05) AS THE WORLD BURNS

People's Voice Editorial

     The rest of the planet watched nervously in early January as wildfires raged across Australia. Temperatures topped 50 degrees, forcing the country's Bureau of Meteorology to add a new colour ‑ deep purple ‑ to show areas that shattered all-time heat records. Climate scientists say the fires and the heat are unprecedented in scale and intensity. Even worse, this is the "new normal" of runaway climate change, and not just in the southern hemisphere. The Russian heatwave of 2010, which killed 50,000 and wiped out $15 billion worth of crops, was part of the hottest European summer for 500 years. Such mega‑heatwaves will become five to 10 times more likely over the next 40 years, scientists predict. Along with the heat will come more intense droughts, stronger hurricanes, more landslides, and higher tides. Why? Because heat‑trapping carbon emissions mean more energy is being pumped into the atmosphere, increasing climate chaos.

     Meanwhile, new research proves that contamination spread by tar sands extraction covers a much wider area than previously thought. Demolishing the idea that heightened levels of toxins could be "naturally occurring," scientists report that since large scale tar sands production began in 1978, deposits of carcinogenic hydrocarbons in Alberta lakes have increased 2.5 to 23 times.

     The debate is over; the coffin is nailed shut, as one scientist commented. Yes, the extraction and consumption of fossil fuels is extremely profitable for transnational corporations. But the ultimate cost is prohibitive, even fatal. The time has come to shift the world's $1 trillion in annual military spending towards investment in technologies to slash carbon emissions. Such a radical change will face enormous resistance by the military-industrial complex and Big Oil. In other words, capitalism itself has become incompatible with human survival; only socialism offers hope for the planet. That's the message from "deep purple" Australia.

(The above article is from the February 1-14, 2013, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)