How Militarization Impacts the Climate Crisis: A Global Perspective
Time: 12:30pm to 1:20pm
Location: HR MacMillan Building, Room 160 (2357 Main Mall)
No food and no drinks allowed in the seminar.
If you would like a Zoom link, please contact Bonnie Leung (bonnie.leung@ubc.ca) or Hannah Wittman (hannah.wittman@ubc.ca).
Talk summary:
In this talk I will provide an overview of collaborative research concerning the ways in which militarization, as a form of coercive power, contributes to anthropogenic carbon emissions for nations throughout the world. First, I will summarize research on the short-run and long-run effects of militarization on national carbon emissions. Second, I will describe research that focuses on how militarization shapes the effect of economic growth on nations’ carbon emissions. Third, I will summarize research on militarization facilitating and supporting transnational capital in Global North nations outsourcing their carbon pollution to Global South nations. Finally, I will summarize research which shows that very modest reductions in US Military Spending Could Lead to substantial reductions in the amount of Fossil Fuels consumed directly by the US Department of Defense.
Bio:
Andrew Jorgenson is a Professor of Sociology and Founding Director of the Climate & Society Lab at UBC. As an environmental sociologist trained in global political economy, he conducts research on the human dimensions of global and regional environmental change, with a focus on the societal causes and consequences of the climate crisis. His work appears in various disciplinary and interdisciplinary journals, including American Sociological Review, American Journal of Sociology, Social Problems, Nature Climate Change, Nature Communications, and Environmental Research Letters. He is coauthor of Super Polluters: Tackling the World’s Largest Sites of Climate-Disrupting Emissions, published by Columbia University Press.