Geopolitical Ecology and the Military Emissions Gap

One aspect of the Israel-Gaza war, and indeed of any war, is the less discussed direct and indirect climate impacts of armed conflicts. Militaries are not very transparent, and it is difficult to access the data needed to run greenhouse gas emissions calculations. If it is up to researchers to hold militaries to account for their own emissions, it is therefore incumbent for us to have the theoretical and empirical tools necessary to do so. Using a geopolitical ecology approach, I will present two different examples of how alongside a network of scholars, activists and civil society groups, we are trying to fill the military emission gap. The first is a study of the greenhouse gas emissions of the Israel-Gaza conflict and a more recent analysis of the Iran war. The second project includes an analysis of military critical mineral supply chains using a case study of the MQ-9 Reaper Drone. The talk will include the theoretical and empirical approaches taken in our studies and discuss pathways for future research questions around the topic of toxic and climate legacies of war. Benjamin Neimark is a Reader in geopolitical ecology at the School of Business and Management at Queen Mary University of London. Benjamin is a human geographer and political ecologist whose current research looks at the US military as a global climate actor and, more broadly, the environment footprints of the world’s militaries. He leads a new UKRI grant on military critical mineral supply chains and decarbonisation – which uses a geopolitical ecology lens to examine the critical geopolitical and political economy of large institutions, such as militaries, and their role in multi-scalar environment and climate breakdown. Two recent publications of interest: Hottest of the Hotspots: The Rise of Eco-precarious Conservation Labor in Madagascar and Concrete Impacts: Blast Walls, Wartime Emissions, and the US Occupation of Iraq.