Salinas hosted its annual California International Airshow in October. The featured event was the US Navy’s elite flying group Blue Angels. It was protested by a small group inspired by San Diego Veterans For Peace.
The protest emerged from research by the SD VFP over several years -- to focus on the enormous amount of fuel used during the show. The motivator was rising concern about climate degradation due to excess use of fossil fuels. The result was to launch a national protest movement to remove the Blue Angels from all airshows. The campaign is called: No MAS – No Military Air Shows.
The campaign kicked off in San Diego in September 2025. It moved north to Salinas, the SF Bay Area and into Reno. The Salinas Airshow on October 3-4 was targeted.
A funny thing happened on the way to the Air Show. The federal government shutdown on Oct 1, and the Blue Angels were shut down as well. The Blue Angels were grounded, even though it practiced the week before. But the protest proceeded as planned.
Why the protest? Many climate activists were definitely aware of the US military using enormous quantities of fossil fuel. After all, San Diego is a huge military city. But the data on greenhouse gas emissions was not easily available. Deep research by partner collaborators was required. After some trial runs on messaging, the San Diego VFP decided lthe public was woefully under-informed about the military’s role as a major contributor to the climate crisis. Here are excerpts from the article cited below.
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It is generally known that the military was reacting to the climate crisis as an existential threat or “threat multiplier”—increasing border security, preparing seaports to guard against the threat of rising seas, and hardening and protecting other military installations from more severe hurricanes and raging wildfires. To the military, the looming climate crisis was just another enemy to prepare for.
The U.S. military is the world’s single largest institutional consumer of fossil fuels and emitter of greenhouse gases. While we private citizens are implored to reduce our carbon footprint, the No. 1 emitter continues unchecked and unnoticed. How could this be? Why wasn’t every climate activist from 350.org to the Sunrise Movement demanding an accounting and reduction of such prolific and unabated pollution? How could an entire movement overlook the world’s greatest polluter?
In hindsight we learned this ignorance of the military’s emissions and role in worsening the climate crisis was the result of a willful and sustained initiative by the U.S. government at the highest international levels. The plan was to cloud military emissions in secrecy based on “national security” and prevent accurate and transparent reporting of such emissions. As early as the 1997 Kyoto climate talks (dating back to one of the first international meetings on limiting greenhouse gas emissions) the United States lobbied to exempt many military emissions from even being counted. The Kyoto Protocol was adopted internationally but ultimately the U.S. never ratified it. Subsequent international agreements still fail to fully require accurate and transparent reporting of military emissions. So, no public noise, no public uproar, and no public acknowledgement of the problem.
If the Department of Defense were a country, it would rank 47th (out of 170) on the world’s ranking of carbon dioxide polluting countries. The U.S. Air Force holds the dubious distinction of being the world’s largest user of jet fuel. For example, each Thunderbird or Blue Angels team uses approximately 18,200 gallons of jet fuel per hour flying for our entertainment. A 40-minute show consumes about 82,500 pounds of jet fuel, releasing 118 metric tons of carbon dioxide, plus the smaller particulates that are emblematic of fossil fuel combustion.
The Pentagon also maintains over 800 bases in foreign countries, creating extensive and wasteful supply lines. Each of the Army’s 60,000 Humvees gets between 4 to 8 miles per gallon of diesel fuel; the M1 Abrams tank gets about 0.6 mpg.
Add in toxic spills, Agent Orange, burn pits, depleted uranium and unexploded ordnance and you have the profile of a very large, very irresponsible public organization. One that is contributing significantly to climate degradation while creating climate refugees in its wake. And more and more attention is now being paid to perand polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), known as forever chemicals, which don’t break down in the environment and are tied to cancer and other health ailments. PFAS are used extensively in military firefighting foam. The very same foam used in dousing the SanDiego air show’s celebratory wall of fire.
We have partnered with 350.org, CODEPINK Women Against War, World BEYOND War, the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, the National Priorities Project, and others to educate people into action.
We are expanding the No MAS campaign by supporting local efforts through the “Wake Up to Climate Crisis & No MAS Tour” beginning in September 2025 in San Diego, then crisscrossing the state to protest at air shows, participate in panel discussions and host showings of the feature film Earth’s Greatest Enemy. These events will be held in conjunction with local universities and will include local experts as well as VFP representatives. The inaugural tour will end in the Santa Barbara area after three air shows and 10 campus visits. Tours of the Midwest and Atlantic Coast are planned for 2026, with actions at 10 air shows and visits to additional colleges.
Military air shows may be only a small part of the problem, but they are representative of the military’s huge contribution to the climate crisis and to our collective ignorance of it. Military air shows are dramatic, noisy, smelly, dangerous, and highly visible but offer an excellent opportunity to open broader discussions about military pollution and fiscal irresponsibility with our neighbors. Curtailing military air shows would be a small, yet symbolic, step to acknowledge the significant threat of the climate crisis.
Gary Butterfield was drafted into the U.S. Army during the American war in Vietnam; he became a conscientious objector and opposed the war while on active duty. He is also a member of San Diego 350.org and is dedicated to exposing the U.S. military’s role in worsening the climate crisis.
Source: Peace & Planet News, Special Issue on Militarism and Climate Crisis 2025 peaceandplanetnews.org