Earth's Greatest Enemy (2025) Movie Script
1
Im such a fool.
I am a fool for you... America.
I dont have a home.
I dont have a land of my own.
First Air Cav Brigade
I was in the U.S. Army.
I joined up in 2004, deployed out in 2006,
and it was hell.
I was at Camp Taji, seven
miles south of Baghdad.
I was in one of the 'Army
Of One' commercials
I was the guy with the helicopters.
Everybody, listen up.
This is Levon.
Hey Levon, Im Winton.
Youre on the 120 today.
How are ya?
So if there is anything you
need, just ask these guys,
theyll take care of it, alright?
Welcome aboard.
Thank you.
You ever been around
anything this fast before?
He walks in and goes
You ever work on
anything this fast before?
Yeah, in my last job.
See how Army training
gives you Strength for now.
Strength for later.
GoArmy.com
Yeah, it was all a lie.
I have nerve damage so
Im actually losing my hands.
So Im trying to use them as
much as I can until theyre all gone.
It hurts.
It actually hurts.
Thats what... that hydraulic
fluid in service does.
Laughing is the only
way I can get through it
otherwise, Im crying.
My life is so fucked.
I am a product of the war on terror.
From CBS News headquarters in New York...
the opening salvo of
Operation Iraqi Freedom...
...artillery launched within ...
when I was a college freshman.
Solid evidence...
The threat level is now
officially up to orange...
...Trust me ...
and mass media colluded to sell the war.
I decided to make my own media
as a harsh critic of both.
When the CEOs of major
defense corporations
on foreign policy?
And theyre gonna tear gas us
the streets and against
American militarism.
Go ahead turn the camera off.
Welcome to Breaking
The Set. Im Abby Martin.
A straight answer about anything.
Peas and carrots. Peas and carrots.
Why is that?
And I earned a reputation
for being fiercely independent.
... mad as hell and shes
not gonna take it anymore.
Along the way, I met someone
who shared my passion.
...joined by Michael Prysner Hi Abby.
After being sent to invade Iraq,
he came home to expose the war.
More in common with the Iraqi people
than they do with the
billionaires who send us to war
Afghanistan veterans to fight against it.
What this whole campaign is all about.
So me as an anti-war reporter
and Mike as an anti-war
activist fused our work
to found a new project.
We called it The Empire Files.
that is right in front of our faces
but is never really acknowledged
You cant live like this.
that the United States is
a global military empire,
bigger than any in history.
Are you filming? Are you filming?
And it put us on the ground
with those impacted by it.
Abby, theyre shooting in our direction.
Then our lives changed forever.
...Yeah.
Suddenly, we had a new obsession.
The future.
What would it be like
when our son is our age?
... record setting fire season ...
... terrifying signs
of things to come ...
And if we think things are tense now,
when things actually start to get bad?
... all-time record heat ...
Get inside!
Then these two worlds collided.
Our fierce opposition
to the US war machine
and our profound climate anxiety.
If our military was so
unparalleled in size,
what impact was that having on the planet?
And could the worst be avoided
as long as this monster existed?
At home in 2020 with our newborn,
was at dealing with a global crisis.
In how they would deal with
the much bigger crisis of climate change.
Our fears deepened when we read this book
our child's generation will face.
So we met with the author, Dahr Jamail,
disappearing from the face of the earth.
I moved to Alaska in 1996
in order to just mountain climb.
It was love at first sight.
Literally geared at spending
up in the high country.
That I started to kind of
wake up that I was born into
was costing the rest of the world.
Started talking about,
something in me snapped.
Citizen would be to go into Iraq
people were being affected
might develop some empathy
very very high civilian body count
war crimes one after another
the US Empire is willing
to go to further its cause.
Then you come back to the United States.
You get back to your
roots in the wilderness
and start reporting on climate change.
That link, between what you saw in Iraq
in your own backyard?
As that was for me personally,
into the climate crisis,
it's worse.
People dying than what I saw in Iraq.
today is better than tomorrow.
ourselves for what's coming.
Scientists in different fields,
the scientists that I interviewed
about where we're
heading is extremely grim.
On the planet is in glaciers.
Most alpine glaciers, if not all, by 2100,
that's a real issue.
Dramatic impacts of this around the globe.
That brings a heaviness to my heart,
changed the earth so much
powerful is going to go away so quick.
It's scary and it's saddening
and it's also, um, makes me really angry,
I can't imagine a bigger injustice.
Given where we are and
what science is showing us
in regards to the climate crisis,
consumer of fossil fuels on the planet,
how can they be given a free pass?
When you put it all together
and then extrapolate out
800 bases around the globe,
Navy out on the oceans,
... US Navy is a complex
engine of destruction ...
the Superfund sites.
I mean, when you start
to get a macro view,
this is why it becomes clear
largest polluter on the planet.
... and we are still building.
Knowing where we are in the crisis,
how far along we are at this moment,
one of us to ask ourselves a question of
for how we behaved during this time?
How we're going to live our lives?
Even here its hundreds of feet thick
but up at the head of the glacier
and thousands of feet
thick ice that is over 30 miles.
It's just an amazing thing to consider.
And that sounds trashed.
These people chatting in the background?
Crew: Umm... Yeah ...
sound bite and then we're done?
Crew: Still rolling.
to wait. There's no way.
I think we're shot.
Yeah, were fucked.
... Alrighty, can everybody
hear us right now ...
[unintelligible]
Sadly, we were kicked off the glacier
as their personal wedding venue.
We planned to watch
the sunset on this ice,
which may be gone in a generation.
Of the owners throwing a party
on the carcass of this sacred relic.
... theres a party
at the end of world...
Lets go...
to the party at the end of world...
... theres a party at the end...
... and were going down...
The reason we're at this tipping point
of carbon in the atmosphere
for which the US is the top contributor.
Over 25%.
Total is the military,
consumer of fossil fuels on the planet
at 270,000 barrels of oil a day.
According to their
latest official numbers,
metric tons of CO2 annually.
Metric tons of CO2 annually.
More than 150 countries.
How is that possible?
Most expansive empire in world history.
Which militarily
occupies the entire planet
almost every continent.
Russia has nine.
China has one.
Unparalleled number of vehicles
as well as aircraft to cover the skies.
The next five biggest air powers combined.
American driver over 40 years
single flight of a Boeing Pegasus.
The US flies more than
600 of these tankers,
triple the rest of the world combined.
Gasoline, oil and supplies
all the necessary equipment for invasion
Direct emissions is the emissions directly
warships, tanks, etcetera
and military bases.
Warships, tanks, etcetera
and military bases.
Which is the arms industry,
all the supplies that the military uses
to get the complete carbon footprint.
And it depends where it's come from
in emissions reporting.
Metals from the DRC,
covered? I don't think so.
Factoring in these life cycle emissions,
CO2 output is at least three times higher
CO2 output is at least three times higher
over 165 million metric tons a year.
Be measured in isolation.
Political force that controls
a much larger web of militarism.
Thus was born the
Atlantic Alliance and NATO,
its organization for
the defense of the west,
of collective security.
NATO is an exclusive
US-led military alliance
to rapidly reduce their emissions
resources and attention
challenges that we're facing,
big US weapons manufacturers.
That led the drive for NATO expansion.
Market for US weapons.
To increase military spending.
So in 2014, the NATO summit in Wales,
all of the NATO members made a pledge
military spending to 2% of GDP.
The year I was elected president
2% of their GDP on defense.
This year twenty-three
will spend at least 2%.
Even without the latest 5% increase,
scientists estimate
US-led military emissions
metric tons annually by 2028.
Of the world's nations combined
This is staggering because
emissions from nation states
include everything that
sustains a population.
That's why there's a problem
comparing the Pentagon to countries.
The Pentagon is mostly a vampire,
of American tax dollars
deadlier and more destructive toys
from a for-profit arms industry.
This outsized number, unfortunately,
the actual use of this machinery...
War.
If a fuel depot is blown up
are emitted to the atmosphere.
Or land is made uninhabitable,
of emissions that aren't counted.
By hospitals to care for the wounded,
within civilian emissions
but it wont be counted
as part of the military
and its a result of military activity
counted in that category.
Reconstruction using concrete,
which is a very energy-intensive material,
thats often not counted.
The list goes on.
How do you count this stuff?
Its really hard.
Is simply too big to estimate
of unnecessary emissions can be justified.
Us closer to the worst projections.
I'm sorry about the
rain, I'll make this brief.
Before I leave to comment on the outcome
of the climate change negotiations
that have just been completed in Japan.
Known as the Kyoto Protocols,
industrialized nations
to reduce their emissions.
But the US lobbied for its military
from its national total
on the grounds of national security.
This is a very good agreement.
For us to do this and grow our economy.
Which is a market oriented approach.
They won and all other
countries followed suit.
Thanks to the Pentagon,
of all climate pledges
and plans ever since.
In other words, a farce.
Thank you very much.
To confront this fact, of
these Conference of Parties
that year, hosted in Glasgow, Scotland.
System change! Not climate change!
500 fossil fuel lobbyists
corporations here at COP26,
which I really think says it all.
Industry were a country,
at the entire conference.
What becomes really obvious
are really driving the narrative.
So every country has a booth here
touting its green energy initiatives.
What you see really quickly is
and dirty energy companies themselves.
Its just a corporate trade show.
But also opportunities
for the financial system.
Its the greatest economic
opportunity of our time.
Larry Fink, head of BlackRock.
Theres capital available.
Private capital is
essential to our success.
We will unlock these pots
of money Pots of money.
Are so big its hard to keep perspective.
Of the conference, There
were designated protest zones
... climate justice. When
do we want it? Now!
which required pre-approval
of all signs and slogans.
I participated in a crime in 2003.
I was part of the invasion of Iraq.
Two wars in Iraq have left behind
hundreds of tons of Depleted
Uranium and toxic waste.
The military is a false solution.
There is nothing
sustainable about warfare.
I saw that the US was folded down.
Why was that?
To call out specific countries.
You cannot name any countries.
But you put it on the flag.
I understand.
They took our banner.
My badge might get taken away,
which would suck.
I am so sorry.
I I was I am so sorry.
But yeah... the US is a major contributor.
People should know that.
Being confrontational before.
On the rules here of the banner?
Is naming and shaming.
Naming and shaming?
The countries. Exactly.
I can explain everything.
So...
but Im wondering... So it
was a sanctioned protest,
to say the US military, right?
Well, the things I
can explain to you later
Can we have Why is he following us?
Because we're filming right now.
I'm sorry, I didn't authorize this.
Another question.
We have time for one more. Is that okay?
Wait a minute.
I want a woman. A woman.
Gender equality.
Maybe I don't... Lets see.
Abby Martin, with the Empire Files.
A large increase in the Pentagon budget.
The Pentagon budget is already massive.
Polluter than 140 countries.
How can we seriously talk about net zero
if military is exempt from climate talks?
I just wanna use an example if I can
is an important part of, you know,
whats happening with the climate
but Ive had so many talks
with the Navy in particular
respond to whats going on so
I dont see what were doing
increasing the defense budget
inconsistent with climate action.
I really dont.
May I just add that
national security advisors all tell us
is a national security matter.
A national security matter.
Conflict over habitat and resources
and again a security challenge globally
and a moral issue that we need
to pass on this planet
to future generations
in a responsible way.
They have to clean the room.
I didn't know about that.
For your truly inspirational
and supranational leadership.
For questions from the media.
Abby Martin.
Are doing to combat climate change,
but the United States is a global empire.
All of your states host
large military bases.
Why is it acceptable
to United States officials
from these climate negotiations?
Uhhh... look, in my state is assisting us
protecting our water.
