How American Exceptionalism is Killing the Planet

William J. Astore

Ever since 2007,  I’ve been arguing against America’s forever wars, whether in Afghanistan, Iraq, or elsewhere. Unfortunately, it’s no surprise that, despite my more than 60 articles, American blood is still being spilled in war after war across the Greater Middle East and Africa, even as foreign peoples pay a far higher price in lives lost and cities ruined. And I keep asking myself: Why, in this century, is the distinctive feature of America’s wars that they never end? Why do our leaders persist in such repetitive folly and the seemingly eternal disasters that go with it?

Sadly, there isn’t just one obvious reason for this generational debacle. If there were, we could focus on it, tackle it, and perhaps even fix it. But no such luck.

So why do America’s disastrous wars persist? I can think of many reasons, some obvious and easy to understand, like the endless pursuit of profit through weapons sales for those very wars, and some more subtle but no less significant, like a deep-seated conviction in Washington that a willingness to wage war is a sign of national toughness and seriousness. Before I go on, though, here’s another distinctive aspect of our forever-war moment: Have you noticed that peace is no longer even a topic in America today? The very word, once at least part of the rhetoric of Washington politicians, has essentially dropped out of use entirely. Consider the current crop of Democratic candidates for president. One, Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, wants to end regime-change wars, but is otherwise a self-professed hawk on the subject of the war on terror. Another, Senator Bernie Sanders, vows to end “endless wars” but is careful to express strong support for Israel and the ultra-expensive F-35 fighter jet. The other dozen or so tend to make vague sounds about cutting defense spending or gradually withdrawing U.S. troops from various wars, but none of them even consider openly speaking of peace. And the Republicans? While President Trump may talk of ending wars, since his inauguration he’s sent more troops to Afghanistan and into the Middle East, while greatly expanding drone and other air strikes, something about which he openly boasts.

War, in other words, is our new normal, America’s default position on global affairs, and peace, some ancient, long-faded dream. And when your default position is war, whether against the Taliban, ISIS, “terror” more generally, or possibly even Iran or Russia or China, is it any surprise that war is what you get? When you garrison the world with an unprecedented 800 or so military bases, when you configure your armed forces for what’s called power projection, when you divide the globe — the total planet — into areas of dominance (with acronyms like CENTCOM, AFRICOM, and SOUTHCOM) commanded by four-star generals and admirals, when you spend more on your military than the next seven countries combined, when you insist on modernizing a nuclear arsenal (to the tune of perhaps $1.7 trillion) already quite capable of ending all life on this and several other planets, what can you expect but a reality of endless war?

Think of this as the new American exceptionalism. In Washington, war is now the predictable (and even desirable) way of life, while peace is the unpredictable (and unwise) path to follow. In this context, the U.S. must continue to be the most powerful nation in the world by a country mile in all death-dealing realms and its wars must be fought, generation after generation, even when victory is never in sight. And if that isn’t an “exceptional” belief system, what is?

If we’re ever to put an end to our country’s endless twenty-first-century wars, that mindset will have to be changed. But to do that, we would first have to recognize and confront war’s many uses in American life and culture.

War, Its Uses (and Abuses)

A partial list of war’s many uses might go something like this: war is profitable, most notably for America’s vast military-industrial complex; war is sold as being necessary for America’s safety, especially to prevent terrorist attacks; and for many Americans, war is seen as a measure of national fitness and worthiness, a reminder that “freedom isn’t free.” In our politics today, it’s far better to be seen as strong and wrong than meek and right.

As the title of a book by former war reporter Chris Hedges so aptly put it, war is a force that gives us meaning. And let’s face it, a significant part of America’s meaning in this century has involved pride in having the toughest military on the planet, even as trillions of tax dollars went into a misguided attempt to maintain bragging rights to being the world’s sole superpower.

And keep in mind as well that, among other things, never-ending war weakens democracy while strengthening authoritarian tendencies in politics and society. In an age of gaping inequality, using up the country’s resources in such profligate and destructive ways offers a striking exercise in consumption that profits the few at the expense of the many.

