Harrod Lecture with Dr. Adem Elveren

About This Event

Please join Professor Adem Elveren when he presents his Harrod Lecture:  "Guns and Melting Butter--The Political Economy of Military Spending and Climate Change", Nov. 10 at 3:30 p.m. in Randall Science Lecture Hall.

The world’s militaries are among the largest institutional sources of carbon emissions, with a combined footprint that rivals that of entire industries and major nations. Yet military emissions are almost entirely missing from the national inventories that countries report to international bodies, and climate debates remain focused on the supply side: fossil fuels, renewables, new technologies, and carbon pricing.

This lecture turns to the overlooked demand side. It argues that the carbon footprint of militarization is structural, rooted in high fixed costs, guaranteed contracts, and rapid obsolescence. Bringing together post-Keynesian, feminist, and entropy economics, the lecture presents original models tracing how military spending raises emissions directly, through the production and deployment of weapons, and indirectly, by shifting income toward high-earning, male-dominated sectors with carbon-intensive consumption and by crowding out investment in health, education, care, and renewable energy. The result is a vicious cycle: climate change fuels conflict, conflict drives military spending, and military spending deepens the climate crisis.