Be a force for innovation in this regard.
Including the military in
these climate negotiations?
Thank you very much But
you didnt say yes or no.
Problem to look to the military
contributing to the crisis?
To them for the solution?
Is an all-of-government challenge
crisis by an all-of-government response.
That we can tackle climate change
and grow our economy at the same time.
Fact that US military emissions
the climate negotiations?
Oregon National Guard of
these climate change events.
So you agree that they should be exempt?
Should be exempt. Do you agree with that?
Oregon National Guard for stepping up.
In case you didn't know.
We can applaud ourselves.
We can applaud ourselves.
That the military should be included
that pledged to cut 50% emissions?
Global conferences about cutting emissions
to omit conversations
about military investment
is to omit measuring our CO2 emissions
and so, you know, whether...
on how we draw that down
and what those
investments should look like,
draw it down if we dont measure it.
Around demilitarization and climate,
and agitation on an issue
was able to ask about it
of the most powerful people in the world.
There was some resistance at the top
heat in the room to address it.
After people walked off that stage.
The ramifications of that question...
now its a thing.
Interestingly, not long
after we went to COP
to reduce carbon emissions.
But it leaves a lot of questions.
For example, hybridize
some of its vehicles.
One is the Bradley Fighting Vehicle.
Great!
At just 0.75 miles per gallon.
At just 0.75 miles per gallon.
Billions are invested into hybridization?
0.9 miles per gallon.
Deliver solutions back to the military...
of the Pentagon's renewables pledge.
Alright. Thank you very much. Good luck.
Major General, Hi. Abigail.
Hi.
What about climate change?
Challenges and potential threats
that will arise from this?
But I do know there's a big push to
which in my opinion, that's great.
Today's national security, which is oil.
You have to have it.
With something that replaces oil,
making all these systems work.
Umm.
The alternatives in check.
That's what I thought.
You can't green a global military empire.
It seemed impossible
to pin down any officials
to answer for their environmental impact.
Many bases surrounding China?
Isnt that agitating for war, sir?
I don't appreciate
your attitude right now.
One more quick statement?
I have to join another group. I apologize.
Sorry about that.
Okay. Any? Any comm...
I mean, you mentioned Okinawa and Guam.
I can walk with you to the next place.
Lieutenant General Caine, quick question.
We're not doing any remarks.
Just contact the public [unintelligible].
Okay.
That would be something better for me to
have a little bit of time
to think about because...
my wheelhouse right now.
Happy to answer.
I incredibly value a free press.
In every possible way.
Turn the cameras off.
Maybe I was being too forward.
Formally requesting interviews
and was denied at every turn.
Finally, I was referred
to something called
the DOD Entertainment Media Office
and was granted a
meeting with their staff.
Alright. So, I wish I was recording it
but then again, the
military would charge me
with, like, wiretapping,
relay what they're saying.
So who is on the call?
Entertainment Media Office
to get any access to anything.
and then the guy was just like
every time you see the military on TV
movies, TV shows and documentaries.
Everyone has to go through us.
in every single production,
we have to have final say on the script,
we have to see the
completed version of the movie.
And I was like, how is that
possible is your response?
How does that actually work?
And he was like, is presented
fairly and accurately.
Usually it's not a problem.
But sometimes it is.
and we have to make those changes.
Don't just take it from me.
Unsuspecting program directors
who I happen to come across.
I was in the Marine Corps out there.
We were the liason to Hollywood.
We were going out to SAG
(Screen Actors Guild) events
and any kind of industry event
Writers Guild, ya know just
going out and saying Hey!
How can we get the military
more in the Motion Pictures?
And then BOOM!
Documentaries are difficult
because you gotta have the funding.
Somebodys got to pay for it.
We gotta see that contract.
If there is a script, we
have to see it for accuracy,
If there is a script, we
have to see it for accuracy,
well suggest changes
and once in a blue moon
wed have someone disagree.
Pentagon's official response on anything
editorial control of our film.
Is able to control the narrative.
Everything.
Everything is fine.
Everything is fine.
I'm guided by the beauty of our weapons.
And they are beautiful pictures.
How much damage can it do?
They're pretty polite strikes.
More forces into the region.
Yes. More planes.
Yes. More ships.
Yes. More missiles.
An institution so worshiped,
you're not supposed to question it.
Everything is fine. Everything is fine.
How much is this?
That's celebrated all around us?
The Los Angeles Recruiting
Battalion color guard.
Be all you can be.
Hey Fox, want to show us
the stuff you make at school?
The art that you make?
Whats this?
A witch.
Ho Ho Ho Ho Ho Ho.
Yesterday with wildfire smoke
and the sky is a hazy, orange glow.
Climate change is playing
in fueling these fires.
Playground?
Do you want to go to a playground?
Yeah.
Well see what we can do, okay?
Nobody wanted to publish this book.
The letter that came
back said, it's amazing.
But the phrase was, it's too hot.
You have a doctorate
in medieval literature,
even fits into that body of work.
Teaching medieval literature,
poetry teaches is the following.
See what you see.
Don't be duped.
Try to see what's actually there.
If I think about an armored division using
60,000 gallons of gasoline a day.
Right.
What? What am I doing?
What am I doing with my little green bags?
Right? Right.
And so I read all these little books about
How to keep your family green,
how to recycle, what to buy.
And then I realized
wait a minute, I've been duped, man.
I have to find out
what the military produces
in terms of pollution.
And I diligently tried to find that out.
It took a long time and
it and it was hard to do.
To numbers is really numbing.
Numbers numb.
Having too many numbers
and measuring data,
data will finally do us in.
It's very hard to grab hold of.
And they like it that way.
Called the military not just going
its own little capital enterprise.
That I cannot care about majesty.
The splendor of any animal.
I can't care about its beauty.
I can only see it as a commodity.
Something that I can
make money on and use.
I have to have the
whole place resacralized.
I have to take a student back,
that we could poison ourselves,
the planet and yet keep doing it,
how we lost our humanity.
And here we are.
What do we do?
What do we do about the military?
What do we do about our own home
the Earth as we know it?
Nature's in pain.
Of those animals out there that are dying?
How do we listen to the trees?
How do we actually
change our point of view?
Shift totally and try
to hear the last cries,
the suffering of this other species?
This is a goal.
This is what makes the stakes so high
and the aim so glorious.
New way of looking at this world,
a whole new way of looking at this world.
It's so frustrating that
knows that the climate is heating.
Because everybody knows
it, to cooperate and solve it.
But we can't.
And the reason we can't is the
we're stuck hinders what we can do.
Have that system in place,
as groups, even as individuals,
we're not going to be able to do it.
We have to address the root cause
of what's keeping us
from solving the problem.
Capitalism is a system
that it's very nature
over people, over nature, over resources.
That's how it works.
That resources are really carefully
with regard to the planet.
The bottom line interest
is on making a profit.
And today Americanbig
business is the strongest
and they have a dream:
to dominate the world.
Capitalism has a multi-century history
and over the, say, 100
years of the development
of monopoly capital and finance capital,
capital has become
deeply integrated globally.
This happens in an uneven
world and some are weaker.
With one word what this world looks like.
Its name is imperialism.
It leads to war.
Imperialism relies on
US military superiority,
And it's doing that in order to support
to support the power of its corporations,
system in which the US ruling class
classes actually benefits.
Inequality and continued expansion.
Through force and power.
Holding it in place is the US military.
From the very beginning.
A protection unit for resource extraction.
With borders drawn through genocide,
Its first network of
extraterritorial military bases
was to protect the fur
and mining industries.
Its first overseas bases
were to access coal
for the military.
For US capitalism to grow,
to conquer new markets and raw materials.
The military, powered by fossil fuels,
had to increase how much it could store
and how many places it could store it.
To do that, it needed a bigger military,
which in turn required more fossil fuels.
Oil would soon become the
dominant national security priority.
800 military bases around the world,
every corner of the globe?
Are, theyre in the Middle East.
It's about securing access
to the key resources.
Theyre near the shipping routes,
whole flow of capital flowing,
consumption of oil and gas.
In the causing of the climate crisis.
But they have an indirect role as well
and I think thats a role
thats less talked about
but is probably more important.
Infrastructure to support the free flow
that supply the US economy.
Areas of strategic resources
deployed internationally.
That is really geared entirely around
fossil fuel economy flowing.
You can always find a
new oil spill every single day
somewhere in the Niger Delta.
We have 60 years of a legacy of
total environmental devastation,
the clearest definition of
ecocide if there was ever one.
And it's not just about Nigeria
because the US has divided
the world into military commands
in charge of every part of the world.
Ive never seen that
kind of imperial power.
Its never happened before in the world.
But that's the world we live in today.
This is a complete dictatorship
and the Pentagon takes us
to our last great wilderness.
The final frontier of resource extraction.
Regaining Arctic Dominance highlights:
twice as fast as the rest of the world,
for natural resource extraction.
The Arctic is considered
the largest unexplored
prospective area for
fossil fuels on Earth.
Is investing in the
Arctic across all domains.
That I'm tasked to defend our homeland,
we must be able to operate in the Arctic.
Hi there.
Just have one quick question:
I didnt hear you address,
is entitled to dominate the Arctic?
Entitled to dominate the Arctic.
Welcome to this panel
and air superiority in the Arctic.
Well the entire panel is
called superiority of the arctic.
(Air & Space Forces Association)
I didnt make up that name.
Up in Alaska right now
how we would experiment
Alaska offers a lot.
So for the companies out there
it is a place to come and experiment.
Invitation. Open invitation.
Yeah.
We need to do as a nation
life and national security.
Were protecting around the world?
There are numerous interests.
Ice is changing.
Areas of exploration
for rare earth minerals.
It's opportunity.
And although all of us
are in national security,
the rest of the city is in business.
The incessant quest
for resource extraction
has brought us to this dystopian present,
Pillaging to the last drop.
Only way the US military
is trashing the planet.
Hello?
Hey, Nate.
Hello. Hello.
Just, like, count to ten.
Uh, yeah. One. Two.
Three... and the USS Detroit.
I joined the Navy in 2000...
I was on the USS Comstock 2019 to...
Control technician 3rd Class
on the USS Providence...
I started my career as a Navy diver...
Over in Afghanistan I was
stationed on F.O.B. Sharana.
Im an E5 corpsman the
Navy active duty... Well...
the Navy processes plastic at sea?
No, please tell us.
Okay, so, we stuff it in this machine
and then it gets real hot
and it compresses it down
to about one-inch thick hockey puck
but it's the size of a large pizza.
For months and months
everybody takes
their deal carrying it off.
If we don't hit port, we
throw it in the ocean.
Hundreds of them.
You know if you ask a Navy spokesperson,
Everything gets brought back to port
and recycled and disposed of.
But youre saying thats
clearly not the case.
Not when I was in.
So this was a pretty frequent thing?
Oh, yeah. It was common.
You know, everyone kind of accepted it.
Trash.
Bye, motherfucker. Bye.
Thats how you dispose the trash.
You just throw it off the back.
As quote-unquote night ops.
so much trash off the fantail
that sharks would
start following our wake.
Just a blatant disregard for the ocean.
I got out of the Navy
and I hear about this
huge patch a garbage in the ocean.
You know, I had to
have contributed to that.
All the nonsense we tossed... like...
it does make me physically ill.
Has to do with ordinance disposal.
They're going to toss out ammo
for the United States Army
and blow it up there on site.
That's the use it or lose it policy.
So just so I'm
understanding this correctly.
To a forward operating base.
They bring a big supply of bullets,
grenades, everything.
Whatever they don't use, it back with them
when they return to the main base,
it's just blown up in the field.
