YOUTH ENVIRONMENTALISTS AGAINST WARS AND OCCUPATION!

As environmentalists, we have an important role to play in amplifying our demands for climate justice, one that includes calling out those who are responsible for the destruction of the planet and seeking accountability for the injustices brought by the bombings and invasion on a global scale.

Be with the youth fighting for peace and sign our unity statement of Youth Environmentalists against Wars and Occupation!

YOUTH ENVIRONMENTALISTS AGAINST WARS AND OCCUPATION

We, the young environmentalists, students, and youth, stand together in our collective call against the wars and aggression happening globally. We rise in vehement condemnation against the empire that systematically poisons our planet and occupies land that violates the rights of the people. 

The US Military Industrial Complex remains the single largest institutional consumer of fossil fuels globally, devouring 340,000 barrels of oil daily. Its network of over 800 overseas bases encircling the globe, including in the Philippines with EDCA bases, has ruthlessly obliterated ecosystems with indiscriminate bombings and contaminated soil and waterways with generational toxins from experimental weaponry.

This outrage manifests most acutely in Gaza, where US-supplied munitions to Israel have wrought apocalyptic ecocide. The International People’s Tribunal on Gaza Ecocide, in its November 2024 verdict, categorically ruled these US-armed atrocities as ecocide: the intentional eradication of ecosystems as an instrument of war. This was further escalated in Iran, where US-orchestrated provocations—fueled by Israeli airstrikes and carrier deployments in the Persian Gulf—threaten full-scale invasion under the pretext of “nuclear threats.” 

In the Philippines, military exercises like Balikatan, alongside the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) and Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), bring thousands of US troops and equipment to our biodiversity-critical lands—and now accelerated by the US-PH Critical Minerals Agreement, which enables foreign mining of rare earths for high-tech weapons and gadgets. This not only squeezes communities in militarized zones but also weakens our climate resilience: ecosystems are destroyed, base carbon footprints rise, and genuine just transitions to renewable energy are jeopardized. At the same time, extractive industries cause pollution and displacement on indigenous lands.

While youth mobilize for climate solutions, the war apparatus emits 59 million metric tons of CO2 annually.  All of these deliberately happen while our communities suffer from the worst impacts of the climate crisis—from worsening climate disasters, declining food security, disruptions in livelihood, and increased inequities.

Therefore, we demand

• Immediate cessation of US war threats against Iran, Lebanon, Venezuela, Palestine, and other nations. Protect nations fighting for their independence and self-determination.
• Impose a global phase-out of fossil fuels, terminating US-backed extraction with comprehensive reparations. 
• Absolute accountability for war crimes and ecocide, recognizing these as crimes against humanity and nature; prosecuting perpetrators; shuttering bases; reallocating trillions to restoration. 
• In the Philippines, call an end to unfair treaties, including the Visiting Forces Agreement and the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement. 
• Put an end to the Balikatan Exercises, and repeal the US-PH Critical Minerals Agreement that allows environmental plunder and human rights violations in our communities and lands.

As peace-loving and youth environmental advocates, we must unite and call for the downfall of the US-led war machines. It is high time we call for the dismantling of this empire and reclaim our Earth. US Troops out of the Philippines! No Climate Justice on Wars and Occupation!

Signed by: