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Articles by Patrick Bigger
Ecocide in Gaza – Israel’s Other War Crime
Note from our Editor-in-Chief: NextWednesday marks three years since the horrific October 7 attack on Israel and the Israeli genocide in Gaza that followed. We’re planning a full week of coverage, including reported pieces, essays and interviews, as well as an in-depth monologue from me that you won’t want to miss. If you’re not already a paid subscriber,become one today to get full access to all of Zeteo UK’s October 7 coverage and more. – Mehdi An Israeli tank at the Gaza border, March 19, 2024.
Fire Sale - Dissent Magazine
Fire Sale In the aftermath of the Eaton and Palisades fires, housing could have been stabilized and tenants could have been protected. But the private market won. An L.A. County Fire Department firefighter sprays water as a school burns during the Eaton Fire on January 8, 2025 in Altadena, California. (Mario Tama/Getty Images) When the Eaton and Palisades fires tore through Los Angeles in January 2025, they did so on a scale the city had never before endured.
Climate Action and Affordability Are Not Opposed
Interview by Alyssa Battistoni Climate policy has long been framed as a trade-off between protecting the environment and protecting jobs. At a moment when affordability and the cost of living have become major political issues, this raises new challenges and opportunities for the climate left. The Trump administration has tried to frame renewable energy as expensive and unreliable, arguing that the United States needs to double down on fossil fuels to keep costs down. But it’s not just Trump.
Global Green Attitudes Survey 2025 - Our latest global poll finds…
Eight in 10 people prioritise protecting natural resources over economic growth 84% of people globallywould choose stronger environmental protection even at the cost of slowed economic growth, according to a new survey published by the Green Economy Coalition and polling firm Savanta. And – contrary to many established narratives – demand for green action is considerably stronger in poorer countries than wealthier ones.
Three Dimensions of Militarism in the Climate Crisis
Environment • November 17, 2025 • War, famously, is the pursuit of politics by other means. Cliche though it may be, the impacts of war and militarism are often overlooked by social movements focusing on formal political processes. And this is understandable: we cannot always have our minds on military spending and the structural conditions that reinforce the highly militarized, violent realities we are collectively living through.
Militarisation in a warming world
As climate breakdown accelerates, governments across Europe and North America are announcing what they call a “generational investment” in security. But instead of transforming economies to tackle the climate crisis, they are funnelling public wealth into weapons, surveillance, and military expansion. This is not a green transition — it is militarisation: the reorganisation of entire economies around defence industries and geopolitical competition.
Patrick Bigger, Author at ZNetwork
ZNetwork reached millions, published 800 originals, and amplified movements worldwide in 2024 – all without ads, paywalls, or corporate funding. Read our annual report here. Now, we need your support to keep radical, independent media growing in 2025 and beyond. Every donation helps us build vision and strategy for liberation.
All Guns and No Butter on a Burning Planet
In the wake of World War II, the United States crowned itself leader of the Western world through persuasion and coercion. Massive transfers of US aid helped stave off the prospect of Communist governments in Western Europe, while the deployment of American troops and materiel ensured European participation in a US-led military order. Today, Washington seeks to redraw the terms of imperial governance.
All Guns and No Butter on a Burning Planet
In the wake of World War II, the United States crowned itself leader of the Western world through persuasion and coercion. Massive transfers of US aid helped stave off the prospect of Communist governments in Western Europe, while the deployment of American troops and materiel ensured European participation in a US-led military order. Today, Washington seeks to redraw the terms of imperial governance.
The Three Dimensions of Militarism in the Climate Crisis
Donetsk Outskirts, Buffer Zone, Donbass, Ukraine. February 23, 2024. After two years of relentless high-intensity combat from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the landscape is a scorched wasteland. Once fertile and vibrant with homes, farms, gardens, and wildlife, it now lies blackened and desolate. © Gaelle Girbes War, famously, is the pursuit of politics by other means.
Ceasefire Now, Ceasefire Forever
by Patrick Bigger, Batul Hassan, Salma Elmallah, Seth J. Prins, J. Mijin Cha, Malini Ranganathan, Thomas M. Hanna, Daniel Aldana Cohen, Johanna Bozuwa December 13, 2023 An immediate, permanent ceasefire and end to all occupation and apartheid is the only viable path forward for lasting peace, security, and survival of people and ecosystems through the climate crisis.