In other words, for a select few, war pays dividends in ways that peace doesn’t. In a nutshell, or perhaps an artillery shell, war is anti-democratic, anti-progressive, anti-intellectual, and anti-human. Yet, as we know, history makes heroes out of its participants and celebrates mass murderers like Napoleon as “great captains.”

What the United States needs today is a new strategy of containment — not against communist expansion, as in the Cold War, but against war itself. What’s stopping us from containing war? You might say that, in some sense, we’ve grown addicted to it, which is true enough, but here are five additional reasons for war’s enduring presence in American life:

The delusional idea that Americans are, by nature, winners and that our wars are therefore winnable: No American leader wants to be labeled a “loser.” Meanwhile, such dubious conflicts — see: the Afghan War, now in its 18th year, with several more years, or even generations, to go — continue to be treated by the military as if they were indeed winnable, even though they visibly aren’t. No president, Republican or Democrat, not even Donald J. Trump, despite his promises that American soldiers will be coming home from such fiascos, has successfully resisted the Pentagon’s siren call for patience (and for yet more trillions of dollars) in the cause of ultimate victory, however poorly defined, farfetched, or far-off.

American society’s almost complete isolation from war’s deadly effects:We’re not being droned (yet). Our cities are not yet lying in ruins (though they’re certainly suffering from a lack of funding, as is our most essential infrastructure, thanks in part to the cost of those overseas wars). It’s nonetheless remarkable how little attention, either in the media or elsewhere, this country’s never-ending war-making gets here.

Unnecessary and sweeping secrecy: How can you resist what you essentially don’t know about? Learning its lesson from the Vietnam War, the Pentagon now classifies (in plain speak: covers up) the worst aspects of its disastrous wars. This isn’t because the enemy could exploit such details — the enemy already knows! — but because the American people might be roused to something like anger and action by it. Principled whistleblowers like Chelsea Manning have been imprisoned or otherwise dismissed or, in the case of Edward Snowden, pursued and indicted for sharing honest details about the calamitous Iraq War and America’s invasive and intrusive surveillance state. In the process, a clear message of intimidation has been sent to other would-be truth-tellers.

An unrepresentative government: Long ago, of course, Congress ceded to the presidency most of its constitutional powers when it comes to making war. Still, despite recent attempts to end America’s arms-dealing role in the genocidal Saudi war in Yemen (overridden by Donald Trump’s veto power), America’s duly elected representatives generally don’t represent the people when it comes to this country’s disastrous wars. They are, to put it bluntly, largely captives of (and sometimes on leaving politics quite literally go to work for) the military-industrial complex. As long as money is speech (thank you, Supreme Court!), the weapons makers are always likely to be able to shout louder in Congress than you and I ever will.

America’s persistent empathy gap. Despite our size, we are a remarkably insular nation and suffer from a serious empathy gap when it comes to understanding foreign cultures and peoples or what we’re actually doing to them. Even our globetrotting troops, when not fighting and killing foreigners in battle, often stay on vast bases, referred to in the military as “Little Americas,” complete with familiar stores, fast food, you name it. Wherever we go, there we are, eating our big burgers, driving our big trucks, wielding our big guns, and dropping our very big bombs. But what those bombs do, whom they hurt or kill, whom they displace from their homes and lives, these are things that Americans turn out to care remarkably little about.

All this puts me sadly in mind of a song popular in my youth, a time when Cat Stevens sang of a “peace train” that was “sounding’ louder” in America. Today, that peace train’s been derailed and replaced by an armed and armored one eternally prepared for perpetual war — and that train is indeed sounding’ louder to the great peril of us all.

War on Spaceship Earth

Here’s the rub, though: even the Pentagon knows that our most serious enemy is climate change, not China or Russia or terror, though in the age of Donald Trump and his administration of arsonists its officials can’t express themselves on the subject as openly as they otherwise might. Assuming we don’t annihilate ourselves with nuclear weapons first, that means our real enemy is the endless war we’re waging against Planet Earth.

The U.S. military is also a major consumer of fossil fuels and therefore a significant driver of climate change. Meanwhile, the Pentagon, like any enormously powerful system, only wants to grow more so, but what’s welfare for the military brass isn’t wellness for the planet.

