We welcome the call for a climate-based and more independent foreign policy.

Written by: Nick G. on September 8, 2025

 

The Australian Army, Navy and Airforce – collectively the Australian Defence Force – constitute the core of the ruling class machinery of state.

Institutionally, they will never forego that role. They have been deployed time and again to serve the interests of whichever imperialism has the dominant position of influence within the Australian ruling class. At times they have been used to break strikes and deployed against the Australian working class in the direct interest of Australia’s monopoly capitalists. 

But contradiction exists within everything. Individuals with a “defence force” background can sometimes break ranks with the ideology and policies that determine the official view of the Department of Defence and the ADF.

(This is written when Trump, the chieftain of US imperialism, has at least had the honesty to drop the doublespeak inherent in the name “Department of Defense” and rename it the “Department of War”.)

One such departure from the official rhetoric came with the foundation of the Australian Climate Security Leaders Group headed by former head of the ADF, retired Admiral Chris Barrie. The ACSLG has an executive drawn from the military and includes Ian Dunlop, former Chair of the Australian Coal Association. 
It has issued several policy documents, the latest last week under the heading A Climate-First Foreign Policy for Australia: Human Security in the Age of Climate Disruption.

The ACSLG equates inaction over global warming with Australian foreign policy, stating that Australia is “almost totally unprepared” for the former, and has instead “put all its eggs in the AUKUS basket and a closer alignment with the USA’s erratic security stance. This risks Australia being dragged into a war with China on the losing side.”

It says that “In the context of Trump#2 and geopolitical upheaval, Australia’s current security frame — “America first, Earth last” — needs to be abandoned.”
Retired Admiral Chris Barrie, formerly a supporter of the AUKUS arrangements, declares that he has now changed his mind, declaring that “AUKUS and confrontation with China are not the only choice…Since retiring as Chief of the Defence Force, I have participated in many war game exercises focused on conflict with China, and in every case the American side lost.”

It is not just that we would be on the losing side in an American war with China, but that we are currently losing capitalism’s destructive war on nature.
Barrie says that average global warming of 1.5°C, predicted to occur by 2040, has already been reached with all of the accompanying unprecedented wild weathers, and “catastrophic damage to our terrestrial and marine ecosystems”. Any further rise, inevitable under present policy directions, will lead to a “climate refugee inflow of a scale that we simply cannot image. Think millions of people.”

The ACSLG acknowledges that fossil fuel companies have created the climate crisis and warns that “Big oil and gas are backtracking on reduction commitments fast, and planning increased production to 2050.” It calls for leadership to phase out fossil fuel subsidies and the fossil fuel economy, but warns that the Australian government “is supporting and expanding dirty coal and gas, and does not want to talk about climate impacts…while the opposition lives in a dark space between delay and denial.”

The call for a climate-based foreign policy is not the only sign of disaffection with our subservience to the US within the defence community. Kym Bergmann, editor of the online Asia Pacific Defence Reporter says in his most recent podcast, “If Australia ever wanted to send a Minister to the United States who is the best at licking the boots of the Americans it is definitely Minister for Defence Richard Marles who has never, ever been able to conceal his overwhelming enthusiasm for everything the US does, I believe to the detriment of Australia’s strategic interests.”

As a Party, we have our own take on climate change and the environmental crisis. 

We believe that capitalism and its current form imperialism have given rise to the irreversible destruction of the environment and global warming in particular. Imperialism is based on constant growth and expansion of profit at all costs before the needs of people and the environment.

While we support all calls for the rapid decarbonisation of Australia’s economy, we must go further than the views of the ACSLG and call for capitalism to be overthrown and a socialist society established. Only this will make it possible for humans to be able to live in an environment that is sustainable long-term. Only this will break capital’s cancerous need for the further accumulation of capital.

The Party and the working class must exercise leadership in protecting the environment and ensure that a socialist society works not to “conquer” nature, but to co-exist with it, restoring the balance between humanity and nature.

It is not a question of our tailing behind progressive bourgeois opinion of the ACSLG type, but of welcoming that opinion and trying to draw it closer to our own.

The expanding united front against US imperialism can accommodate a variety of opinions, but struggle for the leading influence of a socialist and anti-imperialist perspective is required.

 

Toe to toe with fossil fuel induced global warming

 Written by: Nick G. on 12 August 2025

 

(July 30 protest against global warming at Santos offices in Adelaide. - source NT News)

Last week I went for a short walk along Seacliff Beach, one part of the unbroken stretch of suburban Adelaide beaches just kilometres form the CBD.

Every step of the way was littered with the washed-up bodies of dead marine life.

