CounterPunch Exclusives

CounterPunch Exclusives

US Military Fuels Extreme Weather Events

Photograph Source: Aaronjayjack – CC BY-SA 4.0

Extreme weather has swept across large parts of the United States this month, bringing dozens of tornadoes, flooding, softball-sized hail, and winds near 200 miles per hour. Although much of it hit Texas, the Midwest, and Vermont, the extreme weather extended to Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI).

These islands, technically territories of the United State but really more like colonies, are home to about 220,000 U.S. citizens and closer to Japan than Hawai’i. They suffered through one of the largest typhoons (hurricanes) ever recorded outside of the typhoon season. The “monstrous” 500-mile-wide Super Typhoon Sinlaku had winds reaching 150–185 miles per hour and battered the islands for 48–72 hours.

The CNMI was hardest hit: homes and businesses were blown away, trees were uprooted, cars flipped, boats sank, and an entire harbor was destroyed. Six crew members went missing after a cargo ship capsized; one has been found dead. More than 1,000 people were displaced to Red Cross shelters in the CNMI and Guam. Many still lack electricity and running water. People wait hours for drinking water, fuel, and other supplies.

“Sometimes [they] have to leave empty-handed,” local activist Monaeka Flores told me via WhatsApp. “Help isn’t coming fast enough.”

Increasingly frequent storms, which have left people homeless and rebuilding from the Midwest to the Marianas, show how human-caused heating of the planet is driving dangerous weather worldwide. Last week’s storms........

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