To Fight Fossil Imperialism, We Must Fight for the People of Gaza

The climate crisis is one of the largest existential and moral crises facing humankind. The destruction of the planet is a natural product of the destruction of the Global South. As extractionist companies and governments plunder and pillage countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East for natural resources, one thing has become clear: the colonial and imperial powers of our past haven’t slunk away in obscurity. Rather, these powers transformed, upholding their agendas through military pressure and forcing the international order to submit to their whims, at the expense of this planet’s wellbeing.

As it pertains to climate, the international community has let Western imperialist militaries off the hook. Nowhere is this clearer than in international climate agreements, which, while legally binding, bear no consequences for countries that fail to live up to their demands. The 1997 Kyoto Protocol — which aimed to set greenhouse gas (GHG) emission targets for industrialized countries — made exceptions for emissions caused by military activity. Internally, Pentagon officials argued that “the protocol would harm ‘military readiness’ with serious implications for military training, operations, and fuel use.” When it came time for the U.S. to ratify the Protocol, it died in the chambers of Congress. The U.S. revoked its signature in 2001. While the 2015 Paris Agreement, with its more stringent demands, stipulated voluntary reporting of military emissions, many countries, including the United States, refused and continue to refuse to do so. As a result, assessing the military industrial complex’s impact on climate change is difficult. However, the Conflict and Environment Observatory and the Scientists for Global Responsibility concur that military activity accounts for 5.5 percent of GHG emissions globally. While may appear but a drop in the global bucket, emissions of this magnitude mean that if the world’s militaries were a country, they would have the fourth largest carbon footprint in the world, only after India, the U.S., and China.

The damning environmental dimension of the genocide in Gaza particularly commands our attention as a generation seeking the end of the climate crisis and the goal of collective liberation. The IOF’s armed siege was responsible for an astounding 99% of emissions generated during the first 60 days post-October 7, according to the Guardian. Since then, researchers at Queen Mary, University of London have found that emissions generated during the first 120 days of the genocide “were greater than the annual emissions of 26 individual countries and territories.” Moreover, it’s evident that the environmental damage posed by Israel’s destructive military campaign won’t end with a ceasefire agreement. According to a 2024 UN Environmental Program report, unceasing Israeli bombardment has destroyed sewage, wastewater, and solid waste facilities in Gaza and likely contaminating agricultural land, in turn rupturing Palestinian’s access to consistent and nutritious food. Debris has contaminated areas with asbestos and other noxious chemicals. But even environmental analysis to understand the true scope of destruction relies on a permanent ceasefire, the withdrawal of troops, and the dismantling of Israeli apartheid.

For those of us in the imperial core, our complicity and the ways we have failed Gaza appear just as innumerable. This sobering reality, however, shouldn’t deter us from recognizing the role we play as organizers within the heart of the empire. If anything, it should inform the work we need to do.The mainstream climate movement has spent far too much time imploring governments to do something, anything, about the climate crisis. Those pleas have fallen on deaf ears. We’re fighting a crisis caused by people and institutions who would rather compromise the state of the Earth than give up their hegemonic grip. In spite of natural disasters, they would rather let people drown in Appalachia and homes burn in L.A. in favor of collaborating with war-mongering corporations and funding the U.S. and Israeli war machine. What is apparent is this: it is only through the destruction of existing colonial systems that we will be able to fight fossil imperialism; it is through fighting for the people of Gaza and their land that we will be able to effectively fight for the future of the Earth.