Most were benthic (bottom-feeding) species including masses of flathead, blue-swimmer crabs, abalone (with its much sought-after flesh still attached), mussels, razor fish, sea slugs, snails and worms.  There were lesser number of other species including trumpeters, toad fish, weedy whiting and red mullet.

And a dead swan.

Running parallel with the sea shore was a 50-metre width strip of brown murky water, part of the algal bloom which has turned much of Adelaide’s coastal waters to a marine graveyard.

The algal bloom first came to notice in March. Warmer waters and an absence of sea water disturbance during SA’s prolonged drought led to an explosion in the population of the toxic Karenia mikimotoi algae. We have reported several times on this.

In the immediate sense, nothing can be done until the bloom dissipates through natural means.

However, the SA algal bloom is a symptom of a sick ocean system that extends well beyond SA. On the day of my walk, news came through of a massive clean-up by volunteers of the beaches of Algiers where another algae native to the Pacific Ocean, Rugulopteryx okamurae, has found its way into the Mediterranean.  While the beach clean-up was underway on the southern side of the Mediterranean, on the northern side France and Greece were engulfed in massive wildfires that had caused loss of life.

The rise in global warming, brought on by carbon emissions from the use of fossil fuels, continues to endanger Australian coral reefs. 

The Great Barrier Reef has suffered mass bleaching in 2002, 2016, 2017, 2020, 2022, 2024 and now 2025. In the latest event, the Reef has suffered some of the most widespread coral loss ever seen and scientists warn that we’re approaching a moment where the coral may no longer be able to recover.

For the first time Ningaloo Reef on the opposite side of the continent suffered a bleaching event simultaneous with that of the Great Barrier Reef.  Once again, the word “unprecedented” has been used. 

Politicians ignore it at our peril.

Labor continues to wave through new coal and gas projects. The Nationals want to abandon net zero entirely. And the Liberals offer nothing. Australia remains the second-largest global exporter of fossil fuels.

Global warming is a part of capitalism’s destructive war on nature.

Capital must continue to accumulate by recreating its own value over and over again. In the process it exploits, ruins and diminishes the only two sources of that surplus value, human labour power and nature. The first can be kept alive and recreated at minimal cost to capital but the second can only be degraded and destroyed.

Biodiversity matters to the working class. Capitalism is the enemy of biodiversity and of workers. 

We must shutdown fossil fuel extraction, use and export.

We can only do that in an anti-imperialist independent and socialist Australia.

(On August 1, seven Extinction Rebellion members holding a marine life ‘die-in” were arrested at Santos offices in Adelaide.)

 

Save our Oceans rally in Adelaide

 Written by: Ned K. on 27 July 2025

 

On Sunday 27 July, about three hundred people from a number of grass roots environmental organizations rallied on the steps of SA Parliament House to heighten public awareness of the devastating impact of global warming and climate change on Earth's oceans.

Speakers included First Nations persons and scientists who have been warning governments for decades about the impact of algal blooms in the SA ocean waters.

The current algal bloom caused by rising ocean temperatures and changes in ocean currents has killed marine life in irreversible numbers as it spread along the coastal waters of the South-East of South Australia and gradually suffocated large areas of both the Gulf St Vincent and Spencer Gulf.

Speakers pointed out that when the previous algal bloom appeared in 2013 in coastal areas, marine biologists warned governments at state and federal level that the algal blooms would re-appear in larger more destructive forms due to the increasing impact of climate change on ocean temperatures.

In the week leading up to the Sunday rally, both the federal and state governments announced $14million each towards research about the algae and how to prevent it and also towards financial support for businesses and workers affected by the algae bloom's impact.

The federal government Minister Murray Watt did a "fly in, fly out" visit for a couple of hours with a photo shot of him on a suburban beach near some dead fish killed by the algae bloom.

The SA Premier belatedly expressed concern about the impact of the algae bloom, a brief respite from his obsession with Liv Golf and other sports events as saviours for the SA economy

Fund Our Future, Not Our Decimation

“Fund Our Future, Not Our Decimation" was one of the hand-written signs of one of the young people at the rally. It summed up what more and more young people think governments should be doing. Funding fossil fuel industries and spending money on the military industrial complex and Liv Golf for billionaire golfers are not top priorities for a growing number of vocal, active young people like those at this rally.

The devastating impact of climate change is affecting people in many walks of life. The algae bloom impact has seen united action by people from very different sectors of society.

First Nations people, commercial fishing people, recreational fishers, suburban and regional beach walkers, people who like swimming in the sea, surfers, environmentalists, tourism industry businesses and workers and whole small coastal town communities.