Yeah. You dispose of it by blowing it up.
It just is kind of like
a self-feeding cycle.
That you were a lot of that year,
amount back the next year.
The environmental impacts
of just blowing all of this shit up?
They didnt really tell you anything.
Impact of detonating munitions,
hey, we were here for 20 years.
times that happened a year.
Where it snows, it rains,
That runs off into
water supplies, Im sure.
That's like something that's like
really kind of like out
of your mind at the time.
...Yeah.
Infatuated with the explosion
actual ecological impact.
[Music]
There's always money for war.
There's always money for war.
And the bullets and the guns.
There's always money for war.
Well, you say the pot is empty.
Empty.
Well, you say there's nothing left.
Nothing left.
But these weapons are expensive.
You got money for them.
And when you blow up people's houses.
Houses.
What you think they're gonna do?
Gonna do.
Come looking for salvation.
They'll be looking at you.
There's just money for war.
There's always money for war.
And bullets and the guns.
There's always money for war.
Well, you take me to the arms fair.
Arms fair.
Try to show me that it's right.
That its right.
For the people making profit
at the cost of people's lives.
When you wanna fix a problem,
Gotta fix it at the cause.
Maybe we stop building weapons.
Maybe we'll stop starting wars.
Fire in the hole!
Cyber Conference in Washington, DC.
That takes place here every year
in the nation's capital
the military gets together
to strengthen their relationship
and, of course, do some shopping.
Of the military industrial complex
that most Americans never get to see
even though they're paying for it.
Alright, let's walk through the expo hall.
Defense contractors sponsoring this event:
Boeing, Lockheed Martin, GE,
Bae Systems, General Dynamics.
Lot of defense contractors here.
Gonna go get some stickers
from Lockheed Martin.
Rolls-Royce.
The hell is that about?
We got some direct energy weapons.
I didn't know Rolls-Royce did lasers.
News to me.
That's where all our money's going.
All right, go ahead and fire missile here.
...Woah Here's one.
And there's the other guy.
See if we got the kill?
We did.
So victory roll.
There you go.
Wow.
That was crazy.
How much does one of those run?
Theyre going to be somewhere
around 80 million dollars.
I can get you the family
rate if youre interested.
It sounds like a very interesting piece.
A documentary on climate change?
And the impact the defense
industry is having on it?
Well I mean, its uhhh... for
a documentary, ya know...
I would say that... its...
Im just trying to think, uh...
It sounds to me like its complicated...
much more of a political piece.
Its sounds to me like its
more of a political piece of sorts.
Correct?
I mean, everythings political. Isnt it?
I mean youre a defense contractor, right?
Youre a defense contractor.
Lets be honest.
You sell weapons that kill people, right?
Thats as political as it
gets... O say can you see,
by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed
at the twilight's last gleaming.
Whose broad stripes and bright stars
through the perilous fight.
O'er the ramparts we watched
were so gallantly streaming.
And the rockets red glare,
the bombs bursting in air
the bombs bursting in air
the bombs bursting in air
the bombs bursting in air
the bombs bursting in air
the bombs bursting in air...
the bombs...
so many bombs and bullets,
cancers and birth defects
right after the bombing stops.
These children have been
exposed to tungsten, chromium.
These things culminate
in children that have birth defects,
specifically congenital heart defects
much everywhere we look.
Our studies have been
in five different cities
Basra, Fallujah, Hawija,
now Syria and Baghdad.
We have collected samples from children:
tooth samples, hair
samples, blood samples,
Thirty-two million people in Iraq,
nobody has been untouched.
How will I ever return
to... where I am from...
when it is ruled by the gun?
When it is ruled by the gun.
Bombs and bullets and grenades and
all the weaponry that
has been used in Iraq.
Sprayed into the environment.
That end up in the air.
Into the water, into the food.
People consume it.
They breathe it in.
And this is one source
of pollution of war,
and Afghanistan, of
them have been released
into these environments.
For every person killed
in Iraq and Afghanistan,
more than 250,000 bullets have been used.
Depleted uranium and when they explode,
into the air and food and water
and people continue to be exposed to it.
I want to ask about a specific place.
I actually spent time in Hawija,
I was on this firebase,
munitions being traded.
Damn.
Shit.
I cant breathe.
What have you found
in Hawija specifically?
Children with congenital defects
have large amounts of
titanium in their hair samples.
Is that it has also been found
who lived on US military bases.
It's linking the two
population with this metal.
We are all connected in such a deep way.
These bombings and this destruction
has been an attack on
humanity in a big way,
It is heartbreaking to see all of that
under such assault and then left to rot.
Im gonna grab the door real quick.
Hello.
What's going on, man? Glad you made it.
This is Riccy. This is Mozhgan.
Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you as well.
We can put you to work.
To see the Mozghan interview
because it's so important for us to, like,
really look back at what the impact of
on Iraq and Afghanistan.
To know that, like, permanent
change to the landscape.
Like a permanent footprint.
Yeah, we left a permanent footprint.
Yeah.
I was in southern Helmand Province.
When I first came back from Afghanistan
in this super-isolated
bubble anything that I thought
me a panic attack.
And express myself that
way and get all that stuff out.
Look at the horrors of war,
to have to acknowledge it
Devour our youth.
Whom we once were,
spit us out to be forgotten.
My dad I think wrote one in here.
Coming to your fucking aid.
My dad always told me all the time.
Marine infantryman?
Yeah.
On the naval hospital there
I was about four.
I was in the hospital.
Me and my cousin Keith,
running up and down the hallway
waiting for our younger cousin to be born.
I recall we went in, saw
him, and he had passed away.
He was a stillbirth.
That's like one of my
earliest memories that I have
I probably didn't really
have a real understanding
of like life and death
I just knew that he wasn't going to be
with us or whatever.
That's a wild first memory.
Yeah, sucks man.
My name is Kim Ann Callan
and my parents came to the base in 1956
and I was in utero in 1957 on the base.
I was a sickly child.
I was in and out of
hospitals for unknown stuff
through my life.
I have a half brother.
He was born mentally handicapped
with cleft palate and
epilepsy and non-verbal
chronic lymphocytic leukemia.
Was connected to Camp
Lejeune until much later.
And seeing, like, the cleft palate
and some of the things that Peter had,
there was no doubt that the things
that my family had gone through
were directly related to the
toxic water at Camp Lejeune.
My whole family's been affected by this.
I go from anger to crying in frustration
because it's just such an emotional issue
for all of us,
especially those of us
who have lost people
and there's been a lot of people we lost.
Water contamination
event in American history,
impacting up to a million people.
Dumped toxic waste for decades,
which ended up in drinking water wells.
When tests confirmed that
the wells were poisonous,
they covered it up,
of their own service members for years.
While they were out in the field
and everybody on base was drinking it.
They were bathing children in that water,
making their formula out of that water.
That was going right
into the babys system.
It was especially
toxic to babies in utero,
their immune systems not develop
and so they're really the most vulnerable.
Hence, all the dead babies.
Marine Corps base is a cemetery.
Who died from the water contamination
that it's known to locals as baby heaven.
To this day,
the military has not
conducted a formal study
to account for all the children who died.
Kim: Wow.
Kim has spent the last 15 years
trying to do what the military will not.
So far, she's compiled
a list of over 1000 babies
who died during the toxic
water on Camp Lejeune.
Thirty just here.
Forty-five.
Maroska family lost two
and they should be in this section.
Twins.
I was born in January of 58
so I am the baby that survived
to help tell the story
of all those babies.
Here they are.
Oh, shit.
This family...
Suzy.
Born and died March 1st, 1963.
Lucy.
Born and died February 16th, 1966.
Judy.
Born and died February 17, 1970.
At least they have each other.
Really believes that in our lifetime
see any justice come from this.
Just waiting for them to die
so they don't have to take responsibility
They still have done
nothing to inform the people.
I carry around in my wallet,
Whenever I talk to someone who's military
and I say, do you know
about Camp Lejeune?
and I hand them one of these cards.
We did this.
Military doesn't do anything.
Us uncovering more people.
Going into this,
I had a whole different
vision of the military
and I had lot of respect for the military
until I knew.
Government or the military anymore.
I dont.
The people that served?
That's who we're fighting for.
The military...
can go to hell.
Camp Lejeune is just
the tip of the iceberg.
There are several dozen bases
uh, that registered
groundwater contamination levels
much, much higher than Camp Lejeune.
I've tested more than 400
locations at military bases
in the United States, Europe and Asia
and I have documented contamination
flowing from each of those locations.
I have a dock out there
directly across from the
River Naval Air Station,
The base runs all the
way past this radar station,
all the way up the coast
and it is the source of the contamination
washing up on my beach.
I grew oysters for 13 years
until I put two and two together
by testing the oysters,
realizing I've been
consuming poisonous oysters.
This came to me.
Id say that there are four
categories of contamination
that we see at military bases.
One is pesticides and herbicides.
The most deadly by far is Agent Orange.
The contamination is still there.
Agent orange is still killing people.
Another category is radiation.
There's tremendous level
of nuclear contamination
across the country as a result
of reckless military activities.
The radiation continues to kill people
and many are oblivious to the threat.
The third prong is volatile
organic compounds.
That handles equipment
like tanks or F-35s
that needs maintenance,
then you'll see that these
volatile organic compounds
are present in the groundwater.
There is a myriad of VOCs.
Four of the most deadly that we see are
used in cleaning engine parts daily.
Like Pandora's box, We've opened it.
We can't get them back.
The fourth category that's
in a league of its own is PFAs
and they have tremendous
military applications.
At every military base to human beings.
One teaspoon of the foam can contaminate
a mid-sized city's
drinking water reservoir.
It just doesn't go away.
We don't know how to get rid of it.
We are in trouble.
Together they create a fantastic cocktail
of deathly contamination
the United States military is unchecked.
And they have no one watching over them.
I live right where Cape Canaveral is,
so Patrick Space Force Base,
Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
My uncle was diagnosed with cancer.
Then my little brother
was diagnosed with cancer.
I was diagnosed with cancer
and then my father was
diagnosed with cancer.
So in my medical records it's documented
that this is likely
environmentally caused.
We had genetic testing done.
It showed no mutation genes.
And you never think when
you're getting a glass of
water out of your faucet
that it's going to be unsafe.
And it is the ultimate betrayal
is poisoning our own people.
Our people welcome the military.
Of our contributions,
are some of the most highly
contaminated population on the planet.
I started noticing a lot of cancers
seen before in our people.
They abandoned everything.
PCBs, lubricants, pesticides.
Into our lands and waters.
Reproductive-age men and women.
We will be no more Yupik people.
My grandson, my granddaughters
to continue to be a Sivuqaq Yupik people.
The Navy came in
where a lot of black folks
migrated from the southern states;
they employed these folks to sandblast
the radioactive waste from their ships.
These barrels of radioactive
contaminated waste are still here,
buried right up under us.
Emergency room growing up.
We grew up where cancer was normal.
The high rates of miscarriages are normal.
Neurological disorders are normal.
(Environmental Protection Agency)
and they have falsified documents
and stating that, everything was safe.
What are they willing to do?
Absolutely nothing.
And that's just really what it is.
The military overrules the government.
We are breathing, eating, and drinking
deadly contaminants and it is affecting us
and our progeny forever.
But I haven't really addressed
the potential for disaster.
Everywhere we look
There's the storage of these contaminants,
these ticking time bombs.
In 2021, In 2021, jet fuel
from decayed storage tanks.
It's seeped into the drinking water wells
used by military families.
With toxic water...
and four times as wide
holds 12 millions gallons of fuel.
20 of these sit under Red Hill
and over time, 19 have leaked.
