Bonile Bam 31 July 2021: Former mine employee Bongani Mpofu says life in Marikana is hard for its impoverished residents. (Photographs by Bonile Bam) The Marikana area in North West province may be rich in platinum group metals, but the profits from mining them do not benefit residents, who have little hope of improving their…
Category: ECOCIDE
Argentina: Fracking is Killing Water and Land
Carlos Aznarez In recent days, fracking in the province of Neuquén has once again become a topic of discussion. Community members of the Mapuche people together with social organizations have carried out roadblocks and blockades, warning about the lack of water and its contamination. The protest is related to the green light given by the…
Code Red: ‘Nobody is Safe’ from Immediate Threat of Climate Crisis, UN Report Warns
Sandipan Talukdar The UN Secretary-General said the findings were ‘code red for humanity’ and greenhouse gas emissions have put billions of lives at immediate risk. The sixth assessment report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has rung the alarm bell for humanity’s existence. Considered the largest ever such report, with inputs…
Extreme Weather Events and Capitalism: A Deadly Combination
Scott Scheffer Climate scientists around the world are alarmed by a triple climate-change-related crisis that hit the western U.S. and Canada in June and July. Normally climatologists are careful in their assessment of extreme weather events, under pressure from energy industry profiteers and anti-science climate change deniers. They go to great pains to avoid being…
U.S. Military in Okinawa Devastates the Local Environment
Pat Elder Map: The red “X” shows “locations where firefighting water that contains organo-fluorine compound (PFAS) is believed to have flowed.” The spot marked with four characters above is “Tengan Pier.” [Source: ryukyushimpo.jp] On June 10, 2021, 2,400 liters of “firefighting water” containing PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) were accidentally released from the U.S. Army…
MST: Anti-Imperialist Day for the Environment
Fernanda Alcântara Photo: Eduardo Moura In a year when deforestation in the Amazon and the release of agrotoxins are the highest in the last ten years, there wasn’t much to celebrate on the Environment Day, last Saturday (June 5th). However, several popular movements and organizations took advantage of the date to denounce the policies of…
Brazil: The Impacts of Wildcat Mining for Women
Martha Raquel Illustration: The Struggle of Indigenous Women in Brazil – Fernando Bertolo Indigenous peoples live in distress, anguish, and fear due to the illegal activity and the risk of mercury contamination Illicit mining activity has daily impacts on indigenous peoples in Brazil. Invasions ushered by wildcat mining meddle and disrupt the dynamics and lives…
Evo Morales’ Earth Day Message
Kawsachun News President of Bolivia’s Movement Towards Socialism, Evo Morales, issued a message on the anniversary of the International Day of Mother Earth, a date recognized by the United Nations following a motion proposed by Bolivia during Evo’s presidency in 2009. The statement was read live on Radio Kawsachun Coca. In this message, Evo proposes…
Letter to World Leaders on the Occasion of the Leaders’ Summit on Climate
International People’s Assembly It is common knowledge that we are at a decisive moment for human survival and for the biodiversity of our planet. There is a serious environmental and public health crisis, caused by crimes committed continuously by the greed for profit. The research and scientific data are more and more evident, which you…
Militarising the Amazon
Ramona Wadi Despite the centrality of indigenous peoples to sustainable environments, governments and corporations are doing the utmost to ensure indigenous erasure. While research has indicated the importance of indigenous conservation of land, the G7 countries are driving deforestation worldwide through consumption patterns targeting less developed countries. Tropical forests remain among the most targeted areas,…
Argentina. The Cancer of Extractivism
Carlos Aznarez Federico Soria is a great environmental fighter and a connoisseur of the tricks employed by extractivism to promote its theories. Soria currently lives in Mendoza, where he is a militant in the Uspallata Assembly, but he is also familiar with what has been happening in Patagonia with the wave of fires that recently…
What’s Their Endgame?
Sreve Lalla Image source: [link] Invariably, in a conversation about environmental destruction, war in the Middle East, or the pandemic, someone eventually asks the question: “Yes, but what’s their endgame?” Behind this question is the assumption that an elite cabal of capitalist overseers controls everything and foresees the outcome of all their decisions — that…