People from this diverse range of people were present at the rally in Adelaide. 

First Nations speakers at the rally said that people coming together from diverse backgrounds were a powerful force to save the oceans and indeed the planet.

Resistance to Capitalist Climate Disaster

 Written by: Sand G. on 23 July 2025

 

Source: www.australiangeographic.com.au/

On 15 July the federal court dismissed a case brought by Torres Strait community leaders that aimed to require the government to prevent climate harm in their communities. The court found that the colonial-capitalist government of this stolen land has no ‘duty of care’ to Australians to prevent climate related harm. 

The Australian Government, constantly singing about reconciliation, has admitted that it has no real obligation to protect unceded Indigenous land and that it’s more than happy to let corporations destroy country. It might come as no shock to many, since the Australian government never seems to demonstrate a duty of care to the people, especially to First Nations people. 

But the ruling of the judge says a lot about the future of climate action. The judge, washing the court’s hands of responsibility, said ‘this is a matter of government policy, and should be decided through political processes’. 

Source: https://anglicanfocus.org.au/

What political processes are available to the people to make sure that government prevents this climate disaster? Surely, with around two thirds of Australians agreeing for the last 20 years that climate change is an extremely urgent issue and more needs to be done to prevent it, that proper political processes would have responded to that?

Instead we have the opposite. Despite the clear will of the people to prevent climate catastrophe and protect country, successive governments bend over to big businesses, criminalise protests, and change laws to limit community appeals on projects happening on their country. 

Many Australian state governments either have, or are introducing laws to override environmental protections and prevent the public from speaking up about it. Climate protesters have been jailed and fined huge amounts of money, simply for standing on bridges or blocking trains, while the governments that allow communities to be destroyed by climate disasters walk free. 

In Boorloo Perth, protesters had guns pointed at them by policy simply for standing outside the Woodside CEO’s home.  Clearly, the political processes for the people to make government listen are not there. 

The judge, in this ruling, admitted what communists know to be true: courts, Parliament, and the Australian Government are not accountable to the people – we are in a dictatorship of capitalists.

When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty.

Australian workers have quoted this for over 100 years, and it’s all the more relevant now. This revealing court case has shown that injustice is how government works. More and more doors are closed to the people as we stare down the barrel of climate induced disasters. Their answer to our calls for change is “shut up and piss off” while they let multinational corporations destroy our communities for the sake of profit. 

So how should the people respond? Our Party recently reiterated our stance on rejecting the rigged game set by the government and embracing revolutionary action. We disdain to hide this view, and we look to the example of First Peoples who have waged armed and unarmed struggle against the occupying government for over 200 years. 

Our government has no concerns about using state enforced violence on us, so how long are we going to take it? 

Our Party stands with First Peoples and other anti-imperialist anti-capitalist comrades as we work to evolve our struggle in protecting our communities from the threat of colonial capitalism.

SA toxic algal bloom persists under wintry conditions

Written by: Nick G. on 1 July 2025

 

The SA toxic algal bloom, first reported in Vanguard on April 12 (see here) has shown no signs of an anticipated dissipation as colder sea temperatures and rougher seas set it.

The algal bloom began in March at the southern tip of the Fleurieu Peninsula with masses of dead fish washed up onto popular surfing beaches, and surfers and beachgoers complaining of headaches, nausea and loss of vision. 

Then the discoloured, frothy waters spread across to Kangaroo Island and parts of Yorke Peninsula. Divers at Edithburgh said all sea life was being killed. Some have described the effect as like an “underwater bush fire”.

There are various sea algae. This one was first reported in Japan in 1972 and has the scientific name Karenia mikimotoi.  

Algal blooms occur when sea water temperatures rise and there is minimal disturbance of the sea by winds pushed ahead of large rain-bearing clouds, creating the perfect conditions for the growth of algae. 

Algal blooms are normally dispersed when sea water temperatures return to normal, and winter brings stronger winds and stormy weather. Over the past month, both conditions have occurred. In the most recent storm surge a week ago, jetties along the SA coast were damaged, yet the toxic bloom was not.

Not only has it not disappeared, but storm winds carried the algal froth from the open beaches of the Coorong, where mass killings of cockles (pipis) had occurred, over the high sand dunes and into the Coorong, killing fish and a leaving a carpet of dead sea worms and other sea bed creatures.

In recent days, the algal bloom has travelled north to Adelaide’s suburban beaches, possibly in search of marginally warmer water.

Marine biologist Mike Bossley has spent thousands of hours roaming the beach in his lifetime, but since Tuesday has sighted species he's never seen on the shore.

