By Marc Joffe
San Francisco Mayor London Breed and other local luminaries made much of the area’s leadership on global warming at last week’s Climate Action Conference. But next month, the City will host an orgy of unnecessary greenhouse gas emissions.
From October 5-7, the Blue Angels will conduct three air shows over the waters around San Francisco. During these spectacles, six F/A-18 fighter jets will consume 18,000 gallons of
aviation fuel – the amount used by 37 passenger cars annually.
Although canceling these shows would make only a small dent in global warming, doing so would highlight a much larger issue. The US military is among the world’s largest producers of greenhouse gas. Each year, the Department of Defense uses over 85 million barrels of fuel to power ships, aircraft, combat vehicles, and contingency bases annually.
Cutting back on DOD fuel use would not only reduce the $8.2 billion annual military fuel bill borne by taxpayers, but it could really bend the arc toward anthropogenic global warming. Sacrificing these air shows would cost San Francisco some sales tax revenues as fewer visitors drive into the city for Fleet Week, but that should not deter city leaders from showing real leadership on climate change.
Marc Joffe is senior policy analyst at the Reason Foundation.
Better they be zooming around the Bay rather than actually KILLING people and shit.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, the Blue Angel's are a great recruiting vehicle for the US military. So although no foreign civilians will be bombed during the SF show, it may motivate more youngsters to join the navy, see the world and kill people.
DeleteWhere did the anti-war, anti-military left go? This could be a twofer for them: protesting both the military's foreign killings and (in their mind) contributions to the unparalleled evil that is climate change. As Rothbard would counsel, libertarians could get on board with supporting them on this issue.
ReplyDelete