Oahu's main source of fresh drinking water
sits just below these tanks.
Hawaii water officials begged the Navy
to decommission these tanks for years
poison their main aquifer.
We cannot wait any longer.
The water resources is precious.
Operating procedure were
their own service members.
Were their own service members.
High-risk pregnant wife
you can use the water.
Go away.
Go Home!
You dont care about the people here.
Were going to recess for five minutes
and if we can get this under control
well come back and we
will take these questions.
Here we go...
and our Gods and our people
by Mele and chants and songs and dances.
To have somebody polluting my water
where I raise my kids...
This is important to me
and the future generations of my family.
These Navy folks, and
Lieutenants and Captains
they leave.
Theyre temporary.
This is our home.
This is the norm for Hawaiians
and destroying our home
128 years ago and the
longer they stay here
the more damage they do.
This whole ridge is Kapkak
or what they call Red Hill.
So this is where the tanks are?
They're inside this mountain.
You just see a ridge with trees on it.
And empire and the violence it does
is hidden in plain sight.
If you think of the US
Military in the Pacific
as a giant octopus
and Hawaii would be its head.
Other islands from Okinawa
Marshall Islands, American Samoa.
It all centers on Puu Loa
which most people know as Pearl Harbor.
Complex of fish ponds
and agricultural production on Oahu.
With saltwater productive
ecosystems in the world.
And were able to manage it
in a sustainable way to feed their people
So this is the food basket of Oahu.
Fast forward to the late 1870s
this is the key to the
central Pacific Ocean.
Hawaii is a sovereign
country that was taken over,
occupied by the US, for a military base
across the Pacific.
American youth are
taught the great tragedy
of the Pearl Harbor attacks.
Happened decades earlier.
Food source was turned into
a parking lot and fuel dump.
Don't eat the fish.
now a Superfund site,
That's the dramatic transformation
The complete destruction of Pearl Harbor
environmental crimes.
The latest reports lists
military contamination
sites in the islands.
That's assaulted, many
times the size of Oahu,
are designated military zones
and bombarded year round.
A habitable planet rests
on the health of our oceans.
To that complex system.
But the ocean is a realm of sound
a fragile symphony.
And live munitions,
the Navy is constantly flying growlers
among the world's loudest aircraft
biggest fleet of aircraft carriers.
They also utilize high power sonar,
across more than 70%
of the world's oceans,
which is not just disruptive, but deadly.
Creating hemorrhaging of the brain.
The Navy's invasion turns
the world of marine mammals
into a grinding hell.
Nursing, feeding and navigation collapse.
The Navy knows this,
millions of marine mammals every year,
that deems them endangered.
They're called takes
or disrupting survival behaviors,
and sometimes even direct killing.
(Observer) This is nuts, man.
(Observer) I think theyre
hurting these whales.
Own numbers in the latest
round of permits granted,
and testing for five years
across the Pacific and Atlantic oceans,
The Navy has an open
license for over 26 million
marine mammal takes.
The staggering number of
takes only includes mammals.
On the majority of ocean life,
shredded by these high decibel assaults.
The scale of these operations is massive.
The US Navy is global.
The world's oceans 24
hours a day, 7 days a week.
Dragging a wake of cacophony,
fire,
and chemicals, behind it.
For ocean life, it's not training.
It's constant, never-ending, war.
In this forever war on the
seas, wargames in the world
known as RimPac or, Rim of the Pacific.
29 countries under U.S. control,
devastating sea monster,
a couple dozen more heads.
Abby: Top Gun!
Go ahead and have refreshments
and well start shortly.
We're going to get started.
I'm going to bring the Admirals in.
Okay.
Hi. Hello, everybody.
Good afternoon.
To the USS Essex.
To be part of Rimpac 2022
with some of my friends here that you see.
The best, I think, ever.
To Abigail Martin.
Are measures in place of these exercises,
that there's actually significant impacts
endangered species, ecosystems.
Of RIMPAC exercises
outweigh this deadly environmental toll?
Umm... I dont know that
they outweigh, uh, the risk.
I would push back a little bit and say
I dont personal... I think
it has to be a balance.
We have to excecise, we have to train.
And make sure that were not doing harm.
When you guys are using
using live ammunition?
What you really think.
That has a huge environmental toll.
We have protocols that
all the ships have to respect
to prevent the use of things like sonar
or weapons systems in
proximity with marine animals.
Sightings may occur at any time,
actually looking at the water.
Bridge Sonar, dolphins
are sighted... Secure sonar!
One thing struck me about RimPac.
And ability to organize
so many nations to fight,
but not against the threat
that truly imperils us all.
For so many nations to get together
threat of environmental
collapse exacerbate the problem
to pollution and climate change?
Were doing here with RimPac,
is to build these capable,
adaptive partners,
that can help uphold
international norms and rules.
We are a rule of law organization.
Invading other countries.
That they're doing.
They're practicing
future wars, in Hawai'i.
First start to gestate those ideas.
But we also have to think about
of those bombs, those bullets.
This is not just expressed
as a training exercise.
A new wave of military bases
surrounding its next target,
which is also not so coincidentally,
its biggest economic competitor.
China. China, China.
A war with China
...against the pacing
challenge of China... China.
China.
China.
Against China.
China in particular.
China. China. China.
China...
495 miles from the coast of China,
was the Japanese jugular vein.
In American hands,
the first conquest of Japanese home soil,
an imperial prefecture.
So unique in its biodiversity?
We have 262 endangered species
living in this Henoko Oura Bay
That's in a tiny area,
about eight square miles.
So this is one of the
most biodiversity rich areas
in Japan, and in the world, I think.
The dugong is a cultural icon
Also, this is an endangered species,
and so for Okinawan people
the dugongs are very, very important.
As an endangered species
blue coral in the Oura Bay.
It's about 17m in height,
so it's one of the largest, blue corals.
How pristine this area has been.
In order to build a military base here,
they have to landfill
this beautiful ocean.
Being here in Okinawa, Camp Schwab
its a lot different than Camp Pendleton
The water, you can
just tell its different.
The obstacles... that
are out in the water,
the coral, that we dont
have back at Pendleton.
Is an exercise in absurdity
and pure destruction.
Is being raised
to access the rocks and dirt underneath.
Best part about it is
blowing everything up.
Sky high.
is removed layer by layer
and taken away in dump trucks.
Line the street, delivering
the forest floor to a port,
where it's broken down into
gravel, loaded onto ships,
then taken out to the bay,
where it's dumped, load after load,
to the bottom of the sea.
Danny Tamaki, to learn more.
This is so stupid and
completely unrelated to security,
sacrificing nature for an obsolete idea.
Official in Okinawa, you
are the elected governor,
environmental investigations
of base contamination,
to stop this new base construction,
overwhelming rejection for this.
Despite my disapproval as governor,
rather than to accept it,
they have been trying
to apply different laws
in order to take away my authority.
Stop the Henoko Landfill!
have been exhausted,
fighting to slow every step
in the chain of construction.
[Police] Watch out! Watch out!
A truck is coming!
In order to slow down and reduce
the amount of sediment
being carried to Henoko,
we are walking as slowly as possible.
How long have you been doing this?
Me, for 3 and a half years.
The Slower the Better - Gandhi
[Police] Please cross the
road faster! Faster please!
Why dont you stop it!
Japan is a vassal state
of the United States.
If you resist the U.S. military too much,
the Japanese government will react.
This is a reaction FOR the U.S. military.
Stop the new base construction!
Stop destroying Okinawa!
Destroyer of Okinawa, get out!
I want to raise awareness far and wide.
For that, I continue to raise my voice.
I might get caught and put in jail again.
But that does not stop me.
Let's go! Let's go! Let's go!
What in the world, you Americans,
come all the way over here
across the Pacific Ocean,
and destroy this tiny island of ours?
What make you think that you are entitled
to mess up our one and only island?
Return Okinawa back to us.
This island is ours.
Not American's. Not the U.S. Marine's.
This is our land.
Please... Get out.
A ship loaded with landfill material
is entering to the Oura Bay now.
We are going to protest against it now.
Its all base on the other side, right?
Yeah, over that concrete wall.
We are already in a restricted area.
This is why these guys are
following us as a warning.
Coast Guard.
Theyre filming us.
In order to cover up their identity.
We call him "Tecchan."
It has to turn around in this area.
This Henoko base construction
has been told to stop
over and over again by the
Okinawan Prefectural government,
for it is an illegal construction.
Tiny island, invisible on your map!
Please protect all our oceans together.
Did you see three canoes advanced?
Two out of three seems
to be able to get in.
Oh look, hes climbing on.
Hes climbing over.
They are determined to protest.
[Coast guard] Stop going
over the bouy immediately!
Shes getting pulled out by the police.
[Coast Guard] All canoe
members have been detained.
Everybody activate their camera.
All of the machines on this side?
On guard over the machines.
Is this target practice?
Fuck.
They have the subject in custody?
Call me on my cell phone.
Call me on my cell phone.
What do we learn from this autopsy?
The wounds to the legs are consistent
with Manuel sitting down, cross-legged
hands raised when killed.
The destruction of the Weelaunee Forest.
This Atlanta urban
forest is being sacrificed
to build what is called a Cop City.
Since the uprisings of 2020,
these urban warfare training centers
have broken ground in almost every state.
They say it's the next step
in training a new generation of officers.
It's the culmination of
decades of police militarization.
Authorized the Pentagon
equipment to local police.
Middletown now has an MRAP,
Mine-Resistant Armored Protected Vehicle.
Look at this beast right
here going to highway Patrol.
We've seen how it's used.
Hey, wave goodbye. Theyre
all about to get gassed.
I cant breathe!
Military-style weapons
pointed at protesters.
We're trapped!
They just keep coming.
Light em up!
[Screaming]
a military presence.
Big plan for the climate crisis.
Hug a tree!
We all hug trees!
The US military has driven
the destruction of the planet
as a battering ram
for resource extraction.
Now that we face a future of scarcity,
disaster and instability,
they want more militarization
to protect the same
interests that brought us here.
Oil.
We have to have it.
Security concerns they're talking about.
Abroad and at home.
... a fucking war zone right here ...
In the years working on this film,
we were constantly confronted
with the sheer
overwhelming nature of it all.
The more we looked, the more it grew.
Each tentacle of
pollution splits off into more
fractals of destruction.
Taken in totality, an
immeasurable planetary impact
carried out by the most
powerful entity in history
blocking our final
chance to save the planet.
Truly, we are looking at
Earth's Greatest Enemy.
And when we thought we'd seen the worst,
we come to Gaza.
The most devastating ecocide
and genocide of our generation.
Only possible through American weapons
and political support.
The consequences will be
felt by everyone on Earth.
[Baby noises]
[Piano music]
Hi Gem!
What colors you want to pick out for this?
You did a peace sign.
That looks great.
You're very good at coloring.
Fox?
Fox: Cease Fire Now!
Come here.
Bye sweetie.
Bye Gem.
The fight against the war machine
and the fight to save the
planet is the same fight.
And linking these issues together
gives us more strength.
It's not an extreme idea to
shrink our bloated military
and to clean up its mess.
Society to get off fossil fuels now
wasted on the Pentagon
a sustainable place.
Against is not absolute.
Today it's going to move forward
Red Hill fuel tanks for good.
It has weaknesses.
We can get in its way.
We can disrupt it.
We can speak the truth.
We can organize ourselves.
And we can fight.
Back up!
Yo, back up!
Thats right!
Shame!
Shame!
Shame!
We can do what we can
and do what we can... together.
[Singing] Cease Fire Now!
Cease Fire Now!
Cease Fire Now!