"Different kinds of rays and sharks, lots of pipefish, things called ling, which is a very unusual thing. I've never seen them washed up on the beach before, and lots of species of fish that I don't even know the names of," he said.

Scientists say that if the bloom persists beyond winter, it will spread even further as warmer weather returns.

The bloom has already persisted for four months. Normally, it lasts for less than a month. The following table shows how other mikimotoi outbreaks have fared:

The SA algal bloom is longer and more intense than other mikimotoi outbreaks and is yet further proof that as carbon-induced global warming heats the planet, the scale of ecological disaster intensifies.

Capitalism, with the big fossil fuel corporations at its core, is waging a destructive war on nature in the drive for expanded accumulation of profits, of capital.

We cannot wait until we have only our proverbial chains to lose.

We are losing the war for a sustainable environment and for the prevention of the destruction of biodiversity.

With the SA government bidding to host COP31, the 2026 United Nations Conference of the Parties on Climate Change, participants will be able to choose between visiting the world’s largest renewable energy battery or the battered beaches and seas that are the evidence for urgent action, not talk-fests, to save the planet.

 

Drought

Written by: Duncan B. on 26 June 2025

 

Henry Lawson called drought the “red marauder.” Climate-change deniers and National Party politicians love quoting Dorothea Mackellar’s land of “drought and flooding rains” try to convince us that droughts are normal and natural in Australia.

There is no doubt that Australia is a land of drought. Bureau of Meteorology records show that on average, Australia experiences a severe drought every 18 years. Many droughts have been recorded in Australia from the early days of colonisation to the present. They include the Federation drought of the early twentieth century, the World War 2 drought of 1937- 45 and the Millennium drought of 1996 - 2010.

At present, parts of South Australia, most of western Victoria and northern Tasmania are experiencing severe drought. The Federal and state governments have belatedly come to the assistance of drought-affected farmers with various cash grants and plans to improve farmers’ access to hay. The Victorian Government has paused the introduction of a higher Emergency Services levy on drought- affected farmers. As usual these band-aid measures are too little too late.

Droughts existed in Australia before colonisation, but indigenous Australians managed their lives to deal with them. They moved from place to place as the availability of food and water dictated, taking only what they needed and leaving sufficient supplies for other people and for future use. They set aside areas of food plants and game as sanctuaries which were left untouched to ensure food for the future.

With colonisation came farming practices which quickly began to degrade the land and worsened the effects of droughts. Sheep compacted the soil so that rainwater ran off instead of soaking into the ground. Large-scale clearing of trees led to a reduction in rainfall, and this, combined with the destruction of native grasses by sheep led to soil erosion and fierce dust storms.

The effects of climate change will make hot days hotter, increase the severity of extreme rainfall events and increase the likelihood of droughts in Australia. Government hand-outs to farmers will not solve the problem of drought. Only reducing and reversing the effects of climate change will achieve that.

Many farmers are deeply involved in developing innovative farming practices which seek to reduce the effects of agriculture on the environment and reduce the use of inputs such as fuel, electricity and water. Many have gladly accepted wind turbines and solar panels on their farms. In embracing action against climate change these farmers are working towards making agriculture sustainable in Australia. They are leaving behind the climate-change denying, nuclear power- loving dinosaurs of the National Party.

 

Retired military leaders – “Climate, not China, is Australia’s main threat”

Written by: Nick G. on 9 October 2024

 

A group led mainly by retired military personnel has just released a new report that says climate change is the “greatest security threat to Australia and to societies around the world”.

The Australian Security Leaders Climate Group (ASLCG) is headed by Admiral Chris Barrie (Ret’d), Chief of the Australian Defence Force from 1998 to 2002, and includes three other senior retired military leaders, and three civilian including Ian Dunlop, former chair of the Australian Coal Association.

In releasing the latest ASLCG report, Protect, Prevent and Prepare, Barrie said that "climate, not China, is the biggest security issue”

While not directly mentioning the $368 billion AUKUS spend, Barrie said  “All the billions of resources being put into confronting China will not help one iota in dealing with the greatest threat to our future security in Australia and the region — and that is climate disruption. We have just seen Hurricane Helene in the US cause damage estimated at $A230 billion in costs—equivalent to nearly 40% of Australia’s annual federal budget. In just one storm! And with only 2-6% of affected properties insured, the financial and social toll is immense.”

The ASLCG report criticises Australian governments past and present, saying “Inadequate action by Australian governments has left our nation poorly prepared to face global warming’s consequences, and Australia remains “missing in action” on climate-security risks”.

