Abstract The treadmill of destruction framework calls attention to the environmental harm resulting from war and war‐making. Geopolitical competition and arms races push military organizations to voraciously consume nonrenewable resources and dump highly toxic waste products. War devastates the lived environment for millions of people and poisons large tracts of land. In the twenty‐first century, the absolute size of the military in affluent nations of the global north are shrinking and this may result in a “greening” of the military in these affluent nations. But the environmental risks of war have not disappeared: they are being shifted to the vulnerable peoples and places in the global south.