A Dangerous Debt-Climate Nexus
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Fighting Fire and Fascism in the American West
Late in the summer of 2020, forests across the western United States were on fire. In that year alone, California experienced six of the twenty largest fires in its recorded history, including the North Complex Fire, which killed sixteen people and burned more than 300,000 acres. Further north, the Beachie Creek and Lionshead fires merged near the Oregon-Washington border, ultimately burning more than 600 square miles (an area roughly half the size of Rhode Island) and killing five people.
Feasibility Pact? | Patrick Bigger & Federico Sibaja
A brewing sovereign debt crisis threatens to engulf as many as sixty-one countries in debt distress over the coming year. Aid flowing from the global North—which carries the most responsibility for the atmospheric carbon stock—to the global South—which bears the brunt of its impacts—must be dramatically scaled up.
Fascists Are Using The Climate Crisis To Push Their Agenda
Ecological crisis, rural deindustrialization, and real estate speculation have created conditions in which the far right thrives. by Patrick Bigger and Sara Nelson, Dissent Late in the summer of 2020, forests across the western United States were on fire. In that year alone, California experienced six of the twenty largest fires in its recorded history, including the North Complex Fire, which killed sixteen people and burned more than 300,000 acres.
Fighting Fire and Fascism in the American West
Fighting Fire and Fascism in the American West Ecological crisis, rural deindustrialization, and real estate speculation have created conditions in which the far right thrives. and ▪ Spring 2023 Late in the summer of 2020, forests across the western United States were on fire. In that year alone, California experienced six of the twenty largest fires in its recorded history, including the North Complex Fire, which killed sixteen people and burned more than 300,000 acres.
Activists Gather to Advance Solidarity Economy Organizing
The gathering was titled Building Worker Power through Solidarity, Cooperation and Care. Organized by the Labor Center at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Wellspring Cooperative, a worker co-op network based in nearby Springfield, the conference set to develop deeper ties between unions and worker co-ops—and to advance organizing for a solidarity economy.
Fixing the Forests Problem in the US
This is the fifth article from A Green New Deal on the Ground, a series produced with Climate and Community Project, a progressive climate policy think tank developing cutting-edge research at the climate and inequality nexus.
The Fight Against Cop City
The Fight Against Cop City The protests in Atlanta build on a history of organizers challenging prison construction as a force for environmental destruction. Amna A. Akbar ▪ Spring 2023 On Saturday, March 4, I arrived at Intrenchment Creek Park in DeKalb County, Georgia, for the first day of a week of action against a $90 million construction project undertaken by the Atlanta Police Foundation—a private entity, backed by local CEOs and political leaders, that advances police interests.
Fighting Fire and Fascism in the American West
Fighting Fire and Fascism in the American West Ecological crisis, rural deindustrialization, and real estate speculation have created conditions in which the far right thrives. Patrick Bigger and Sara Nelson ▪ Spring 2023 Late in the summer of 2020, forests across the western United States were on fire.
The End of the Cold Peace | The Polycrisis
Watch the Korean Peninsula. It is in South Korea that the New Cold War has most visibly upset the delicate balance between industry, security, and domestic politics. South Korea’s growth miracle has been based on deterrence and detente between China, its main trading partner; the United States, its ally and security guarantor; and North Korea, its neighbor with newly developed intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Stranded Assets and Stranded Countries | The Polycrisis
This is the eleventh edition of The Polycrisis newsletter, written by Kate Mackenzie and Tim Sahay. Subscribe here to get it in your inbox. The US routinely flouts its international climate financing commitments, rarely delivering on its promises. Last year, for example, Congress proposed just over $1 billion—or less than a tenth of its pledge in the annual budget.
Memo: Debt and Ecological Crises
A series of briefings looking at financial mechanisms that (in theory) support climate action and biodiversity conservation in the midst of a new debt crisis. Debt for Environment Swaps by Patrick Bigger December 2022 Debt swaps aim to alleviate these pressures by offering some level of debt relief in return for commitments to devote freed up financial resources toward achieving environmental objectives.