“…right now climate-security risks are not being fully assessed or understood in Australia. There is a poor understanding of the systemic security risks posed by climate change, which constitutes a major strategic gap. As a result, Australia is failing in its responsibilities as a global citizen, as a major strategic defence ally, and to protect people. Our nation is ill-prepared for climate impacts and the security implications in one of the highest risk regions in the world, the Indo-Pacific.”

The ASLCG report comes just two weeks after the Albanese government gave the greenlight to three massive coal mine expansions in NSW that will operate as far into the future as 2066 and fuel over a billion tonnes of carbon emissions. This is more than three times Australia’s current total annual emissions.  

We can expect the report to be either ignored or attacked and discredited by Murdoch’s unAustralian newspaper and his paid stable of reactionary hacks at Sky News.

As for the current government, we can expect Albanese, Marles and Wong to continue their disgraceful service to US imperialism and its preparations for war with China.

In anticipation of the ASLCG report being ignored, Admiral Barrie said: “The analysis we have done is so shocking people don’t want to believe it, but that is what the evidence from senior security experts as well as the world’s best scientists is telling us, and I think they are right. A national conversation about the need to ‘Protect, Prevent and Prepare’ is beyond urgent.”
  

 

 

Global climate change hits dangerous new milestones in 2023

 

Written by: Leo A. on 28 December 2023

For decades, we have been warning about the consequences of careless greenhouse gas emissions on the Earth’s environment. Now the pace at which the global climate is changing is speeding up. 

On November 17, the global average temperature hit 2.07 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average (specifically above the average global temperature across the 1850-1900 period, before artificial greenhouse gas emissions began to have a noticeable effect). This is the first time the “two-degree threshold” has been crossed since prehistoric times. While the exact threshold was just crossed temporarily, it seems likely that this will become the new “normal” in a matter of years. 

The impact of artificial warming is already being felt across Australia. Earlier this month much of the country experienced severe heatwaves. For example, on December 9 the outside temperature in some parts of Sydney got as high as 46 degrees Celsius. If the big fossil fuel corporations have things their way, that’s going to become a regular occurrence. And not just in Australia – this year heat waves have hit every continent, with hundreds of confirmed deaths so far. 

It is not just temperature that has hit dangerous new records this year. Back in July, the Antarctic sea ice “deficit” (that is, the difference between how much of the Southern Ocean was covered by sea ice and how much is normally covered by sea ice at that time of the year) grew to 2.5 million square kilometres. In other words, an area equal to that of the state of Western Australia that should’ve been ice-covered wasn’t. 

What will the world look like if this becomes an everyday occurrence, if the two-degree mark is crossed as a year-round average rather than as a temporary event? Over the past ten years several research studies and reports have attempted to answer this question. Their conclusions? In a two-degree “new normal”, severe heatwaves will last much longer and expose much more of the global population on a regular basis. Heavy rainfall will be more intense and across much of the world’s land, the risk of river flooding will increase substantially. Either most or all coral reefs will be at risk of annual bleaching. Crop yields such as those of wheat and maize will plummet, which may cause the largest mass famines in history. Global sea levels will rise significantly, washing countless islands and coastal communities off the map. Extreme weather, famine, and sea level rise could result in a refugee crisis on an unprecedented scale, conflicts over food and clean water, and the extinction of a significant fraction of the world’s plant and animal species. And this is not even a worst-case scenario. 

Earlier this month, the United Nation’s COP28 Climate Conference was held in Dubai. Despite how much this year has demonstrated the severity of the crisis, the draft agreement published on December 11 was described as a “death certificate” for the most vulnerable countries. Later “compromise” agreements essentially amounted to “we promise we will achieve net zero emissions by the time we’ve used up almost all the fossil fuels on the planet”. That's not very helpful.

It is obvious who’s interests are being represented here and who’s aren’t. As Irish communist leader James Connoly excellently summarized back in 1915, governments in capitalist society are but committees of the rich to manage the affairs of the capitalist class. This is just as true in the present day. The bourgeoisie are not the ones at risk of starvation, dehydration, hyperthermia, or drowning. And they already view those who are at risk as expendable. In particular, the decision to continue a business-as-usual approach is most beneficial for multinational fossil fuel corporations and the politicians affiliated with them. It is no secret that these corporations have a significant amount of leverage in Australia, and as a result are, for example, permitted to mine and drill on Indigenous peoples’ lands without their consent. 

