{"id":46402,"date":"2026-01-29T12:20:39","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T20:20:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=46402"},"modified":"2026-01-29T12:20:40","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T20:20:40","slug":"abby-martins-new-documentary-takes-on-earths-greatest-enemy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/01\/29\/abby-martins-new-documentary-takes-on-earths-greatest-enemy\/","title":{"rendered":"Abby Martin\u2019s New Documentary Takes On \u2018Earth\u2019s Greatest Enemy\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Military<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Military equipment is shown in a still from the film Earth\u2019s Greatest Enemy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0(Image via Empire Files)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Making the film taught Martin that \u201cit is completely undeniable\u201d that the US military \u201cis the greatest threat to all living things on Earth.\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Olivia Rosane<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jan 28, 2026 (CommonDreams.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a commonly repeated statistic that the US military<\/a> is the world\u2019s largest institutional polluter, but what exactly does that mean?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The quest to find a real answer to that question led journalist and documentary filmmaker Abby Martin and her husband and co-director Mike Prysner on a five-year journey from defense contractor conferences and international climate gatherings to the Rim of the Pacific military training exercises and the fight against the construction of a military base in Okinawa<\/a> that would fill in its iconic Oura Bay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The result is Earth\u2019s Greatest Enemy<\/em><\/u><\/a>, released this year independently through Martin and Prysner\u2019s own Empire Files<\/u><\/a>, with editing by Taylor Gill and an original score by Anahedron. The film uses personal narrative, research, investigative reporting, interviews, and live footage to detail all the ways in which the Pentagon<\/a> poisons the planet, including greenhouse gas emissions<\/a>, the ecocide of war, and the toxins left behind long after the fighting has stopped.”When you combine all of this, it is completely undeniable that this force that is upheld by extreme violence is the greatest threat to all living things on Earth,\u201d Martin told Common Dreams.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

World\u2019s Largest Polluter?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

RIMPAC training exercises are shown in a still from Earth\u2019s Greatest Enemy.<\/em> (Image via Empire Files)<\/small><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Toward the beginning of the film, Martin sets out to explain how the Pentagon can count as the world\u2019s largest institutional polluter, and why the numbers behind that fact actually undersell its impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It turns out, Martin told Common Dreams<\/em>, that this statement is only based on the amount of oil<\/a> the US military purchases on paper, which comes to 270,000 barrels per day. This puts its emissions at 55 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually, more than 150 countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This itself is a staggering amount of carbon pollution<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Martin explains in the film: \u201cIt would take the average American driver over 40 years to burn as much fuel as a single flight of a Boeing<\/a> Pegasus. The US flies more than 600 of these tankers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou have to look at the military as actually the institution that\u2019s actually keeping the fossil fuel infrastructure<\/a> in place through brutality and violence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it\u2019s also only the tip of the melting iceberg. Through an interview with scientist Stuart Parkinson, Martin reveals how that 55 million keeps ballooning when considering life cycle emissions from military equipment and from the equipment purchased by NATO<\/a> allies, projected to reach 295 million metric tons by 2028, or more than half of all countries. And that figure excludes the use of military equipment in war, or the emissions from reconstructing cities leveled by US-made bombs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In one particularly candid interview, a major general tells Martin that it\u2019s great to develop alternative energy sources, \u201cbut let\u2019s not walk away from what fuels today\u2019s national security, which is oil. You have to have it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And until something is developed that can completely replace oil, \u201cI think you need to keep the alternatives in check,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Statements like these give the lie to the idea that the US can have a \u201cgreen military empire,\u201d Martin said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They also show how difficult it is to separate the US military\u2019s carbon footprint from that of the fossil fuel industry<\/a> itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEverything has really been wrapped up into securing the fossil fuel, building the infrastructure for fossil fuel, and maintaining that infrastructure empire in order to maintain a fossil fuel economy,\u201d she told Common Dreams. <\/em>\u201cSo you have to look at the military as actually the institution that\u2019s actually keeping the fossil fuel infrastructure in place through brutality and violence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘Human Detritus’<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A helmet and dog tag are seen in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina in a still from the film Earth\u2019s Greatest Enemy. <\/em>(Image via Empire