Just Disaster Response
Considering a Green New Deal approach to disaster in the wake of Hurricanes Ian and Fiona in 2022 by Johanna Bozuwa, Batul Hassan, Sarah Knuth, and Patrick Bigger The 2022 hurricane season exposes the trend of increasing extreme weather due to the climate crisis. Scientists cataloged six named storms, four hurricanes and two major hurricanes. Hurricane Fiona doused Puerto Rico in 30 inches of rain and took out the island’s entire grid.
Forests: High Roads to Resilience
California wildfires are emblematic of the climate crisis and a harbinger of a dangerous future. The stakes could not be higher for communities across California, and the US West: in addition to the existential risks and air quality impacts posed by severe wildfire, functional forest ecosystems are critical for regulating water supplies and trapping carbon dioxide.
The Global South Is Calling for Climate Reparations
Last year, at the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley addressed an assembly of world leaders on the state of international climate action. Her message: “Try harder.” She condemned the failure of wealthier nations to deliver the resources that poorer, climate-vulnerable countries need to adapt to a warming world.
Debt Justice For Climate Reparations
The world faces twin debt crises. On the one hand, a well-publicized financial debt crisis looms for countries across the Global South, limiting governments’ ability to take public health action, alleviate poverty, adapt to a warming world, or pursue ambitious low-carbon development.
Biodiversity targets will not be met without debt and tax justice - Nature Ecology & Evolution
Approaches to financing biodiversity conservation tend to focus on funding gaps, but fail to address underlying political and economic drivers. We propose two strategies — tax reform and debt justice — to supercharge public financing for biodiversity and deflate harmful financial flows, while chipping away at the causes of state austerity. A prominent explanation for international failure to progress on biodiversity targets has been a lack of financial resources1,2,3.
From the Ashes of the Old: A New Deal for Wildland Firefighters
From the Ashes of the Old: A New Deal for Wildland Firefighters A massive overhaul and expansion of the wildland workforce is the best hope we have to confront the firestorm that threatens to engulf the West Coast. ▪ Spring 2021 Last summer, the fires creeping up from Salem, Oregon, and the base of the Cascades colored Portland’s skies a sickly red.
Beyond The Gap: Placing Biodiversity Finance in the Global Economy
Figur Figur Figur Figur Figure 8: Shar e 8: Shar e 8: Shar e 8: Shar e 8: Share of certified f e of certified f e of certified f e of certified f e of certified for or or or ores es es es est ar t ar t ar t ar t area, b ea, b ea, b ea, b ea, by r y r y r y r y region, 2017. egion, 2017. egion, 2017. egion, 2017. egion, 2017. 333 …
Intimate Mediations of For‐Profit Conservation Finance: Waste, Improvement, and Accumulation
Paper Jessica Dempsey Corresponding Author E-mail address: jessica.dempsey@geog.ubc.ca Department of Geography, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada Search for more papers by this author Patrick Bigger Corresponding Author E-mail address: p.bigger@lancaster.ac.uk Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK Search for more papers by this author Abstract How to understand the marriage between accumulation and conservation?
Why We Can’t Ignore U.S. Military Emissions
Why you can trust us By Benjamin Neimark & Oliver Belcher & Patrick Bigger 3 MIN READ Jul 6, 2019 The U.S. military’s carbon footprint is bigger than 140 countries combined. To seriously address climate catastrophe, we must dismantle its vast infrastructure. The U.S. military’s carbon bootprint is enormous.
Green Structural Adjustment in the World Bank’s Resilient City
According to an increasingly prevalent set of discourses and practices within environmental and development finance, cities across the Global South are facing a costly infrastructural crisis stemming from rapid urbanization and climate change that threatens to further entrench poverty and precarity for millions of people. The cost of achieving urban resilience across the world dwarfs available public finance, however, from both development banks and governments themselves.
The U.S. military is not sustainable
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Hidden carbon costs of the “everywhere war”: Logistics, geopolitical ecology, and the carbon boot‐print of the US military
REGULAR PAPER Oliver Belcher Corresponding Author E-mail address: oliver.belcher@durham.ac.uk https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0239-8705 Department of Geography, Durham University, Durham, UK Correspondence Oliver Belcher Email: oliver.belcher@durham.ac.uk Search for more papers by this author PDF PDF ShareShare Abstract This paper examines the US military's impact on climate by analysing the geopolitical ecology of its global logistical supply chains.