The military-industrial complex also benefits from this policy approach. When we think of the devastation caused by the war industry, it is natural to immediately remember the mass suffering this causes directly, in countries such as Ukraine and Palestine. But what is often overlooked is the contribution warfare makes to greenhouse gas emissions. Here in Australia, the ADF is responsible for 66% of the Australian government’s emissions. Elsewhere the portion is similar – the UK armed forces account for 50% of the British government’s emissions, and the US military accounts for 56% of American government emissions. 
 
There is hope. As the effects of the climate crisis continue to grab headlines and catch the world’s attention, more people will take the crisis seriously, and this may lead more people to question the mode of production that’s driving us into this catastrophe. In the short-term, we’re likely to see more activism placing pressure on the bourgeoisie to take some measures to at least slow down the crisis. In the long run, increasing awareness of the climate crisis and it’s driving causes could lead to an increase in class consciousness, which may become an important step toward the establishment of socialism in Australia and elsewhere, leading to more serious measures being taken. The technology to solve the climate crisis already exists, all we need are leaders willing to solve it, to prioritise the interests of the Earth over the interests of capital. 
 
As we all enter the new year, we should keep in mind that despite the severity of the crisis, a better world is still possible. 

 

For a United Front against Fossil Fuels and Feral Species

(Above: Original image Queensland Fire and Emergency Services facebook)

 Written by: Alan Jackson on 3 November 2023

This week, dozens of fires have burned across Queensland. More homes have burned in the state than during the 2019–2020 Black Summer – 57 so far this year, compared to 49. 

The current fires are peculiar compared to previously because the fires aren’t being slowed in any capacity by nighttime which usually brings lower temperatures and more moisture in the air. Queensland South-East and western downs regions are seeing more than five times more nighttime hotspots than average. (1) This is not an isolated issue and corresponds to similar cases in Canada, Spain, Greece and many other countries. Strongly permeated by ongoing climate change due to capitalism’s inherent infinite expansion of a finite planet and gutting of safer more pricey alternatives for cheaper and dangerous alternatives that destroy the environment.

Adding petroleum so to speak to this already heated situations is a key ingredient in Hawaii’s deadly Maui fires — unmanaged invasive grasses, like the highly inflammable buffel grass — is also spreading throughout vast areas of Australia, prompting a warning about the increased risk to people, houses and biodiversity on this side of the globe. 

Buffel grass expansion is growing further south at an accelerated rate and has the ability to grow in 60-70% of Australia, particularly in dry and arid climates which are so very common place in Australia. Buffel grass is also tough to manage with the labour required being intensive and expensive due to buffel grass’s widespread distribution often in remote areas. (2) Almost 50% of the Tjoritija/MacDonnell national park west of Alice Springs has been burnt since the start of 2023 with Northern Territory Parks and Wildlife senior director Chris Day stating “if we only had native grass in the landscape we would find these fires much less intensive”. (3)  To date, an area twice the size of Tasmania has been burnt in the NT.

Not only is the damage from the expansion of buffel grass ecological due to the fires it permeates but it is also cultural effecting Fist Nations people directly through its destruction of native plant biodiversity that is so important to their daily lives. 

Buffel grass is one of the worst invaders of arid ecosystems worldwide. Across Central Australia, buffel grass was deliberately planted at scale since the 1950's by the NT Government, CSIRO and pastoralists as a feed for cattle and as a dust suppressant for degraded lands (usually due to overstocking). Buffel grass outcompetes native wildlife and is considered a transformer weed due to its ability to change habitat and is greatly impacting First People’s culture and connection to country. For many years Aboriginal leaders from affected areas have been speaking out and demanding action to mitigate the buffel grass threat. Buffel is still not considered a weed in the Northern Territory despite it being declared so in South Australia in 2015. Buffel affects the viability of bush foods, bush medicines and plant materials to be harvested, in addition to altering hunting practices. Culturally significant animal and plant species are to also be impacted. (4)

The reason that Buffel grass and climate change have been allowed to gut Australia’s climate and habitat is due to monopoly capitalism and its failure to shut down fossil fuel industries allowing global warming to permeate. Inherently connected to capitalism’s insatiable drive for profit is the pastoral industry’s profit-before-environment over-grazing and denuding of country, followed by introduction of invasive species like cane toads, and grasses such as buffel grass and the failure of the governments and pastoralists to manage crops that aren’t native to our country. 

These fires and the ecological destruction of the country cannot be stopped unless capitalism is dismantled. A system predicated on infinite expansion of a finite planet cannot fix our ecological disasters and societal ills. Socialism is a necessity. In the meantime, a United front of the First Nations people, small and medium-sized farmers, regional townsfolk and the urban working classes must be agitated, organised, mobilised and unleashed in mass united struggle against buffel grass, global warming and unhealthy environmental practices that continue to destroy Australia’s environment and First Nations peoples’ daily life necessities. 

