The Army’s new goal is noteworthy considering that the US still has no concrete plans to cut emissions anytime soon. But as is the case for a lot of businesses and people, the “go green” message isn’t just about saving the planet. For instance, the Army plans to cut emissions by using large, used shipping containers to construct makeshift villages at training sites. Kudos to them for finally recycling these materials, but the difference in price tags—shipping container villages cost about $25,000 each to build, much cheaper than the usual $400,000—was the likely motivation.

The Army also plans to lessen its environmental “bootprint” by making vehicles more fuel efficient. But again, nature is probably a secondary or tertiary or quaternary or whatever comes next concern: The primary goal is to decrease the number of fuel-heavy convoys traveling across war zones, as they make tempting targets for makeshift bombs known as IEDs.

Any effort to lessen the environment’s burden is worthwhile, but in the army’s case the move also presents an uncomfortable irony. Military operations undertaken in the country’s best interests don’t usually line up with the environment’s best interests. Over the years, operations have resulted in environmental catastrophes such as nuclear waste contamination from the Manhattan Project and chemical contamination from Agent Orange use in the Vietnam War, to name a few.

Which leads us to advocacy group Oil Change International’s recent report. It pulls together statistics from respectable organizations, such as the IPCC, to examine the environmental impact and greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the Iraq war. Here are just a few of the organization’s findings:

1.    Projected total US spending on the Iraq war could cover all of the global investments in renewable power generation needed between now and 2030 in order to halt current warming trends.

2.    The war is responsible for at least 141 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent since March 2003. To put this in perspective, CO2 released by the war to date equals the emissions from putting 25 million more cars on the road in the US this year.

3.    Emissions from the Iraq War to date are nearly two and a half times greater than what would be avoided between 2009 and 2016 were California to implement the auto emission regulations it has proposed, but that the Bush Administration has struck down.

4.    In 2006, the US spent more on the war in Iraq than the whole world spent on investment in renewable energy.