Veterans traveling to NH to support climate bill

Veterans bringing their message on climate change to New Hampshire

(AP)  CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - When Americans fill up their cars with gas, Mike Breen wants them to picture terrorists filling their guns with bullets paid for with their money.

Breen, a former Army captain from Portsmouth, has been traveling the country with Operation Free, a coalition of veterans and national security groups working to raise public awareness about climate change and the importance of building a clean energy economy that is not tied to fossil fuels. The group's bus tour traveled through New Hampshire on Friday, with stops in Nashua, Manchester and Concord.

Breen, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, said he wasn't surprised that his unit was vastly outnumbered by insurgent forces in Afghanistan, but was shocked to learn how such a poor nation acquired such extensive weapons, training and logistical support. The primary source of funding was private contributions from wealthy people in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Coast states who made their fortunes in the oil industry, he said.

"So as a result of our dependence on foreign oil, when you pay at the pump, a fraction of that money, literally, is putting bullets in the magazines of insurgent weapons in Iraq and Afghanistan," he said. "I thought there's got to be a way to break this cycle, because these terrorist organizations are essentially acting as parasites on the American way of life, and we've got to unplug from that."

The bus tour's swing through New Hampshire came one day before what is being recognized internationally as a Day of Climate Action. Numerous events are planned throughout the state, including a procession and rally in Milford in which participants will carry pictures of people and things they want to cherish and protect.

Another bus tour on Saturday will take participants to about a dozen hydroelectric mills along the Connecticut River valley in New Hampshire and Vermont. Organized by the Society for the Preservation of Old Mills and Heritage Mills, a sustainable resource center, the tour will be followed Sunday by a conference at River Valley College in Claremont on the how water power contributes to a "green" environment and the challenges facing northeast hydropower facilities.

In Concord, Environment New Hampshire, 350.org and the Concord Energy and Environmental Committee will be holding a rally outside the Statehouse on Saturday morning.