Third Day of the Zenith, 20th of Spring, 526 M.E. (Castor): I had been wondering about this, but unlike the price per gallon of gasoline, I wasn't sure how to research the answer. But reporting today in The Guardian reveals that the Stable Genius' war in Iran has emitted 5.5 million  tons of greenhouse gases in its first 14 days, roughly the same as a medium-size, fuel-intensive economy like Kuwait and more carbon than the 84 lowest emitting countries combined.

• Destroyed buildings surprisingly constitute the largest element of the estimated carbon cost. About 20,000 civilian buildings have been damaged so far, with total emissions of 2.6M tons of CO₂ equivalent.


• I had thought fuel would be the second biggest source, with US bombers flying in from as far away as England to carry out raids over Iran. However, analysis has shown it to be the second largest, with between 40M and 70M gallons of fuel consumed by aircraft, support vessels, and vehicles in the first 14 days of the war.


• Between 2.5 and 5.9 million barrels of oil have been burned in the war, including the Iranian retaliations on its Gulf neighbors.


• Destroyed military hardware, including four U.S. aircraft, 28 Iranian aircraft, 21 naval vessels, and about 300 missile launchers, resulted in release of 190,000 tons of CO₂ equivalent.


• The bombs, missiles and drones themselves (6,000 U.S. and Israeli strikes inside Iran, about 1,000 missiles and 2,000 drones from Iran, and 1,900 interceptors fired to defend against them) contributed about 60,000 tons of CO₂ equivalent.

In short, the war has been a climate disaster. And just as bad, the disruption to fossil-fuel supplies will probably lead to more oil drilling. Historically, every US‑driven energy shock has been followed by a surge in new drilling, new LNG terminals, and new fossil‑fuel infrastructure. This war risks hard‑wiring another generation of carbon dependence.

This is not a war for security. It’s a war for the political economy of fossil fuels – and the people paying the price are Iranian civilians and working‑class communities in the U.S. and around the world.

Meanwhile, the weather outside is cuckoo-bird crazy pants. Tuesday afternoon, I was out driving in freezing sleet. Today, I walked a 7.1-mile Jackson in shorts and a tee in 80° weather.