Do yall want to take a deep breath.
One more.
Im such a fool.
I am a fool for you... America.
I dont have a home.
I dont have a land of my own.
First Air Cav Brigade
I was in the U.S. Army.
I joined up in 2004, deployed out in 2006,
and it was hell.
I was at Camp Taji, seven
miles south of Baghdad.
I was in one of the 'Army
Of One' commercials
I was the guy with the helicopters.
Everybody, listen up.
This is Levon.
Hey Levon, Im Winton.
Youre on the 120 today.
How are ya?
So if there is anything you
need, just ask these guys,
theyll take care of it, alright?
Welcome aboard.
Thank you.
You ever been around
anything this fast before?
He walks in and goes
You ever work on
anything this fast before?
Yeah, in my last job.
See how Army training
gives you Strength for now.
Strength for later.
GoArmy.com
Yeah, it was all a lie.
I have nerve damage so
Im actually losing my hands.
So Im trying to use them as
much as I can until theyre all gone.
It hurts.
It actually hurts.
Thats what... that hydraulic
fluid in service does.
Laughing is the only
way I can get through it
otherwise, Im crying.
My life is so fucked.
I am a product of the war on terror.
From CBS News headquarters in New York...
the opening salvo of
Operation Iraqi Freedom...
...artillery launched within ...
when I was a college freshman.
Solid evidence...
The threat level is now
officially up to orange...
...Trust me ...
and mass media colluded to sell the war.
I decided to make my own media
as a harsh critic of both.
When the CEOs of major
defense corporations
on foreign policy?
And theyre gonna tear gas us
the streets and against
American militarism.
Go ahead turn the camera off.
Welcome to Breaking
The Set. Im Abby Martin.
A straight answer about anything.
Peas and carrots. Peas and carrots.
Why is that?
And I earned a reputation
for being fiercely independent.
... mad as hell and shes
not gonna take it anymore.
Along the way, I met someone
who shared my passion.
...joined by Michael Prysner Hi Abby.
After being sent to invade Iraq,
he came home to expose the war.
More in common with the Iraqi people
than they do with the
billionaires who send us to war
Afghanistan veterans to fight against it.
What this whole campaign is all about.
So me as an anti-war reporter
and Mike as an anti-war
activist fused our work
to found a new project.
We called it The Empire Files.
that is right in front of our faces
but is never really acknowledged
You cant live like this.
that the United States is
a global military empire,
bigger than any in history.
Are you filming? Are you filming?
And it put us on the ground
with those impacted by it.
Abby, theyre shooting in our direction.
Then our lives changed forever.
...Yeah.
Suddenly, we had a new obsession.
The future.
What would it be like
when our son is our age?
... record setting fire season ...
... terrifying signs
of things to come ...
And if we think things are tense now,
when things actually start to get bad?
... all-time record heat ...
Get inside!
Then these two worlds collided.
Our fierce opposition
to the US war machine
and our profound climate anxiety.
If our military was so
unparalleled in size,
what impact was that having on the planet?
And could the worst be avoided
as long as this monster existed?
At home in 2020 with our newborn,
was at dealing with a global crisis.
In how they would deal with
the much bigger crisis of climate change.
Our fears deepened when we read this book
our child's generation will face.
So we met with the author, Dahr Jamail,
disappearing from the face of the earth.
I moved to Alaska in 1996
in order to just mountain climb.
It was love at first sight.
Literally geared at spending
up in the high country.
That I started to kind of
wake up that I was born into
was costing the rest of the world.
Started talking about,
something in me snapped.
Citizen would be to go into Iraq
people were being affected
might develop some empathy
very very high civilian body count
war crimes one after another
the US Empire is willing
to go to further its cause.
Then you come back to the United States.
You get back to your
roots in the wilderness
and start reporting on climate change.
That link, between what you saw in Iraq
in your own backyard?
As that was for me personally,
into the climate crisis,
it's worse.
People dying than what I saw in Iraq.
today is better than tomorrow.
ourselves for what's coming.
Scientists in different fields,
the scientists that I interviewed
about where we're
heading is extremely grim.
On the planet is in glaciers.
Most alpine glaciers, if not all, by 2100,
that's a real issue.
Dramatic impacts of this around the globe.
That brings a heaviness to my heart,
changed the earth so much
powerful is going to go away so quick.
It's scary and it's saddening
and it's also, um, makes me really angry,
I can't imagine a bigger injustice.
Given where we are and
what science is showing us
in regards to the climate crisis,
consumer of fossil fuels on the planet,
how can they be given a free pass?
When you put it all together
and then extrapolate out
800 bases around the globe,
Navy out on the oceans,
... US Navy is a complex
engine of destruction ...
the Superfund sites.
I mean, when you start
to get a macro view,
this is why it becomes clear
largest polluter on the planet.
... and we are still building.
Knowing where we are in the crisis,
how far along we are at this moment,
one of us to ask ourselves a question of
for how we behaved during this time?
How we're going to live our lives?
Even here its hundreds of feet thick
but up at the head of the glacier
and thousands of feet
thick ice that is over 30 miles.
It's just an amazing thing to consider.
And that sounds trashed.
These people chatting in the background?
Crew: Umm... Yeah ...
sound bite and then we're done?
Crew: Still rolling.
to wait. There's no way.
I think we're shot.
Yeah, were fucked.
... Alrighty, can everybody
hear us right now ...
[unintelligible]
Sadly, we were kicked off the glacier
as their personal wedding venue.
We planned to watch
the sunset on this ice,
which may be gone in a generation.
Of the owners throwing a party
on the carcass of this sacred relic.
... theres a party
at the end of world...
Lets go...
to the party at the end of world...
... theres a party at the end...
... and were going down...
The reason we're at this tipping point
of carbon in the atmosphere
for which the US is the top contributor.
Over 25%.
Total is the military,
consumer of fossil fuels on the planet
at 270,000 barrels of oil a day.
According to their
latest official numbers,
metric tons of CO2 annually.
Metric tons of CO2 annually.
More than 150 countries.
How is that possible?
Most expansive empire in world history.
Which militarily
occupies the entire planet
almost every continent.
Russia has nine.
China has one.
Unparalleled number of vehicles
as well as aircraft to cover the skies.
The next five biggest air powers combined.
American driver over 40 years
single flight of a Boeing Pegasus.
The US flies more than
600 of these tankers,
triple the rest of the world combined.
Gasoline, oil and supplies
all the necessary equipment for invasion
Direct emissions is the emissions directly
warships, tanks, etcetera
and military bases.
Warships, tanks, etcetera
and military bases.
Which is the arms industry,
all the supplies that the military uses
to get the complete carbon footprint.
And it depends where it's come from
in emissions reporting.
Metals from the DRC,
covered? I don't think so.
Factoring in these life cycle emissions,
CO2 output is at least three times higher
CO2 output is at least three times higher
over 165 million metric tons a year.
Be measured in isolation.
Political force that controls
a much larger web of militarism.
Thus was born the
Atlantic Alliance and NATO,
its organization for
the defense of the west,
of collective security.
NATO is an exclusive
US-led military alliance
to rapidly reduce their emissions
resources and attention
challenges that we're facing,
big US weapons manufacturers.
That led the drive for NATO expansion.
Market for US weapons.
To increase military spending.
So in 2014, the NATO summit in Wales,
all of the NATO members made a pledge
military spending to 2% of GDP.
The year I was elected president
2% of their GDP on defense.
This year twenty-three
will spend at least 2%.
Even without the latest 5% increase,
scientists estimate
US-led military emissions
metric tons annually by 2028.
Of the world's nations combined
This is staggering because
emissions from nation states
include everything that
sustains a population.
That's why there's a problem
comparing the Pentagon to countries.
The Pentagon is mostly a vampire,
of American tax dollars
deadlier and more destructive toys
from a for-profit arms industry.
This outsized number, unfortunately,
the actual use of this machinery...
War.
If a fuel depot is blown up
are emitted to the atmosphere.
Or land is made uninhabitable,
of emissions that aren't counted.
By hospitals to care for the wounded,
within civilian emissions
but it wont be counted
as part of the military
and its a result of military activity
counted in that category.
Reconstruction using concrete,
which is a very energy-intensive material,
thats often not counted.
The list goes on.
How do you count this stuff?
Its really hard.
Is simply too big to estimate
of unnecessary emissions can be justified.
Us closer to the worst projections.
I'm sorry about the
rain, I'll make this brief.
Before I leave to comment on the outcome
of the climate change negotiations
that have just been completed in Japan.
Known as the Kyoto Protocols,
industrialized nations
to reduce their emissions.
But the US lobbied for its military
from its national total
on the grounds of national security.
This is a very good agreement.
For us to do this and grow our economy.
Which is a market oriented approach.
They won and all other
countries followed suit.
Thanks to the Pentagon,
of all climate pledges
and plans ever since.
In other words, a farce.
Thank you very much.
To confront this fact, of
these Conference of Parties
that year, hosted in Glasgow, Scotland.
System change! Not climate change!
500 fossil fuel lobbyists
corporations here at COP26,
which I really think says it all.
Industry were a country,
at the entire conference.
What becomes really obvious
are really driving the narrative.
So every country has a booth here
touting its green energy initiatives.
What you see really quickly is
and dirty energy companies themselves.
Its just a corporate trade show.
But also opportunities
for the financial system.
Its the greatest economic
opportunity of our time.
Larry Fink, head of BlackRock.
Theres capital available.
Private capital is
essential to our success.
We will unlock these pots
of money Pots of money.
Are so big its hard to keep perspective.
Of the conference, There
were designated protest zones
... climate justice. When
do we want it? Now!
which required pre-approval
of all signs and slogans.
I participated in a crime in 2003.
I was part of the invasion of Iraq.
Two wars in Iraq have left behind
hundreds of tons of Depleted
Uranium and toxic waste.
The military is a false solution.
There is nothing
sustainable about warfare.
I saw that the US was folded down.
Why was that?
To call out specific countries.
You cannot name any countries.
But you put it on the flag.
I understand.
They took our banner.
My badge might get taken away,
which would suck.
I am so sorry.
I I was I am so sorry.
But yeah... the US is a major contributor.
People should know that.
Being confrontational before.
On the rules here of the banner?
Is naming and shaming.
Naming and shaming?
The countries. Exactly.
I can explain everything.
So...
but Im wondering... So it
was a sanctioned protest,
to say the US military, right?
Well, the things I
can explain to you later
Can we have Why is he following us?
Because we're filming right now.
I'm sorry, I didn't authorize this.
Another question.
We have time for one more. Is that okay?
Wait a minute.
I want a woman. A woman.
Gender equality.
Maybe I don't... Lets see.
Abby Martin, with the Empire Files.
A large increase in the Pentagon budget.
The Pentagon budget is already massive.
Polluter than 140 countries.
How can we seriously talk about net zero
if military is exempt from climate talks?
I just wanna use an example if I can
is an important part of, you know,
whats happening with the climate
but Ive had so many talks
with the Navy in particular
respond to whats going on so
I dont see what were doing
increasing the defense budget
inconsistent with climate action.
I really dont.
May I just add that
national security advisors all tell us
is a national security matter.
A national security matter.
Conflict over habitat and resources
and again a security challenge globally
and a moral issue that we need
to pass on this planet
to future generations
in a responsible way.
They have to clean the room.
I didn't know about that.
For your truly inspirational
and supranational leadership.
For questions from the media.
Abby Martin.
Are doing to combat climate change,
but the United States is a global empire.
All of your states host
large military bases.
Why is it acceptable
to United States officials
from these climate negotiations?
Uhhh... look, in my state is assisting us
protecting our water.
Be a force for innovation in this regard.
