"We Have to Consume Less": Scientists Call For Radical Economic Overhaul to Avert Climate Crisis

[muriel_volestrangler]

19. Your figures for the military are wrong

We shouldn't imagine that getting rid of the US military would do anything close to halving the US consumption of oil or gas.

US energy consumption: 98 quadrillion Btu, of which oil 37%, gas 25% (ie 36260 trillion Btu and 24500 trillion Btu respectively)
US military energy consumption: 827 trillion Btu, of which oil 77.4%, gas 7.6% (ie 640 trillion Btu and 63 trillion Btu respectively)

So the military uses about 1.8% of the country's oil, and 0.5% of its gas. It would help a little if it were less, but the main solution does not come from there (you may have heard the statistic " 80 percent of the federal government energy consumption" for the military - but that shows that, unsurprisingly, the rest of the federal government doesn't consume much energy). I presume the claim of '15%' is because they say the US keeps the governments of OPEC in power, or something - I don't expect for a minute it's something that's actually quantifiable or worth considering.

It's not the naval carriers - it's the culture they're part of.