There is, unfortunately, only one Planet Earth, or Spaceship Earth, if you prefer, since we’re all traveling through our galaxy on it. Thought about a certain way, we’re its crew-members, yet instead of cooperating effectively as its stewards, we seem determined to fight one another. If a house divided against itself cannot stand, as Abraham Lincoln pointed out so long ago, surely a spaceship with a disputatious and self-destructive crew is not likely to survive, no less thrive.

In other words, in waging endless war, Americans are also, in effect, mutinying against the planet. In the process, we are spoiling the last, best hope of earth: a concerted and pacific effort to meet the shared challenges of a rapidly warming and changing planet.

Spaceship Earth should not be allowed to remain Warship Earth as well, not when the existence of significant parts of humanity is already becoming ever more precarious. Think of us as suffering from a coolant leak, causing cabin temperatures to rise even as food and other resources dwindle. Under the circumstances, what’s the best strategy for survival: killing each other while ignoring the leak or banding together to fix an increasingly compromised ship?

Unfortunately, for America’s leaders, the real “fixes” remain global military and resource domination, even as those resources continue to shrink on an ever-more fragile globe. And as we’ve seen recently, the resource part of that fix breeds its own madness, as in President Trump’s recently stated desire to keep U.S. troops in Syria to steal that country’s oil resources, though its wells are largely wrecked (thanks in significant part to American bombing) and even when repaired would produce only a miniscule percentage of the world’s petroleum.

If America’s wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Somalia, and Yemen prove anything, it’s that every war scars our planet — and hardens our hearts. Every war makes us less human as well as less humane. Every war wastes resources when these are increasingly at a premium. Every war is a distraction from higher needs and a better life.

Despite all of war’s uses and abuses, its allures and temptations, it’s time that we Americans showed some self-mastery (as well as decency) by putting a stop to the mayhem. Few enough of us experience “our” wars firsthand and that’s precisely why some idealize their purpose and idolize their practitioners. But war is a bloody, murderous mess and those practitioners, when not killed or wounded, are marred for life because war functionally makes everyone involved into a murderer.

We need to stop idealizing war and idolizing its so-called warriors. At stake is nothing less than the future of humanity and the viability of life, as we know it, on Spaceship Earth.

Hong Kong, Xinjiang, and the Insecurity of China’s Leadership

Mel Gurtov

Hong Kong is in chaos, with no sign that the protesters will yield on their demands. Mass incarceration and indoctrination of Uyghurs and other Chinese Muslims has become so widely publicized, and evidenced, that Chinese leaders no longer try to deny that a roundup has taken place, though they dispute the numbers. As China extends its economic reach, its leaders have to confront another reality: Reputation matters, and economic clout will not easily convert to political or cultural influence. International repugnance is widespread over the Xi Jinping government’s flouting of human rights norms and seeming indifference to human suffering.

The larger context here is Xi’s determination to wipe out all sources of resistance to his lifetime rule, foreign or domestic. His government typically cites “three evils” to justify repression: separatism, terrorism, and extremism. Actually, it has several other “evils” in its sights, including organized religion, protest demonstrations, cultural autonomy, activist lawyers, and independent journalists and environmental organizations. In its view, all these forces threaten the one-party state, disrupt economic plans, and unravel the myth of the unified multi-national state. They challenge the Chinese party-state’s security and legitimacy, which have always been far more important to Beijing than spreading a political model abroad.

Naming and shaming can sometimes help mitigate widespread and systematic human rights violations. Bringing the Uyghur repression (which some call cultural genocide) before the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has already produced a joint statement of twenty-two countries, in July, condemning “large-scale arbitrary detention” and other violations. The statement calls on China to allow UN and independent access to the so-called “retraining” camps. Britain has separately urged China to “allow UN observers immediate and unfettered access to the region.” The European Union has also criticized China’s conduct. Possibly more effective than the so-called spotlight effect is boycotting companies that, directly or indirectly, facilitate repression, and sanctioning individuals responsible for it, and blocking international financial institutions such as the World Bank from investing in Xinjiang.