Including the military in
these climate negotiations?
Thank you very much But
you didnt say yes or no.
Problem to look to the military
contributing to the crisis?
To them for the solution?
Is an all-of-government challenge
crisis by an all-of-government response.
That we can tackle climate change
and grow our economy at the same time.
Fact that US military emissions
the climate negotiations?
Oregon National Guard of
these climate change events.
So you agree that they should be exempt?
Should be exempt. Do you agree with that?
Oregon National Guard for stepping up.
In case you didn't know.
We can applaud ourselves.
We can applaud ourselves.
That the military should be included
that pledged to cut 50% emissions?
Global conferences about cutting emissions
to omit conversations
about military investment
is to omit measuring our CO2 emissions
and so, you know, whether...
on how we draw that down
and what those
investments should look like,
draw it down if we dont measure it.
Around demilitarization and climate,
and agitation on an issue
was able to ask about it
of the most powerful people in the world.
There was some resistance at the top
heat in the room to address it.
After people walked off that stage.
The ramifications of that question...
now its a thing.
Interestingly, not long
after we went to COP
to reduce carbon emissions.
But it leaves a lot of questions.
For example, hybridize
some of its vehicles.
One is the Bradley Fighting Vehicle.
Great!
At just 0.75 miles per gallon.
At just 0.75 miles per gallon.
Billions are invested into hybridization?
0.9 miles per gallon.
Deliver solutions back to the military...
of the Pentagon's renewables pledge.
Alright. Thank you very much. Good luck.
Major General, Hi. Abigail.
Hi.
What about climate change?
Challenges and potential threats
that will arise from this?
But I do know there's a big push to
which in my opinion, that's great.
Today's national security, which is oil.
You have to have it.
With something that replaces oil,
making all these systems work.
Umm.
The alternatives in check.
That's what I thought.
You can't green a global military empire.
It seemed impossible
to pin down any officials
to answer for their environmental impact.
Many bases surrounding China?
Isnt that agitating for war, sir?
I don't appreciate
your attitude right now.
One more quick statement?
I have to join another group. I apologize.
Sorry about that.
Okay. Any? Any comm...
I mean, you mentioned Okinawa and Guam.
I can walk with you to the next place.
Lieutenant General Caine, quick question.
We're not doing any remarks.
Just contact the public [unintelligible].
Okay.
That would be something better for me to
have a little bit of time
to think about because...
my wheelhouse right now.
Happy to answer.
I incredibly value a free press.
In every possible way.
Turn the cameras off.
Maybe I was being too forward.
Formally requesting interviews
and was denied at every turn.
Finally, I was referred
to something called
the DOD Entertainment Media Office
and was granted a
meeting with their staff.
Alright. So, I wish I was recording it
but then again, the
military would charge me
with, like, wiretapping,
relay what they're saying.
So who is on the call?
Entertainment Media Office
to get any access to anything.
and then the guy was just like
every time you see the military on TV
movies, TV shows and documentaries.
Everyone has to go through us.
in every single production,
we have to have final say on the script,
we have to see the
completed version of the movie.
And I was like, how is that
possible is your response?
How does that actually work?
And he was like, is presented
fairly and accurately.
Usually it's not a problem.
But sometimes it is.
and we have to make those changes.
Don't just take it from me.
Unsuspecting program directors
who I happen to come across.
I was in the Marine Corps out there.
We were the liason to Hollywood.
We were going out to SAG
(Screen Actors Guild) events
and any kind of industry event
Writers Guild, ya know just
going out and saying Hey!
How can we get the military
more in the Motion Pictures?
And then BOOM!
Documentaries are difficult
because you gotta have the funding.
Somebodys got to pay for it.
We gotta see that contract.
If there is a script, we
have to see it for accuracy,
If there is a script, we
have to see it for accuracy,
well suggest changes
and once in a blue moon
wed have someone disagree.
Pentagon's official response on anything
editorial control of our film.
Is able to control the narrative.
Everything.
Everything is fine.
Everything is fine.
I'm guided by the beauty of our weapons.
And they are beautiful pictures.
How much damage can it do?
They're pretty polite strikes.
More forces into the region.
Yes. More planes.
Yes. More ships.
Yes. More missiles.
An institution so worshiped,
you're not supposed to question it.
Everything is fine. Everything is fine.
How much is this?
That's celebrated all around us?
The Los Angeles Recruiting
Battalion color guard.
Be all you can be.
Hey Fox, want to show us
the stuff you make at school?
The art that you make?
Whats this?
A witch.
Ho Ho Ho Ho Ho Ho.
Yesterday with wildfire smoke
and the sky is a hazy, orange glow.
Climate change is playing
in fueling these fires.
Playground?
Do you want to go to a playground?
Yeah.
Well see what we can do, okay?
Nobody wanted to publish this book.
The letter that came
back said, it's amazing.
But the phrase was, it's too hot.
You have a doctorate
in medieval literature,
even fits into that body of work.
Teaching medieval literature,
poetry teaches is the following.
See what you see.
Don't be duped.
Try to see what's actually there.
If I think about an armored division using
60,000 gallons of gasoline a day.
Right.
What? What am I doing?
What am I doing with my little green bags?
Right? Right.
And so I read all these little books about
How to keep your family green,
how to recycle, what to buy.
And then I realized
wait a minute, I've been duped, man.
I have to find out
what the military produces
in terms of pollution.
And I diligently tried to find that out.
It took a long time and
it and it was hard to do.
To numbers is really numbing.
Numbers numb.
Having too many numbers
and measuring data,
data will finally do us in.
It's very hard to grab hold of.
And they like it that way.
Called the military not just going
its own little capital enterprise.
That I cannot care about majesty.
The splendor of any animal.
I can't care about its beauty.
I can only see it as a commodity.
Something that I can
make money on and use.
I have to have the
whole place resacralized.
I have to take a student back,
that we could poison ourselves,
the planet and yet keep doing it,
how we lost our humanity.
And here we are.
What do we do?
What do we do about the military?
What do we do about our own home
the Earth as we know it?
Nature's in pain.
Of those animals out there that are dying?
How do we listen to the trees?
How do we actually
change our point of view?
Shift totally and try
to hear the last cries,
the suffering of this other species?
This is a goal.
This is what makes the stakes so high
and the aim so glorious.
New way of looking at this world,
a whole new way of looking at this world.
It's so frustrating that
knows that the climate is heating.
Because everybody knows
it, to cooperate and solve it.
But we can't.
And the reason we can't is the
we're stuck hinders what we can do.
Have that system in place,
as groups, even as individuals,
we're not going to be able to do it.
We have to address the root cause
of what's keeping us
from solving the problem.
Capitalism is a system
that it's very nature
over people, over nature, over resources.
That's how it works.
That resources are really carefully
with regard to the planet.
The bottom line interest
is on making a profit.
And today Americanbig
business is the strongest
and they have a dream:
to dominate the world.
Capitalism has a multi-century history
and over the, say, 100
years of the development
of monopoly capital and finance capital,
capital has become
deeply integrated globally.
This happens in an uneven
world and some are weaker.
With one word what this world looks like.
Its name is imperialism.
It leads to war.
Imperialism relies on
US military superiority,
And it's doing that in order to support
to support the power of its corporations,
system in which the US ruling class
classes actually benefits.
Inequality and continued expansion.
Through force and power.
Holding it in place is the US military.
From the very beginning.
A protection unit for resource extraction.
With borders drawn through genocide,
Its first network of
extraterritorial military bases
was to protect the fur
and mining industries.
Its first overseas bases
were to access coal
for the military.
For US capitalism to grow,
to conquer new markets and raw materials.
The military, powered by fossil fuels,
had to increase how much it could store
and how many places it could store it.
To do that, it needed a bigger military,
which in turn required more fossil fuels.
Oil would soon become the
dominant national security priority.
800 military bases around the world,
every corner of the globe?
Are, theyre in the Middle East.
It's about securing access
to the key resources.
Theyre near the shipping routes,
whole flow of capital flowing,
consumption of oil and gas.
In the causing of the climate crisis.
But they have an indirect role as well
and I think thats a role
thats less talked about
but is probably more important.
Infrastructure to support the free flow
that supply the US economy.
Areas of strategic resources
deployed internationally.
That is really geared entirely around
fossil fuel economy flowing.
You can always find a
new oil spill every single day
somewhere in the Niger Delta.
We have 60 years of a legacy of
total environmental devastation,
the clearest definition of
ecocide if there was ever one.
And it's not just about Nigeria
because the US has divided
the world into military commands
in charge of every part of the world.
Ive never seen that
kind of imperial power.
Its never happened before in the world.
But that's the world we live in today.
This is a complete dictatorship
and the Pentagon takes us
to our last great wilderness.
The final frontier of resource extraction.
Regaining Arctic Dominance highlights:
twice as fast as the rest of the world,
for natural resource extraction.
The Arctic is considered
the largest unexplored
prospective area for
fossil fuels on Earth.
Is investing in the
Arctic across all domains.
That I'm tasked to defend our homeland,
we must be able to operate in the Arctic.
Hi there.
Just have one quick question:
I didnt hear you address,
is entitled to dominate the Arctic?
Entitled to dominate the Arctic.
Welcome to this panel
and air superiority in the Arctic.
Well the entire panel is
called superiority of the arctic.
(Air & Space Forces Association)
I didnt make up that name.
Up in Alaska right now
how we would experiment
Alaska offers a lot.
So for the companies out there
it is a place to come and experiment.
Invitation. Open invitation.
Yeah.
We need to do as a nation
life and national security.
Were protecting around the world?
There are numerous interests.
Ice is changing.
Areas of exploration
for rare earth minerals.
It's opportunity.
And although all of us
are in national security,
the rest of the city is in business.
The incessant quest
for resource extraction
has brought us to this dystopian present,
Pillaging to the last drop.
Only way the US military
is trashing the planet.
Hello?
Hey, Nate.
Hello. Hello.
Just, like, count to ten.
Uh, yeah. One. Two.
Three... and the USS Detroit.
I joined the Navy in 2000...
I was on the USS Comstock 2019 to...
Control technician 3rd Class
on the USS Providence...
I started my career as a Navy diver...
Over in Afghanistan I was
stationed on F.O.B. Sharana.
Im an E5 corpsman the
Navy active duty... Well...
the Navy processes plastic at sea?
No, please tell us.
Okay, so, we stuff it in this machine
and then it gets real hot
and it compresses it down
to about one-inch thick hockey puck
but it's the size of a large pizza.
For months and months
everybody takes
their deal carrying it off.
If we don't hit port, we
throw it in the ocean.
Hundreds of them.
You know if you ask a Navy spokesperson,
Everything gets brought back to port
and recycled and disposed of.
But youre saying thats
clearly not the case.
Not when I was in.
So this was a pretty frequent thing?
Oh, yeah. It was common.
You know, everyone kind of accepted it.
Trash.
Bye, motherfucker. Bye.
Thats how you dispose the trash.
You just throw it off the back.
As quote-unquote night ops.
so much trash off the fantail
that sharks would
start following our wake.
Just a blatant disregard for the ocean.
I got out of the Navy
and I hear about this
huge patch a garbage in the ocean.
You know, I had to
have contributed to that.
All the nonsense we tossed... like...
it does make me physically ill.
Has to do with ordinance disposal.
They're going to toss out ammo
for the United States Army
and blow it up there on site.
That's the use it or lose it policy.
So just so I'm
understanding this correctly.
To a forward operating base.
They bring a big supply of bullets,
grenades, everything.
Whatever they don't use, it back with them
when they return to the main base,
it's just blown up in the field.
Yeah. You dispose of it by blowing it up.
