The Atlantic

The U.S. Is on the Path to Destruction

Climate change is killing Americans and destroying the country’s physical infrastructure.
Source: BRITTANY HOSEA-SMALL / AFP / Getty

The federal government spends roughly $700 billion a year on the military. It spends perhaps $15 billion a year trying to understand and stop climate change.

I thought about those numbers a lot last week, as I tried to stop my toddler from playing in ash, tried to calm down my dogs as they paced and panted in mid-morning dusk light, tried to figure out whether my air purifier was actually protecting my lungs, tried to understand why the sky was pumpkin-colored, and tried not to think about the carcinogen risk of breathing in wildfire smoke, week

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