Files)<\/small><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The film also makes clear that carbon pollution isn\u2019t the only kind of pollution the military generates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOnce you get into the research, you realize every stone unturned is an entire other documentary because it\u2019s not just emissions, it\u2019s the totality of pollution that the military is emitting on a daily basis, the dumping of toxic waste, the legacy contamination, that alone is still killing people every day,\u201d Martin said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The film spends much of its run time digging into the landfill of military waste, from melted down pucks of plastic dumped off Navy boats and unused munitions exploded in the desert to decades of water<\/a> contamination at Camp Lejeune<\/u><\/a>, the 26 million marine mammals the US Navy is permitted to harm or kill over five years of training, and the more than 250,000 bullets left behind in Iraq and Afghanistan for every person killed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Martin said that almost every fact or anecdote she unearthed surprised her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re fighting for service members and every living person on Earth, because we are all victims of this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo matter what you think you know, it\u2019s worse. It\u2019s actually worse because of how big it is and how every face is a story, every victim is a story,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the most devastating stories comes at the film\u2019s beginning, as viewers spend time with Lavon Johnson, an Iraq War<\/a> veteran who once starred in a US Army commercial and is now living on Veterans<\/a> Row, a stretch of tents bearing American flags lined up outside the Veterans Affairs hospital in Brentwood, Los Angeles. \u201cMy life is so fucked!\u201d he declares as he lifts his hands from the piano he furiously plays despite the nerve damage caused by exposure to hydraulic fluid while in the Army.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the next scene, viewers see the camp being demolished by police, juxtaposed with images of war, pollution, and environmental destruction, such as soldiers breaking down doors or dumping trash off of boats, oil pump jacks working, and beachside homes collapsing into a rising tide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Martin said she was inspired to open the film with Johnson because of a letter that late Iraq War veteran Tomas Young wrote to former President George W. Bush<\/a> and Vice President Dick Cheney<\/a> before he died, referring<\/u><\/a> to himself and other victims of the invasion as \u201chuman detritus your war has left behind.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat always stuck with me, that line, \u2018the human detritus,\u2019\u201d Martin told Common Dreams<\/em>. \u201cAnd that is exactly what they do to veterans. That is exactly what they do to veterans\u2026 they\u2019re churned up and spit out. They\u2019re the cannon fodder of the system. And for what?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prysner is an Iraq veteran who spoke out against the war, and Martin is very clear that veterans are not the target of the pairs\u2019 critique.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t about service members,\u201d she said. \u201cThis isn\u2019t about hating the military. This is about accountability and justice for them. We\u2019re fighting for service members and every living person on Earth, because we are all victims of this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The demolition of Johnson\u2019s camp cut through with clips of war and weather disaster illustrates this point, and could serve as a sort of thesis for the film, showing that the US military ultimately turns everything it touches into detritus, including, if it\u2019s not stopped, the planet itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEverything on Earth is in Lavon\u2019s tent,\u201d Martin said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RECOMMENDED…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"AUSTRALIA-WEATHER-FIRE\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u2018We Are Running Out of Time\u2019: 2025 Keeps Hot Streak Alive for Global Temperatures<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Federal<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u2018What the F*ck Did You Do?!\u2019 Video Contradicts DHS Claims About Killing of Alex Pretti<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A Movie and a Movement<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

People march against US militarism at COP26 in Glasgow, in a still from Earth\u2019s Greatest Enemy. <\/em>(Image via Empire Files)<\/small><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This sense of connection is ultimately why Martin decided to keep Earth\u2019s Greatest Enemy<\/em> as a two-hour feature documentary rather than pivoting to a documentary series, despite the fact that, the more she dug, the more she realized \u201cit could be 10 documentaries.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She also ran into roadblocks when seeking Hollywood distribution. While environmentalist distributors would praise the film and compare it to Al Gore\u2019s An Inconvenient Truth<\/em>, they also said frankly, \u201cYou\u2019re never going to be able to get anyone to buy this stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, Martin said, \u201cI was so committed to making a movie because movies were what radicalized me,\u201d citing inspiration from films like The Revolution Will Not Be Televised<\/em><\/u><\/a>, War Made Easy<\/em><\/u><\/a>, and Michael Moore\u2019s filmography.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, her stubbornness paid off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAfter we educate everyone, I hope to decommission the military empire.