It just is kind of like
a self-feeding cycle.
That you were a lot of that year,
amount back the next year.
The environmental impacts
of just blowing all of this shit up?
They didnt really tell you anything.
Impact of detonating munitions,
hey, we were here for 20 years.
times that happened a year.
Where it snows, it rains,
That runs off into
water supplies, Im sure.
That's like something that's like
really kind of like out
of your mind at the time.
...Yeah.
Infatuated with the explosion
actual ecological impact.
[Music]
There's always money for war.
There's always money for war.
And the bullets and the guns.
There's always money for war.
Well, you say the pot is empty.
Empty.
Well, you say there's nothing left.
Nothing left.
But these weapons are expensive.
You got money for them.
And when you blow up people's houses.
Houses.
What you think they're gonna do?
Gonna do.
Come looking for salvation.
They'll be looking at you.
There's just money for war.
There's always money for war.
And bullets and the guns.
There's always money for war.
Well, you take me to the arms fair.
Arms fair.
Try to show me that it's right.
That its right.
For the people making profit
at the cost of people's lives.
When you wanna fix a problem,
Gotta fix it at the cause.
Maybe we stop building weapons.
Maybe we'll stop starting wars.
Fire in the hole!
Cyber Conference in Washington, DC.
That takes place here every year
in the nation's capital
the military gets together
to strengthen their relationship
and, of course, do some shopping.
Of the military industrial complex
that most Americans never get to see
even though they're paying for it.
Alright, let's walk through the expo hall.
Defense contractors sponsoring this event:
Boeing, Lockheed Martin, GE,
Bae Systems, General Dynamics.
Lot of defense contractors here.
Gonna go get some stickers
from Lockheed Martin.
Rolls-Royce.
The hell is that about?
We got some direct energy weapons.
I didn't know Rolls-Royce did lasers.
News to me.
That's where all our money's going.
All right, go ahead and fire missile here.
...Woah Here's one.
And there's the other guy.
See if we got the kill?
We did.
So victory roll.
There you go.
Wow.
That was crazy.
How much does one of those run?
Theyre going to be somewhere
around 80 million dollars.
I can get you the family
rate if youre interested.
It sounds like a very interesting piece.
A documentary on climate change?
And the impact the defense
industry is having on it?
Well I mean, its uhhh... for
a documentary, ya know...
I would say that... its...
Im just trying to think, uh...
It sounds to me like its complicated...
much more of a political piece.
Its sounds to me like its
more of a political piece of sorts.
Correct?
I mean, everythings political. Isnt it?
I mean youre a defense contractor, right?
Youre a defense contractor.
Lets be honest.
You sell weapons that kill people, right?
Thats as political as it
gets... O say can you see,
by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed
at the twilight's last gleaming.
Whose broad stripes and bright stars
through the perilous fight.
O'er the ramparts we watched
were so gallantly streaming.
And the rockets red glare,
the bombs bursting in air
the bombs bursting in air
the bombs bursting in air
the bombs bursting in air
the bombs bursting in air
the bombs bursting in air...
the bombs...
so many bombs and bullets,
cancers and birth defects
right after the bombing stops.
These children have been
exposed to tungsten, chromium.
These things culminate
in children that have birth defects,
specifically congenital heart defects
much everywhere we look.
Our studies have been
in five different cities
Basra, Fallujah, Hawija,
now Syria and Baghdad.
We have collected samples from children:
tooth samples, hair
samples, blood samples,
Thirty-two million people in Iraq,
nobody has been untouched.
How will I ever return
to... where I am from...
when it is ruled by the gun?
When it is ruled by the gun.
Bombs and bullets and grenades and
all the weaponry that
has been used in Iraq.
Sprayed into the environment.
That end up in the air.
Into the water, into the food.
People consume it.
They breathe it in.
And this is one source
of pollution of war,
and Afghanistan, of
them have been released
into these environments.
For every person killed
in Iraq and Afghanistan,
more than 250,000 bullets have been used.
Depleted uranium and when they explode,
into the air and food and water
and people continue to be exposed to it.
I want to ask about a specific place.
I actually spent time in Hawija,
I was on this firebase,
munitions being traded.
Damn.
Shit.
I cant breathe.
What have you found
in Hawija specifically?
Children with congenital defects
have large amounts of
titanium in their hair samples.
Is that it has also been found
who lived on US military bases.
It's linking the two
population with this metal.
We are all connected in such a deep way.
These bombings and this destruction
has been an attack on
humanity in a big way,
It is heartbreaking to see all of that
under such assault and then left to rot.
Im gonna grab the door real quick.
Hello.
What's going on, man? Glad you made it.
This is Riccy. This is Mozhgan.
Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you as well.
We can put you to work.
To see the Mozghan interview
because it's so important for us to, like,
really look back at what the impact of
on Iraq and Afghanistan.
To know that, like, permanent
change to the landscape.
Like a permanent footprint.
Yeah, we left a permanent footprint.
Yeah.
I was in southern Helmand Province.
When I first came back from Afghanistan
in this super-isolated
bubble anything that I thought
me a panic attack.
And express myself that
way and get all that stuff out.
Look at the horrors of war,
to have to acknowledge it
Devour our youth.
Whom we once were,
spit us out to be forgotten.
My dad I think wrote one in here.
Coming to your fucking aid.
My dad always told me all the time.
Marine infantryman?
Yeah.
On the naval hospital there
I was about four.
I was in the hospital.
Me and my cousin Keith,
running up and down the hallway
waiting for our younger cousin to be born.
I recall we went in, saw
him, and he had passed away.
He was a stillbirth.
That's like one of my
earliest memories that I have
I probably didn't really
have a real understanding
of like life and death
I just knew that he wasn't going to be
with us or whatever.
That's a wild first memory.
Yeah, sucks man.
My name is Kim Ann Callan
and my parents came to the base in 1956
and I was in utero in 1957 on the base.
I was a sickly child.
I was in and out of
hospitals for unknown stuff
through my life.
I have a half brother.
He was born mentally handicapped
with cleft palate and
epilepsy and non-verbal
chronic lymphocytic leukemia.
Was connected to Camp
Lejeune until much later.
And seeing, like, the cleft palate
and some of the things that Peter had,
there was no doubt that the things
that my family had gone through
were directly related to the
toxic water at Camp Lejeune.
My whole family's been affected by this.
I go from anger to crying in frustration
because it's just such an emotional issue
for all of us,
especially those of us
who have lost people
and there's been a lot of people we lost.
Water contamination
event in American history,
impacting up to a million people.
Dumped toxic waste for decades,
which ended up in drinking water wells.
When tests confirmed that
the wells were poisonous,
they covered it up,
of their own service members for years.
While they were out in the field
and everybody on base was drinking it.
They were bathing children in that water,
making their formula out of that water.
That was going right
into the babys system.
It was especially
toxic to babies in utero,
their immune systems not develop
and so they're really the most vulnerable.
Hence, all the dead babies.
Marine Corps base is a cemetery.
Who died from the water contamination
that it's known to locals as baby heaven.
To this day,
the military has not
conducted a formal study
to account for all the children who died.
Kim: Wow.
Kim has spent the last 15 years
trying to do what the military will not.
So far, she's compiled
a list of over 1000 babies
who died during the toxic
water on Camp Lejeune.
Thirty just here.
Forty-five.
Maroska family lost two
and they should be in this section.
Twins.
I was born in January of 58
so I am the baby that survived
to help tell the story
of all those babies.
Here they are.
Oh, shit.
This family...
Suzy.
Born and died March 1st, 1963.
Lucy.
Born and died February 16th, 1966.
Judy.
Born and died February 17, 1970.
At least they have each other.
Really believes that in our lifetime
see any justice come from this.
Just waiting for them to die
so they don't have to take responsibility
They still have done
nothing to inform the people.
I carry around in my wallet,
Whenever I talk to someone who's military
and I say, do you know
about Camp Lejeune?
and I hand them one of these cards.
We did this.
Military doesn't do anything.
Us uncovering more people.
Going into this,
I had a whole different
vision of the military
and I had lot of respect for the military
until I knew.
Government or the military anymore.
I dont.
The people that served?
That's who we're fighting for.
The military...
can go to hell.
Camp Lejeune is just
the tip of the iceberg.
There are several dozen bases
uh, that registered
groundwater contamination levels
much, much higher than Camp Lejeune.
I've tested more than 400
locations at military bases
in the United States, Europe and Asia
and I have documented contamination
flowing from each of those locations.
I have a dock out there
directly across from the
River Naval Air Station,
The base runs all the
way past this radar station,
all the way up the coast
and it is the source of the contamination
washing up on my beach.
I grew oysters for 13 years
until I put two and two together
by testing the oysters,
realizing I've been
consuming poisonous oysters.
This came to me.
Id say that there are four
categories of contamination
that we see at military bases.
One is pesticides and herbicides.
The most deadly by far is Agent Orange.
The contamination is still there.
Agent orange is still killing people.
Another category is radiation.
There's tremendous level
of nuclear contamination
across the country as a result
of reckless military activities.
The radiation continues to kill people
and many are oblivious to the threat.
The third prong is volatile
organic compounds.
That handles equipment
like tanks or F-35s
that needs maintenance,
then you'll see that these
volatile organic compounds
are present in the groundwater.
There is a myriad of VOCs.
Four of the most deadly that we see are
used in cleaning engine parts daily.
Like Pandora's box, We've opened it.
We can't get them back.
The fourth category that's
in a league of its own is PFAs
and they have tremendous
military applications.
At every military base to human beings.
One teaspoon of the foam can contaminate
a mid-sized city's
drinking water reservoir.
It just doesn't go away.
We don't know how to get rid of it.
We are in trouble.
Together they create a fantastic cocktail
of deathly contamination
the United States military is unchecked.
And they have no one watching over them.
I live right where Cape Canaveral is,
so Patrick Space Force Base,
Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
My uncle was diagnosed with cancer.
Then my little brother
was diagnosed with cancer.
I was diagnosed with cancer
and then my father was
diagnosed with cancer.
So in my medical records it's documented
that this is likely
environmentally caused.
We had genetic testing done.
It showed no mutation genes.
And you never think when
you're getting a glass of
water out of your faucet
that it's going to be unsafe.
And it is the ultimate betrayal
is poisoning our own people.
Our people welcome the military.
Of our contributions,
are some of the most highly
contaminated population on the planet.
I started noticing a lot of cancers
seen before in our people.
They abandoned everything.
PCBs, lubricants, pesticides.
Into our lands and waters.
Reproductive-age men and women.
We will be no more Yupik people.
My grandson, my granddaughters
to continue to be a Sivuqaq Yupik people.
The Navy came in
where a lot of black folks
migrated from the southern states;
they employed these folks to sandblast
the radioactive waste from their ships.
These barrels of radioactive
contaminated waste are still here,
buried right up under us.
Emergency room growing up.
We grew up where cancer was normal.
The high rates of miscarriages are normal.
Neurological disorders are normal.
(Environmental Protection Agency)
and they have falsified documents
and stating that, everything was safe.
What are they willing to do?
Absolutely nothing.
And that's just really what it is.
The military overrules the government.
We are breathing, eating, and drinking
deadly contaminants and it is affecting us
and our progeny forever.
But I haven't really addressed
the potential for disaster.
Everywhere we look
There's the storage of these contaminants,
these ticking time bombs.
In 2021, In 2021, jet fuel
from decayed storage tanks.
It's seeped into the drinking water wells
used by military families.
With toxic water...
and four times as wide
holds 12 millions gallons of fuel.
20 of these sit under Red Hill
and over time, 19 have leaked.
