The war in Iraq, originally known as O.I.L. (Operation Iraqi Liberation, that is) recently passed its fifth anniversary. Oil Change International recently published a study that quantifies the greenhouse gas emissions from the Iraq War as well as some of the environmental opportunity costs.
The study found that the war has generated at least 141 million metric tons of greenhouse gases to date – equal to the damage from adding 25 million more cars to US roads.
What if the resources that had gone into fighting in Iraq, in part to secure more oil, had instead gone towards building renewable energy sources?
From Oil Change International:
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Projected total US spending on the Iraq war could cover all of the global investments in renewable power generation that are needed between now and 2030 in order to halt current warming trends.
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Just the $600 billion that Congress has allocated for military operations in Iraq to date could have built over 9000 wind farms (at 50 MW capacity each), with the overall capacity to meet a quarter of the country’s current electricity demand. If 25% of our power came from wind, rather than coal, it would reduce US GHG emissions by over 1 billion metric tons of CO2 per year – equivalent to approximately 1/6 of the country’s total CO2 emissions in 2006.
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In 2006, the US spent more on the war in Iraq than the whole world spent on investment in renewable energy.
In a power- wealth- and energy-hungry war campaign such as this, the true losses can’t be expressed in terms of missed opportunities to decrease pollution. Thousands of lives have been sacrificed in Iraq to date. But the point that Oil Change’s study drives home is the circular nature of the relationship between demand for oil, global warming, and business as usual. We spend and pollute excessively to bring in more oil, so that we can drive our cars, enrich mega-corporations, and pollute some more.
Photos via flickr by pingnews.com & wireheadinc.
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Randall Denley, a man after the “go shopping” presidents heart. I live in a small city and up until recently we had to drive our cars out to the suburbs to go grocery shopping. All the grocery and Sears etc. moved right out of the city along with the cars. Lately some of that has changed. Because there are more people giving up their cars more stores are finding a customer base within a short bus commute. Hopefully more Employers will a good worker base too.