El ejército de Estados Unidos contamina más que 140 países: se impone reducir esta maquinaria de guerra
07/07/201904/07/2019 Las fuerzas militares de los Estados Unidos dejan una huella de carbono inmensa. Al igual que las cadenas de suministro empresariales, utilizan una amplia red mundial de buques portacontenedores, camiones y aviones de carga para abastecer sus operaciones de todo lo necesario, desde bombas hasta ayuda humanitaria e hidrocarburos. Nuestro nuevo estudio calculó la contribución de esta descomunal infraestructura al cambio climático.
Why We Can't Ignore U.S. Military Emissions
The U.S. military's carbon bootprint is enormous. Like corporate supply chains, it relies upon an extensive global network of container ships, trucks, and cargo planes to supply its operations with everything from bombs to humanitarian aid and hydrocarbon fuels. Our new study calculated the contribution of this vast infrastructure to climate change.
US military is a bigger polluter than 140 countries. The war machine has to be shrunk
Representational image of US Army personnel. Source: Pixabay Text Size: The US military’s carbon bootprint is enormous. Like corporate supply chains, it relies upon an extensive global network of container ships, trucks and cargo planes to supply its operations with everything from bombs to humanitarian aid and hydrocarbon fuels. Our new study calculated the contribution of this vast infrastructure to climate change.
El ejército de Estados Unidos contamina más que 140 países: se impone reducir esta maquinaria de guerra
Las fuerzas militares de los Estados Unidos dejan una huella de carbono inmensa. Al igual que las cadenas de suministro empresariales, utilizan una amplia red mundial de buques portacontenedores, camiones y aviones de carga para abastecer sus operaciones de todo lo necesario, desde bombas hasta ayuda humanitaria e hidrocarburos. Nuestro nuevo estudio calculó la contribución de esta descomunal infraestructura al cambio climático.
US military pollution
US military is a bigger polluter than as many as 140 countries – shrinking this war machine is a must. -
The US military’s carbon footprint is bigger than as many as 140 countries
The United States military services’ carbon bootprint is enormous. Like corporate supply chains, it relies upon an extensive global network of container ships, trucks and cargo planes to supply its operations with everything from bombs to humanitarian aid and hydrocarbon fuels. Our new study calculated the contribution of this vast infrastructure to climate change. Greenhouse gas emission accounting usually focuses on how much energy and fuel civilians use.
Hidden carbon costs of the “everywhere war”: Logistics, geopolitical ecology, and the carbon boot‐print of the US military - Belcher - - Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers - Wiley Online Library
Abstract This paper examines the US military's impact on climate by analysing the geopolitical ecology of its global logistical supply chains. Our geopolitical ecology framework interrogates the material‐ecological metabolic flows (hydrocarbon‐based fuels, water, sand, concrete) that shape geopolitical and geoeconomic power relations.
Must shrink this war machine: US military bigger polluter than 140 nations
If the US military were a country, its fuel usage alone would make it the 47th largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world, sitting between Peru and Portugal Benjamin Neimark Oliver Belcher Patrick Bigger | The Conversation Last Updated at June 25, 2019 13:31 IST https://mybs.in/2X6tGlG The US military’s carbon bootprint is enormous.
US military is a bigger polluter than as many as 140 countries - shrinking this war machine is a must
The US military’s carbon bootprint is enormous. Like corporate supply chains, it relies upon an extensive global network of container ships, trucks and cargo planes to supply its operations with everything from bombs to humanitarian aid and hydrocarbon fuels. Our new study calculated the contribution of this vast infrastructure to climate change. Greenhouse gas emission accounting usually focuses on how much energy and fuel civilians use.
US military is a bigger polluter than as many as 140 countries - our survival rests on confronting it
The US military’s carbon bootprint is enormous. Like corporate supply chains, it relies upon an extensive global network of container ships, trucks and cargo planes to supply its operations with everything from bombs to humanitarian aid and hydrocarbon fuels. Our new study calculated the contribution of this vast infrastructure to climate change. Greenhouse gas emission accounting usually focuses on how much energy and fuel civilians use.
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