I write this on the traditional land of the Butchulla people and recognise the abhorrent appropriation that led to my fortunate dwelling here.

 

Capitalism’s destructive war on nature causing ongoing extreme weather events

 (Artwork courtesy Earth Liberation Studios)

 Written by: Nick G. on 22 August 2023

As I write today, there are still bushfires burning in parts of New South Wales after a weekend on which more than 70 bush or grass fires were being fought.

The official start of the NSW fire season is October 1, but the NSW Rural Fire Service says that the season has already started in six areas in the north of the state.

Globally, there has been country after country in which wildfires, some unprecedented in scope and intensity, have occurred – some still not under control.

Canada still burning

Canada is in the midst of its worst wildfire season, with more than 5,700 fires recorded so far this year. 

More than 137,000 square kilometres have been burned from one end of Canada to another, twice the size of the worst affected areas in the past. At this moment, more than 1000 Canadian fires are being fought, with assistance from overseas fire fighters. 

Just two days ago, thousands of residents from Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands had been evacuated as a wildfire authorities deemed “out of control” raged on for a fourth day.

The Canary Islands emergency services said more than 26,000 people had been evacuated by Saturday afternoon, according to provisional estimates, a sharp rise from 4,500 on Friday. Some 11 towns have now been affected.

The fire was at a scale never been seen before in the Canary Islands, Tenerife Council President Rosa Davila told reporters.

The Tenerife evacuation mirrored that of the Greek island of Rhodes. Multiple wildfires in Greece started on 17 July 2023. They resulted in at least seven deaths and injured more than 20 people, and burned dozens of areas in parts of Greece. Tens of thousands of people were evacuated from Rhodes as firefighters struggled to deal with the blaze. Many had to flee the fires on foot.

The current heatwave engulfing Greece is set to be the longest in its history, lasting nearly three weeks, surpassing the 1987 heatwave.

Following two deadly fire seasons in 2021 (90 lives lost) and 2022 (37 lives lost), Algeria was again consumed by wildfires this July in which 34 people died.

Italy, Croatia, Turkiye and Tunisia were also battling wildfires this July. In the second week of August, hundreds of firefighters battled wildfires in Portugal where 1,400 people had been evacuated in a 46C heatwave.

In Hawaii, the death toll from the Maui wildfires has risen to 111 with as many as 1,000 still missing.

During June, Beijing and parts of northern China experienced record temperatures, with authorities urging people to limit their time outdoors. The Nanjiao observatory in southern Beijing for the first time recorded temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius for a third consecutive day, according to the China Meteorological Administration.

If it’s not one thing, it’s the other

No wonder people are apprehensive about the proliferation of extreme weather events. Rainfall and flooding on an unprecedented scale are matching bushfires in their destructive intensity. 

In January 2022 More than 72 millimetres were recorded in Lithgow - almost a month's worth of rain in just over an hour. People sat on rooftops waiting to be rescued. Insurers have walked away from such areas. In November 2022 there was further NSW flooding, with two people drowned. Floods also occurred across Victoria.

In late July, Typhoon Doksuri, a tropical super cyclone, hit the Philippines killing 137 and injuring many more. Passing into China’s south-eastern province of Fujian, it set records for 24-hour rainfall totals, then moved north towards Beijing where, although weakened, it still caused havoc. 

At the start of August, China’s capital recorded its heaviest rainfall in at least 140 years as remnants of Typhoon Doksuri deluged the region, turning streets into canals where emergency crews used rubber boats to rescue stranded residents. The city recorded 744.8 millimeters (29.3 inches) of rain over three days. Last year’s total rainfall in Beijing did not even top 500 millimeters (19.6 inches). 

This week, Cyclone Hilary became the first tropical storm to hit Southern California in 84 years. It dumped more than half the average annual rain on some desert and mountain areas, including Palm Springs, which saw nearly 3 inches of rain by Sunday evening. Tens of thousands of people across Southern California had no power due to the storm.

Capitalism’s global warming must bear responsibility

The frequency of extreme weather events has a cause, a responsibility. That cause is the increase in global warming. It occurs because of unrestricted carbon dioxide emissions. The gluttony of fossil fuel corporations is mainly responsible. They feel no compunction in placing profits before the planet.

