BASICS Issue #22 (Sep/Oct 2010)
by Noaman G. Ali & N. Zahra
One cannot deny that the floods that have devastated Pakistan since July 2010 have a basis in nature. However, to ascribe the death and displacement of tens of millions of people to something ‘natural’ obscures how American imperialism and the Pakistani ruling classes’ objectives have influenced the situation.
A scandal has recently emerged in Pakistan as reports claimed that in order to save a U.S. airbase in Sindh province, flood waters were diverted, consequently displacing 800,000 people and destroying hundreds of homes. According to reports, Pakistan’s Minister of Sports, Mr. Ejaz Jakhrani, along with soldiers and provincial government officials, entered the area in the middle of the night between August 13 and 14 in order to divert the flood waters from the base that has been in U.S. military hands since the so-called ‘War on Terror’ began in 2001.
In further disregard for the humanitarian needs of the Pakistani people, the U.S. has continued its unmanned drone attacks on Pakistan, killing 12 people and injuring many more, including women and children, in an attack on the Dandy Derpakhel area of North Waziristan on August 23, 2010. Read more…
by Michael Perovic – BASICS Issue #20 (July/Aug 2010)
The April 20, 2010 explosion and failure of the blowout preventer on the British Petroleum (BP) owned oil-rig in the Gulf of Mexico has led to what is now clearly the largest oil spill disaster in United States history. As of the writing of this article, the geyser that was unleashed on the sea floor continues to spew its toxic crude oil into the surrounding ocean at an unknown rate that certainly runs at least into several tens of thousands of gallons daily.
The spill is not just the oil slick along the top of the water – there are particles of oil floating in various layers beneath the water’s surface in giant plumes that stretch for miles in all directions, draining the ocean of its oxygen levels and threatening to create “dead zones” – the complete collapse of the marine ecosystem in areas that stretch from the sea floor to the surface. The livelihoods and safety of people impacted and at health risk expands daily, stretching beyond the United States into Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean.
Radically new politics needed to save planet from ecological devastation
By Derek Rosin
One of the key strengths of the world’s ruling circles is the belief that the current system and its political set-up, namely, globalized capitalism and its attendant power structures, provide us with the only viable way to run the planet.
To be considered “legitimate” or “realistic”, any solution to the many problems we face cannot come from outside this system; it must somehow fit with and even strengthen the framework already established. Terrorism? Launch new terroristic wars. Economic crisis caused by financial speculation? Bailout the speculators and promote new speculative bubbles. Problem and solution, so on and so forth.
We also see this when we look at climate change, and government inaction around it. Governments have essentially taken the Homer Simpson approach to climate change: Having seen capitalism spew pollution and fry the planet, their solution seems to be to leave capitalism in place, hide under some blankets, and hope that everything will work itself out.
Climate change is real. Global temperatures have already risen 0.7 degrees Celsius since pre-industrial times and there is overwhelming consensus among scientists that this will increase to at least 1.5 degrees this century. Scientists in the field of climate science also agree that the creation of human-made greenhouse gases must be substantially cut to avoid even greater temperature increases and the devastating effects on our environment this would cause.
The Canadian state = the planet’s 4th biggest problem
An annual report and Canada’s recent performance at a UN climate conference ranks it the fourth worst country in efforts to end climate change. The damning report came from Germanwatch, a European environmental NGO that rated Canada 4th worst in terms of efforts to stop climate change (out of 56 countries evaluated).
The Report came as representatives from over 180 countries attended a UN climate conference held in Bali, Indonesia during December. The conference took place to negotiate a greenhouse gas emission reduction plan that would follow Kyoto once the accord ends in 2012. The Kyoto protocol was ratified in 1997, and included a collective agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 5% bellow 1990 levels by 2012, but because of its weakness, it failed even in this week goal. Read more…
The science is in: climate change is real, it’s caused by man-made pollution, and the impacts could be catastrophic on a global level, up to and including the destruction of human civilization. Yet despite this threat the Conservatives plan to do even less than the Liberals!
Instead of vigorously implementing the Kyoto Protocol, a modest international agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to six percent below 1990 levels, the Harper regime has proposed a vague program of voluntary, non-binding (and therefore toothless) “targets” in cooperation with “industry” and the provinces. This strategy, despite its promotion as a “Made In Canada” solution, is actually straight out of the policy book of George W. Bush.
While the Conservatives love to point out that the US has had lower increases in emissions than Canada in recent years, they neglect to mention that much of our rise in emissions comes from increased extraction of oil and natural gas for export back to the US. Read more…
