A war reporter and an Iraq war veteran turn their sights on the hidden impact the US military has on the planet, after the birth of their first child creates a profound anxiety about the climate crisis. Their daring investigation exposes a secretive and constantly-expanding web of environmental harm and unaccountability by the world's biggest polluter.

Director Statement

Earth’s Greatest Enemy, the second feature film project by Abby Martin, is a groundbreaking anti-imperialist environmental documentary.

Exempt from international climate agreements and rarely scrutinized in mainstream reporting, the Pentagon is the world’s single largest institutional polluter—spewing carbon, contaminating water, and scarring landscapes across the globe. Combining investigative journalism, striking visuals, and stories from impacted communities, this film challenges audiences to rethink the hidden costs of a global military empire and its planetary consequences. Provocative, urgent, and eye-opening, this is a documentary that will change how you see both the military and environmentalism.

Director Biography - Abby Martin, Mike Prysner

Abby Martin:

Moved by the corporate media lies surrounding the Iraq War, Abby Martin started her career as an independent journalist in 2006, founding Media Roots to cover both local and global issues. Her on-the-ground reporting in 2011 from the frontlines of Occupy Oakland, including numerous police attacks on peaceful demonstrators, propelled her to an international audience.

That year she was recruited by RT America as an anchor, and quickly given her own prime-time, live daily news show. Breaking The Set became the network’s flagship show, and a popular political opinion show watched by millions in the US and abroad.

Her work, and refusal to follow the editorial control of the network, earned her profiles in Rolling Stone and more.

Choosing to break ties with RT she left the network in 2014 to create The Empire Files. Over her career she has interviewed countless heads of state, celebrities, politicians, and academics; produced media garnering tens of millions of views; and made headlines for confrontational questioning of politicians like Antony Blinken and Nancy Pelosi.

Her uncompromising style has made her a standard-bearer of advocacy journalism, and one of the most well-known alternative media figures in the country. Abby remains committed to uplifting stories that expose and educate.

Mike Prysner:

Joining the US Army mere months before Sept. 11, 2001, Mike Prysner found himself invading Iraq in March 2003. After a year occupying the country, he returned home to get involved in the struggle against the war. His testimony at the 2007 Winter Soldier hearings became an internationally-renowned denunciation of the US occupation.

He would gain prominence for organizing other Iraq veterans and leading civil disobedience against the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. His speeches and protest actions became seen by tens of millions.

All the while, Mike was producing articles, newsletters, and other media aimed at active-duty service members with an anti-war message–much of it distributed on US bases. Many readers became war resistors. This project evolved into a podcast show, Eyes Left, becoming a key resource for US troops becoming politically conscious.

As a writer and producer of The Empire Files, he has continued to advocate for a better, more peaceful world through educational media projects.