Pentagon Marks Earth Day 2022 with Push for Funding to Fight Local weather Change

The Division of Protection is utilizing Friday’s celebration of Earth Day to push for lowered vitality consumption throughout the army, in addition to encourage Congress to fund a raft of packages that will assist the company put together for and scale back its affect on local weather change.

Navy departments are being tasked with reviewing their vitality necessities within the subsequent 90 days for brand spanking new and current army packages, in keeping with a division memo launched Thursday, the day earlier than the annual environmental occasion.

“This initiative is important to aligning the Division’s capabilities with the Nationwide Protection Technique and making certain aggressive benefit within the present and future warfighting atmosphere,” stated Deputy Protection Secretary Kathleen Hicks in a press assertion.

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The brand new directive comes following the Pentagon’s price range request for fiscal 2023, which incorporates $2 billion for local weather resilience at army bases and $247 million for enhancing the vitality effectivity of fight methods. It additionally follows a serious United Nations local weather report from the start of April that provided a stark warning to the world if important steps to deal with local weather change will not be taken.

A Authorities Accountability Workplace report from February discovered that the DoD had absolutely carried out local weather resilience suggestions made in 2019 to fight future vulnerabilities to local weather change, however had not addressed steering from a 2017 report about insurance policies at abroad amenities. Not all army bases are ready for the long-term results of local weather change, a separate protection division inspector normal report on bases within the Arctic discovered.

Particular person providers are actively showcasing how they’ll make a distinction in opposition to local weather change. In February, the Army launched its first local weather technique, with the purpose of lowering its carbon footprint and making a fleet of electrical autos.

Army installations across the nation are internet hosting plenty of actions to mark this yr’s Earth Day. On the Yuma Proving Grounds in Arizona, a bunch of native college students helped with a brand new pilot venture to plant native crops and bushes across the set up.

“If we will do issues to assist make our surroundings a bit of higher for wildlife, we profit: We’re a part of the atmosphere, too,” stated Daniel Steward, YPG wildlife biologist, in an Army press launch.

However the Army is just not the one service looking for options to a quickly shifting local weather. Edwards Air Drive Base in California, is ready to finish a serious photo voltaic venture in 2022 that may add 520 megawatts of renewable electrical energy to the grid, in keeping with an Air Drive press launch. The Air Drive Analysis Laboratory can also be creating know-how that may convert photo voltaic vitality right into a radio frequency that can be utilized as a army energy supply. Each of those tasks could be important because the Air Drive is the most important gasoline shopper within the federal authorities.

Throughout the globe, sailors in Singapore with the Commander, Logistics Group Western/Job Drive 73, and Navy Sealift Command Far East participated in an Earth Day trash pickup occasion.

— Jonathan Lehrfeld is a fellow at Navy.com. Comply with him on Twitter @lehrfeld_media.

Associated: Army Lays Out Formidable Targets to Fight Local weather Change, Together with Electrical Tactical Autos

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