on Viet Nam, " says Steve Morse, Viet Nam veteran, "We feel that we too cannot be silent on how U.S. militarism is a key contributor to the climate crisis."
"The climate crisis is past the point where the U.S. can just take symbolic action, nor can we accept military greenwashing.Electric powered humvees and biodiesel navy fleets are still capable of devastating the environment.Veterans see first hand the cost of war and John Kerry is uniquely positioned to seriously push to greatly reduce the military's reach around the world," says Adrienne Kinne, Army veteran, 1994-2004. "It is imperative that the U.S. end the squandering of financial, material and human resources, and minimize the Pentagon's carbon bootprint."
Veterans For Peace is a global organization of Military Veterans and allies whose collective efforts are to build a culture of peace by using our experiences and lifting our voices. We inform the public of the true causes of war and the enormous costs of wars, with an obligation to heal the wounds of wars. Our network is comprised of over 140 chapters worldwide whose work includes: educating the public, advocating for a dismantling of the war economy, providing services that assist veterans and victims of war, and most significantly, working to end all wars.
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