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt shows that everything from ICE [Immigration<\/a> and Customs Enforcement] to Gaza<\/a> to the climate, that everything is connected,\u201d she said. \u201cVeterans, soldiers, the Indigenous<\/a> people on the receiving end of this. If you care about cold water and good air, you can\u2019t walk away from this not being impacted. And that was the goal. The goal is to lock people in and explain the totality and to bring you down to the depths of hell.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She added: \u201cWe have to understand those depths, and you can\u2019t get that with a 20-minute segment. You just can\u2019t. You have to go through the pain of all the victims in this community and come out the other side empowered with the truth and the resolve that we have to change this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Change is a large part of Martin\u2019s motivation for making the film, by educating people about the scope of the military\u2019s destructive force and connecting them into a broader coalition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Martin speaks in the film about coming to political consciousness and beginning her career as a journalist during the Iraq War, meeting Prysner through their shared opposition to war and empire, and developing \u201cprofound climate anxiety\u201d following the birth of the pairs\u2019 first child. She lamented that the climate and anti-imperialist movements have been largely siloed over the past two decades, though that is beginning to change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through local screenings, she said she wanted to \u201ctry to build the environmental movement with the anti-war movement together because\u2026 even though the consciousness is expanding, it\u2019s not happening fast enough. And we are simply out of the luxury of time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sense of urgency has only increased with President Donald Trump\u2019s second term. While the film does not cover this period, it points to many developments that have shaped the past 12 months, including Trump\u2019s claim that he attacked<\/u><\/a> Venezuela<\/a> for oil, his imperialist push to control<\/u><\/a> Greenland<\/a>, and his deployment<\/u><\/a> of ICE to terrorize US cities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Toward the end of the movie, Martin includes a segment on the militarization<\/a> of US policing and warns that \u201cthis is our system\u2019s big plan for the climate crisis.\u201d She also films a panel on \u201cDomain Awareness and Air Superiority in the Arctic\u201d in which the generals speaking tell US companies they have an \u201copen invitation\u201d to experiment in Alaska.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe know what they want the Arctic<\/a> for, and it\u2019s to pillage every last drop,\u201d Martin said. \u201cSo if environmental organizations are not thinking this together, we have to do it for them. We have to do it for them quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So far, she has seen encouraging signs, with several Sierra Club<\/a> chapters stepping up to host screenings and enthusiasm from the mainstream environmental groups, parks departments, and other city officials she has invited to attend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But education is not her only goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAfter we educate everyone, I hope to decommission the military empire,\u201d Martin said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Martin, that doesn\u2019t mean not having a military for self-defense, but rather decommissioning the 800 or so bases the US military maintains around the world and transforming the infrastructure into something that could help local communities in a climate-friendly way. It also means accountability for harm caused and redirecting military spending<\/a> toward basic needs like housing and healthcare<\/a>, and certainly not giving the Pentagon another $600 billion as Trump desires<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While that may seem like an impossible task given the current political climate, Martin maintains a sense of revolutionary optimism, encouraged by the global mobilization against the genocide<\/a> in Gaza<\/a> and the way that people are increasingly seeing the links between the multiple crises and struggles around the globe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s so many of us,\u201d Martin told Common Dreams.<\/em> \u201cWe care about the planet. We have a vested stake in life. And that\u2019s our vision.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like they have a vision of death and destruction for profit,\u201d she continued. \u201cOur vision is life, and we have to fight for it with every fiber of our being. And let this movie assist you however you can do that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To attend a screening of\u00a0<\/em>Earth\u2019s Greatest Enemy, see the schedule\u00a0<\/em>here<\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/u><\/a>. To host a screening of your <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Olivia Rosane<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Olivia Rosane is a staff writer for Common Dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Bio ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Military equipment is shown in a still from the film Earth\u2019s Greatest Enemy. \u00a0(Image via Empire Files) Making the film taught Martin that \u201cit is completely undeniable\u201d that the US military \u201cis the greatest threat to all living things on Earth.\u201d Olivia Rosane Jan 28, 2026 (CommonDreams.org) It\u2019s a commonly… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46402"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46402"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46402\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46403,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46402\/revisions\/46403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}