Our priorities aren’t on world’s survival, climate change

At year’s end our Congress passed a massive and unprecedented $858 billion weapons and war budget that largely went unchallenged. This passage was not the subject of any protracted national debate. However, U.S. militarism and the ever-increasing impact and influence of the U.S. military-industrial complex needs to hold center stage globally.

Global climate change, climate catastrophe is the crisis of the century. This is a crisis that threatens both human civilization and all life on our fragile and dying planet. What we the people have to come to terms with is the damning reality that the U.S. military juggernaut is the greatest global contributor to climate catastrophe. The U.S. military already emits more greenhouse gases than 140 countries and it’s impact continues to grow.

What’s horrifying is that this stark reality has not found any traction with the general population. And this has to change if our children are to have any chance to inhabit a livable world. When England’s Queen died the U.S. media coverage for six weeks was unrelenting. Every facet of the Queen’s life, her impact, and legacy was explored and scrutinized. Imagine it for only two weeks the same intense media focus covered the global life threatening impact of U.S. military spending on climate catastrophe. With that type of focus and attention we could change the world and bring a true ray of hope for future generations. The time to act is now.

Jim Sawyer

Edmonds

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