Earth’s greatest enemy has an address.
Abby Martin says the U.S. military is the world’s biggest institutional polluter. It is left out of climate deals. It runs hundreds of bases. Its wars send smoke, dust, and chemicals across borders.
Double Down News video, 31 Aug 2026, and the film Earth’s Greatest Enemy. Watch: youtube.com/watch?v=5IIlpN67l6o
1. It burns fuel like a country
The Pentagon buys huge amounts of oil. Martin uses a figure of about 270,000 barrels a day. That is only the fuel on paper.
It does not count mining, weapons plants, tanker flights, or rebuilding bombed cities. Direct military emissions already rival many nations. The real total is higher.
2. Bases poison water
A base is not just a pin on a map. It is a chemical site.
For decades the military used firefighting foam with PFAS, or “forever chemicals.” These chemicals stay in water and in bodies. Testing keeps finding more sites. Cleanup is slow and costly.
This is not only overseas. Camp Lejeune is one U.S. example. Veterans, families, and neighbors drink what ran off runways.
Other harm is old and still unpaid:
- Agent Orange
- nuclear tests
- burn pits
- leftover bombs and bullets
- dust from destroyed buildings
3. War is also pollution
Martin ties the film to Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran. Bombs turn cities into dust. Strikes on fuel sites send smoke into the air. That pollution does not stop at a border.
Climate talks can focus on household recycling while a war dumps a year’s damage in a week.
You cannot make an oil empire “green” and still run it on oil and force.
4. The climate books were cooked
In 1997, the U.S. pushed to keep military emissions out of the Kyoto rules. That hole was never fully closed.
So a country can look cleaner on paper while its war system stays huge. Solar panels on a base do not change that.
5. “Green military” is a story
Hybrid vehicles and base solar are real. They are also cover. The budget still grows. Munitions still get wasted to justify next year’s money.
“Climate security” often means more control of oil, sea lanes, and the Arctic. That is not the same as cutting the war machine.
6. Most coverage is too close
Martin got into contractor events and military panels as a journalist. She says the reporters in those rooms ask product questions, not basic ones: Why does this exist? Who pays the poison bill?
AXJ’s job is the opposite: report without needing a badge from the institution being watched.
7. People, not the enlisted, are the point
Soldiers are not the target. They drink the water too. They come home sick too.
So do civilians next to bases and civilians under the bombs. A peace politics that cannot count those lives is not peace.
8. What AXJ can do
Peace is empty if the land is a dump and the sky is a flight path.
- Name the base, depot, or plant in your county.
- Ask about PFAS, wells, and Superfund status.
- Talk to veterans and spouses about water and burn pits.
- Watch cleanup money versus weapons money.
- Do not call it climate action if aircraft, bases, and wars are off limits.
Check claims against EWG PFAS maps, GAO cleanup reports, Brown University Costs of War, and DoD environmental files. Film stories are Martin’s reporting until confirmed elsewhere. Film site: earthsgreatestenemy.com