By Kendra Pintor
The connection between militarism and climate change has been on Sophia Shepherd 鈥�24鈥檚 mind since her first year at Scripps, when she learned about the link between them in Associate Professor of Politics Thomas Kim鈥檚 Core II class on ecological justice. Since then, the topic has remained at the forefront of her academic and activist endeavors.聽
鈥淚鈥檝e been a climate activist for several years now, but last year I joined the peace movement when I was an intern for CODEPINK鈥檚 War is Not Green campaign. The campaign explicitly connects militarism and war with climate change by recognizing that the US military is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and that military bases are often sites of toxic waste that adversely affect nearby communities,鈥� says Shepherd, a dual major in environmental analysis and writing and rhetoric.
Shepherd already knew that she wanted to write her senior thesis on the subject when she discovered the 61传媒 Research in Environmental Analysis Research and Pre-Thesis Fellowship, to which she promptly applied. The fellowship provides opportunities for students to pursue summer research that allows them to more fully develop senior thesis topics related to the environment.
鈥淚 was thrilled at the thought of spending my summer doing a deep dive into research about the effects of militarism, specifically in the US, on climate change,鈥� she says.
Through her reading, Shepherd learned that the US military鈥檚 role as the top institutional consumer of fossil fuels鈥攁nd therefore the highest institutional producer of greenhouse gases鈥攎akes it a major contributor to the climate crisis. 鈥淭he Costs of War project at Brown University found that the US military has accounted for at least 1.2 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions, which is higher than the output of whole countries like Sweden, Morocco, and Switzerland,鈥� Shepherd says.
鈥淕reenhouse gas emissions, such as carbon and methane, are responsible for the warming of the Earth鈥檚 atmosphere and are produced by burning fossil fuels,鈥� Shepherd explains. 鈥淲hat this specific statistic demonstrates is just how much the US military is contributing to climate change鈥攆or its impact to be greater than several whole countries is just insane.鈥�
Shepherd discovered the fellowship on the 61传媒website when she was searching for summer opportunities that would allow her to focus on the realm of activism she cares most about. She says the grant was “such a gift” because she had spent many previous summers looking for paid, resume-building work: 鈥淏ecause of this grant, I had the time and energy to read everything I鈥檝e wanted to read and explore a subject that is personally meaningful to me and my career path.鈥�
With the support of fellowship funding, Shepherd delved deeply into the books and research papers she had been saving on militarism and climate change, as well as abolition and movement theory. 鈥淚 wanted to be thinking about how activists can tackle this issue, and I thought that abolitionist theory might have something to offer,鈥� says Shepherd. 鈥淎bolitionists have been around for a long time and have developed many strategies to push back against systems that support social and economic oppression, so I think an anti-militarist climate movement could learn a lot from them.鈥�
Additionally, the grant afforded Shepherd the ability to participate in activist movements that are relevant to her area of study, such as campaigning for taxation of the rich and curbing the climate emissions of the ultra-wealthy. 鈥淭hat sort of work is personally meaningful to me, but it also gives me opportunities to forge deeper connections with activists I鈥檇 like to interview for my research and work with in the years after I graduate,鈥� she explains.
Shepherd hopes that her senior thesis will provide the foundation for future writing and organizing around the topic of how militarism has impacted local communities and environments in Guam; Okinawa, Japan; Vietnam; Cambodia; South Korea; and the Philippines. She also wants to study how people on the frontlines of those communities are resisting that militarism. Ultimately, by studying the connection between militarism and climate change, Shepherd hopes to provide additional points of consideration in the climate change discussion.
鈥淲e must prioritize addressing militarism’s toll on human lives and acknowledge its connection to the climate crisis,鈥� Shepherd says. “If we truly care about climate change, we should advocate for being anti-militarist and anti-imperialist.鈥