As part of Global Climate Action Day, Galway Alliance Against War held a vigil in the city on Friday 29 November to draw attention to the link between climate change and war.
The group believes that this issue has been simply ignored. A spokesperson stated: “In 2018 over $1.8 trillion was squandered on weaponry. What a massive waste of resources on something whose principal aim is to destroy! And the biggest climate killer of all is the US military, which we collude with daily at Shannon Airport.
“The EU has embraced militarism with gusto. Between 2004 and 2006 it spent €65 million on the military. But military spending has rapidly increased. From 2014 to 2020 it will have jumped to an enormous €6,585 million. However, directly because of PESCO and the European Defence Fund, the proposed military budget for the period 2021–27 will see it spiral to a colossal €43,995 million.
“It’s time to sound the fire alarm. We have to prioritise the glaring link between the military-industrial complex, warfare and climate disaster, environmental damage and forced migration.
“Help to get this deliberately ignored message across and to demand that militarism must be addressed as a matter of urgency by global powers, but in the first instance by our government. We will be on the streets of Galway, rain or shine. We can no longer allow our governments to ignore—or, even worse, empower—the war industries that are destroying people and our planet for profit.”