Cyclones and rain bombs are related to the behaviour of the world’s oceans. The oceans absorb 90 percent of CO2 emissions. A just-released report on the warming of the world’s oceans shows rising sea water temperatures that are “off the scales”. Rises in atmospheric and sea water temperatures lead to melting of polar ice caps and glaciers, reducing their ability to reflect sun’s rays back into space. 

It is the people of the world who suffer during extreme weather events. 

We must bring the fossil fuel corporations to heel. They must be forced to stop their destructive activities.

Socialism alone can develop and sustain an economy in which there can be a balance struck between people’s needs and the health of the planet we inhabit.

Together with all our other tasks, the fight against global warming must remain a priority. 

 

Greece is on fire and the system of profit is responsible.

 

Written by: Communist Party of Greece (Marxist-Leninist) on 24 July 2023

Our thoughts go out to the people of Greece, currently suffering the consequences of capitalism’s war on nature and its consequence of global warming and extreme weather events. Greek people will rally today, Monday July 24, at Syntagma, the central square of Athens. The statement below was released by the Communist party of Greece (Marxist-Leninist) on July 18.  Although there are several references to particular matters that we do not know abut, the general thrust of the analysis is clear – eds.

 

The country is on fire!

Government policies will not go untouched!

The system of profit and exploitation is GUILTY!

 

Saronida, Kouvaras, Kalyvia. Dervenochoria, Mandra. Loutraki. The whole of Attica and its surroundings are in flames. At the same time, dozens of firefronts have opened simultaneously across the country. The toll so far is tragic: thousands of acres of burnt forest land, houses and even entire settlements have been burned to the ground, hundreds of people have been displaced, dozens of animals have been burned. And the danger has not yet been reduced, since new areas are threatened, even in dangerous places, with industries within the urban fabric.

 

Desperate residents are trying by all means to protect and defend their livelihoods. So far, there have been many complaints about a complete lack of firefighting equipment. Anger is overflowing for the government and the regions that allowed Attica to turn into a paralysis of fire for yet another year.

 

The media and system actors were quick to recommend calm:

 

To say that now is not the time to seek responsibility, not to politicize the tragedy. Of course, at the same time they whisper about the "irresponsible" who "did not clean their plots". They openly mock residents' complaints that fire brigades did not come, replying that just because they did not see them, it does not mean that they did not act in another nearby spot! At the same time they talk about a successful operation, because (so far) there has been no human loss. They say the greatest achievement is the message about evacuations! When the anger of the inhabitants presses them, they dare to recall the crime in Mati with the dead. They are trying to defuse anger by saying that reparations will be given quickly and on time. Such a statement was made by Mitsotakis from Brussels. Syriza has reintroduced for the umpteenth time the "see you later" approach.

 

In other words, they do everything to conceal their own criminal responsibilities! The fact that they have stripped the entire country, but even more Attica of any means of protection and prevention for such disasters. We see it and "measure" it every year in floods, snowstorms and fires. The people, helpless and alone, trying to make ends meet. At the same time the system prides itself on its investments, wind farms, hotels and casinos. That has cemented or closed the last square meter of green space or park even in the center of Athens! Who makes "transfers" of staff from one service to another (we have seen in recent days with the shortages in EKAV) in order to patch up needs without being forced to make permanent recruitments. All of the above are compatible and organically tied to the system of profit, to the policies of "everything to capital, all to capital". The -ultimately- indifference to human life. His crimes (in the Pandemic, in Tempi, in Pylos, etc.) remind us of this daily and continuously!

 

The battle with the flames is not over yet. Everyone, however, anticipates that in many areas the "next day" residents will see a destroyed area.

 

We declare our solidarity with the residents who are fighting for their lives and livelihoods. We know very well that many stay in the areas despite calls from state mechanisms to evacuate, not only out of desperation (as the media say), but because they know, through their experience, that the state has left them alone. That he doesn't care how they live the next day. That tens of thousands of people affected by fires and floods are still waiting for compensation or have received some crumbs.

 

The battle with the system of exploitation and the policies that give rise to all these crimes is the issue.

 

Reclaiming the lives and lost labors of the people is imperative. And it has to come in as early as today.

 

To immediately and fully compensate those affected.

 

To ensure immediately and for as long as necessary decent housing for those who were displaced.

 

So that the burnt forests do not turn into a field of exploitation for capital.

 

So that we do not allow such crimes to happen again!

 

• IMMEDIATE FULL COMPENSATION TO THOSE AFFECTED!

• ADEQUATE FIRE PROTECTION AND PREVENTION MEASURES!

• DOWN WITH GOVERNMENT POLICIES THAT ARE INDIFFERENT TO THE LIFE AND LIFE OF THE PEOPLE!