Oahu's main source of fresh drinking water
sits just below these tanks.
Hawaii water officials begged the Navy
to decommission these tanks for years
poison their main aquifer.
We cannot wait any longer.
The water resources is precious.
Operating procedure were
their own service members.
Were their own service members.
High-risk pregnant wife
you can use the water.
Go away.
Go Home!
You dont care about the people here.
Were going to recess for five minutes
and if we can get this under control
well come back and we
will take these questions.
Here we go...
and our Gods and our people
by Mele and chants and songs and dances.
To have somebody polluting my water
where I raise my kids...
This is important to me
and the future generations of my family.
These Navy folks, and
Lieutenants and Captains
they leave.
Theyre temporary.
This is our home.
This is the norm for Hawaiians
and destroying our home
128 years ago and the
longer they stay here
the more damage they do.
This whole ridge is Kapkak
or what they call Red Hill.
So this is where the tanks are?
They're inside this mountain.
You just see a ridge with trees on it.
And empire and the violence it does
is hidden in plain sight.
If you think of the US
Military in the Pacific
as a giant octopus
and Hawaii would be its head.
Other islands from Okinawa
Marshall Islands, American Samoa.
It all centers on Puu Loa
which most people know as Pearl Harbor.
Complex of fish ponds
and agricultural production on Oahu.
With saltwater productive
ecosystems in the world.
And were able to manage it
in a sustainable way to feed their people
So this is the food basket of Oahu.
Fast forward to the late 1870s
this is the key to the
central Pacific Ocean.
Hawaii is a sovereign
country that was taken over,
occupied by the US, for a military base
across the Pacific.
American youth are
taught the great tragedy
of the Pearl Harbor attacks.
Happened decades earlier.
Food source was turned into
a parking lot and fuel dump.
Don't eat the fish.
now a Superfund site,
That's the dramatic transformation
The complete destruction of Pearl Harbor
environmental crimes.
The latest reports lists
military contamination
sites in the islands.
That's assaulted, many
times the size of Oahu,
are designated military zones
and bombarded year round.
A habitable planet rests
on the health of our oceans.
To that complex system.
But the ocean is a realm of sound
a fragile symphony.
And live munitions,
the Navy is constantly flying growlers
among the world's loudest aircraft
biggest fleet of aircraft carriers.
They also utilize high power sonar,
across more than 70%
of the world's oceans,
which is not just disruptive, but deadly.
Creating hemorrhaging of the brain.
The Navy's invasion turns
the world of marine mammals
into a grinding hell.
Nursing, feeding and navigation collapse.
The Navy knows this,
millions of marine mammals every year,
that deems them endangered.
They're called takes
or disrupting survival behaviors,
and sometimes even direct killing.
(Observer) This is nuts, man.
(Observer) I think theyre
hurting these whales.
Own numbers in the latest
round of permits granted,
and testing for five years
across the Pacific and Atlantic oceans,
The Navy has an open
license for over 26 million
marine mammal takes.
The staggering number of
takes only includes mammals.
On the majority of ocean life,
shredded by these high decibel assaults.
The scale of these operations is massive.
The US Navy is global.
The world's oceans 24
hours a day, 7 days a week.
Dragging a wake of cacophony,
fire,
and chemicals, behind it.
For ocean life, it's not training.
It's constant, never-ending, war.
In this forever war on the
seas, wargames in the world
known as RimPac or, Rim of the Pacific.
29 countries under U.S. control,
devastating sea monster,
a couple dozen more heads.
Abby: Top Gun!
Go ahead and have refreshments
and well start shortly.
We're going to get started.
I'm going to bring the Admirals in.
Okay.
Hi. Hello, everybody.
Good afternoon.
To the USS Essex.
To be part of Rimpac 2022
with some of my friends here that you see.
The best, I think, ever.
To Abigail Martin.
Are measures in place of these exercises,
that there's actually significant impacts
endangered species, ecosystems.
Of RIMPAC exercises
outweigh this deadly environmental toll?
Umm... I dont know that
they outweigh, uh, the risk.
I would push back a little bit and say
I dont personal... I think
it has to be a balance.
We have to excecise, we have to train.
And make sure that were not doing harm.
When you guys are using
using live ammunition?
What you really think.
That has a huge environmental toll.
We have protocols that
all the ships have to respect
to prevent the use of things like sonar
or weapons systems in
proximity with marine animals.
Sightings may occur at any time,
actually looking at the water.
Bridge Sonar, dolphins
are sighted... Secure sonar!
One thing struck me about RimPac.
And ability to organize
so many nations to fight,
but not against the threat
that truly imperils us all.
For so many nations to get together
threat of environmental
collapse exacerbate the problem
to pollution and climate change?
Were doing here with RimPac,
is to build these capable,
adaptive partners,
that can help uphold
international norms and rules.
We are a rule of law organization.
Invading other countries.
That they're doing.
They're practicing
future wars, in Hawai'i.
First start to gestate those ideas.
But we also have to think about
of those bombs, those bullets.
This is not just expressed
as a training exercise.
A new wave of military bases
surrounding its next target,
which is also not so coincidentally,
its biggest economic competitor.
China. China, China.
A war with China
...against the pacing
challenge of China... China.
China.
China.
Against China.
China in particular.
China. China. China.
China...
495 miles from the coast of China,
was the Japanese jugular vein.
In American hands,
the first conquest of Japanese home soil,
an imperial prefecture.
So unique in its biodiversity?
We have 262 endangered species
living in this Henoko Oura Bay
That's in a tiny area,
about eight square miles.
So this is one of the
most biodiversity rich areas
in Japan, and in the world, I think.
The dugong is a cultural icon
Also, this is an endangered species,
and so for Okinawan people
the dugongs are very, very important.
As an endangered species
blue coral in the Oura Bay.
It's about 17m in height,
so it's one of the largest, blue corals.
How pristine this area has been.
In order to build a military base here,
they have to landfill
this beautiful ocean.
Being here in Okinawa, Camp Schwab
its a lot different than Camp Pendleton
The water, you can
just tell its different.
The obstacles... that
are out in the water,
the coral, that we dont
have back at Pendleton.
Is an exercise in absurdity
and pure destruction.
Is being raised
to access the rocks and dirt underneath.
Best part about it is
blowing everything up.
Sky high.
is removed layer by layer
and taken away in dump trucks.
Line the street, delivering
the forest floor to a port,
where it's broken down into
gravel, loaded onto ships,
then taken out to the bay,
where it's dumped, load after load,
to the bottom of the sea.
Danny Tamaki, to learn more.
This is so stupid and
completely unrelated to security,
sacrificing nature for an obsolete idea.
Official in Okinawa, you
are the elected governor,
environmental investigations
of base contamination,
to stop this new base construction,
overwhelming rejection for this.
Despite my disapproval as governor,
rather than to accept it,
they have been trying
to apply different laws
in order to take away my authority.
Stop the Henoko Landfill!
have been exhausted,
fighting to slow every step
in the chain of construction.
[Police] Watch out! Watch out!
A truck is coming!
In order to slow down and reduce
the amount of sediment
being carried to Henoko,
we are walking as slowly as possible.
How long have you been doing this?
Me, for 3 and a half years.
The Slower the Better - Gandhi
[Police] Please cross the
road faster! Faster please!
Why dont you stop it!
Japan is a vassal state
of the United States.
If you resist the U.S. military too much,
the Japanese government will react.
This is a reaction FOR the U.S. military.
Stop the new base construction!
Stop destroying Okinawa!
Destroyer of Okinawa, get out!
I want to raise awareness far and wide.
For that, I continue to raise my voice.
I might get caught and put in jail again.
But that does not stop me.
Let's go! Let's go! Let's go!
What in the world, you Americans,
come all the way over here
across the Pacific Ocean,
and destroy this tiny island of ours?
What make you think that you are entitled
to mess up our one and only island?
Return Okinawa back to us.
This island is ours.
Not American's. Not the U.S. Marine's.
This is our land.
Please... Get out.
A ship loaded with landfill material
is entering to the Oura Bay now.
We are going to protest against it now.
Its all base on the other side, right?
Yeah, over that concrete wall.
We are already in a restricted area.
This is why these guys are
following us as a warning.
Coast Guard.
Theyre filming us.
In order to cover up their identity.
We call him "Tecchan."
It has to turn around in this area.
This Henoko base construction
has been told to stop
over and over again by the
Okinawan Prefectural government,
for it is an illegal construction.
Tiny island, invisible on your map!
Please protect all our oceans together.
Did you see three canoes advanced?
Two out of three seems
to be able to get in.
Oh look, hes climbing on.
Hes climbing over.
They are determined to protest.
[Coast guard] Stop going
over the bouy immediately!
Shes getting pulled out by the police.
[Coast Guard] All canoe
members have been detained.
Everybody activate their camera.
All of the machines on this side?
On guard over the machines.
Is this target practice?
Fuck.
They have the subject in custody?
Call me on my cell phone.
Call me on my cell phone.
What do we learn from this autopsy?
The wounds to the legs are consistent
with Manuel sitting down, cross-legged
hands raised when killed.
The destruction of the Weelaunee Forest.
This Atlanta urban
forest is being sacrificed
to build what is called a Cop City.
Since the uprisings of 2020,
these urban warfare training centers
have broken ground in almost every state.
They say it's the next step
in training a new generation of officers.
It's the culmination of
decades of police militarization.
Authorized the Pentagon
equipment to local police.
Middletown now has an MRAP,
Mine-Resistant Armored Protected Vehicle.
Look at this beast right
here going to highway Patrol.
We've seen how it's used.
Hey, wave goodbye. Theyre
all about to get gassed.
I cant breathe!
Military-style weapons
pointed at protesters.
We're trapped!
They just keep coming.
Light em up!
[Screaming]
a military presence.
Big plan for the climate crisis.
Hug a tree!
We all hug trees!
The US military has driven
the destruction of the planet
as a battering ram
for resource extraction.
Now that we face a future of scarcity,
disaster and instability,
they want more militarization
to protect the same
interests that brought us here.
Oil.
We have to have it.
Security concerns they're talking about.
Abroad and at home.
... a fucking war zone right here ...
In the years working on this film,
we were constantly confronted
with the sheer
overwhelming nature of it all.
The more we looked, the more it grew.
Each tentacle of
pollution splits off into more
fractals of destruction.
Taken in totality, an
immeasurable planetary impact
carried out by the most
powerful entity in history
blocking our final
chance to save the planet.
Truly, we are looking at
Earth's Greatest Enemy.
And when we thought we'd seen the worst,
we come to Gaza.
The most devastating ecocide
and genocide of our generation.
Only possible through American weapons
and political support.
The consequences will be
felt by everyone on Earth.
[Baby noises]
[Piano music]
Hi Gem!
What colors you want to pick out for this?
You did a peace sign.
That looks great.
You're very good at coloring.
Fox?
Fox: Cease Fire Now!
Come here.
Bye sweetie.
Bye Gem.
The fight against the war machine
and the fight to save the
planet is the same fight.
And linking these issues together
gives us more strength.
It's not an extreme idea to
shrink our bloated military
and to clean up its mess.
Society to get off fossil fuels now
wasted on the Pentagon
a sustainable place.
Against is not absolute.
Today it's going to move forward
Red Hill fuel tanks for good.
It has weaknesses.
We can get in its way.
We can disrupt it.
We can speak the truth.
We can organize ourselves.
And we can fight.
Back up!
Yo, back up!
Thats right!
Shame!
Shame!
Shame!
We can do what we can
and do what we can... together.
[Singing] Cease Fire Now!
Cease Fire Now!
Cease Fire Now!
Do yall want to take a deep breath.
One more.