Film Review: Earth’s Greatest Enemy
You may ask, who or what is Earth’s Greatest Enemy. Answer, the US military machine.
The film Earth’s Greatest Enemy makes an early attempt to put numbers on that machine’s greenhouse gas emissions – those from its vehicles (trucks, jeeps, tanks, planes, ships and submarines), from its bombs, missiles and gun powder… Plus emissions due to the building of all this. The numbers are huge, beyond our comprehension.
The most alarming factor about this monster is that, under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, military emissions are exempt from mandatory reporting and reduction commitments. That is, military emissions don’t figure in our planetary efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Film director Abby Martin is a brave journalist who has researched military contamination together with her husband, Mike Prysner, who served as a soldier in the US invasion of Iraq. Abby is currently in Australia for film shows around the country and to attend the Independent and Peaceful Australia Network Conference in Adelaide.
The documentary begins with footage of and interviews with homeless US war veterans living in tents on “Veterans Row” in Los Angeles. This was shocking to see, what followed was worse: the demolition of those tents by municipal bulldozers.
The film continues with many, too many, shocking examples of military technology upsetting humans (war victims in invaded countries and military personnel alike), as well as ecosystems and their creatures. We might say, everybody and everything. Here are some examples:
- polluted water at US bases across the US making military personnel sick and, notably, causing deaths of many newborn babies (Camp Lejeune Cemetery, North Carolina),
- destruction of mountain and forest in Okinawa to convert that into cement blocks to dump on the ocean floor for a US marine base, ruining coral reefs and ocean life in the process,
- the blowing up of a huge amount of unused ammunition in Afghanistan prior to the US withdrawal from that nation,
- devastation of the once pristine environment of Pearl Harbour in Hawaii. This is now the naval base for Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) military exercises.
- Navy activity and its pollution (all around the planet), from throwing rubbish overboard to its military sonar upsetting marine life.
- four serious contaminants besides carbon emissions spread around the areas of US military activity: PFAS, heavy metals, volatile organic compounds and radioactive materials.
It’s a powerful film and it’s devastating, but a must- see to inform ourselves about the US military machine, so that we might better join the debate about Australia’s alliance within AUKUS.
On a positive note, the documentary includes stories of activism against the war machine, such as the Japanese In Okinawa walking as — slow-ly –as– po-ss-ible in front of the long line of trucks carrying out the devastation of their island, and kayaking out towards the US base.
The film ends with Abby making a placard at home with the help of her young children, before she goes to a peace rally. She asks her four-year-old “what does the sign say?” and the child replies: CEASEFIRE NOW!
When Abby gets to the rally, a speaker there asks the small group to slow down and Breathe. Together. And again, Breathe.
Good advice…
Dylan Thomas:
Do not go gently into that good night…
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.