What brings Hong Kong and Xinjiang together is the failure of China’s leaders to accommodate local politics and culture, and instead to impose “stability” through draconian measures—a clear indication of leadership insecurity and blindness to the conditions that prompt unrest. Outside pressure, however, has to be carefully calibrated lest it lead to even more oppressive Chinese steps. More direct US political intervention in Hong Kong, for example, would only exacerbate the situation—and give demonstrators false hopes. As Chen Jian, a distinguished scholar of China-US relations, has written: “It is beyond America’s capacity and mandate to try to impose answers upon the Chinese in American ways. Any attempt to do so will only trigger China’s lingering ‘victim mentality’ and mobilize radical Chinese nationalism centered on an anti-American-hegemony discourse. The biggest beneficiary of such a scenario will, ironically, be no one else but the Chinese ‘communist’ state.”

At times like these we need more, not less, interaction with China. Care needs to be exercised not to feed an anti-China hysteria by, for example, cutting back people-to-people and other exchanges, closing down Confucius Institutes, imposing immigration and visa restrictions, putting Chinese nationals and Americans of Chinese heritage who work in US laboratories and universities under suspicion, or using trade as a weapon. Legislation such as the US Senate’s Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act appropriately sanctions Chinese and Hong Kong officials but also reeks of political posturing about American values and bipartisanship. Donald Trump quietly signed the act, but indicated he would not honor all its provisions. For him, protecting human rights pales in importance beside the prospect, however remote, of a favorable trade deal with China.

One other thing: We should not be self-righteous about repression in China. Few countries are free of religious, political, or social oppression. Few have eschewed violent official responses to mass protest. Fewer still are the governments that have recognized, much less apologized and compensated for, the harm they have done in the name of social stability. The scale of China’s human rights abuses may have no current counterpart—by some estimates, as many as 1.8 million Chinese Muslims have been incarcerated—but it is also part of a global pattern that embraces even the most “developed” and “democratic” countries. The struggle against abuses here is also a struggle against abuses there.

Chernobyl, Lies and Messianism in Russia

Monika Zgustova

“How much are these lies going to cost?” asks the nuclear physicist Legasov, as played by Jared Harris in the American series Chernobyl. This HBO series, broadcast a few months ago and based partly on Svetlana Alexievich’s book Voices from Chernobyl, reveals how the Soviet state tried to cover up the lethal explosion of the nuclear power station, by telling lie after lie. How much do lies cost? Today this question is just as valid as in the days of Gorbachev, Stalin and Lenin,

Oddly enough, the state apparatus under Putin was irritated by the series. What it found most infuriating was that in the West, the directors of the series, and millions of viewers, had analysed and severely criticised events which had taken place in Russia. The Russian TV channel NTV, owned by Gazprom, announced that it would be producing its own series about the Chernobyl catastrophe: ‘the true story’, according to them. It ends by explaining – and this is not a joke – that the fatal disaster at the nuclear power plant was caused by a CIA agent.

The lies of the Russian state are similar to those invented by the Soviet one. In the year 2000, not long after Putin took power in the Kremlin, the nuclear submarine Kursk was shipwrecked in the Barents Sea and, just as they had done with Chernobyl, the Russian authorities silenced the accident, to the extent that they didn’t even inform the families of the crew who had died in the disaster. Two years later, during the terrorist assault on Moscow’s Dubrovka theatre, the FSB security service filled the theatre with an unidentified gas, with the aim of paralysing all the people present, including the terrorists; once the operation had been completed, the FSB refused to reveal the formula and the characteristics of the gas, with the result that the 130 people who were rescued from the theatre ended up dying in hospitals, leaving their doctors frustrated and confounded. Something similar happened in 2014 when Islamist militants – most of them Chechens and Ingush – occupied a school in Beslan, in the autonomous region of North Ossetia, which forms part of the Russian federation. Instead of saving the children by liberating them and removing them from the building, the Russian security forces sent in tanks and heavy armament and attacked the school; as a result 334 people died (excluding the terrorists), including 186 pupils. The Russian authorities have said nothing about all these fatal miscalculations, heavily censoring all the media and providing Russian citizens with false information. The political reforms which came in the wake of the disaster were the direct cause of Putin’s consolidation of power in the Kremlin; instead of losing his power, the Russian president used the lies to augment it. Also in Syria, in 2018, Russian military officials, by denying to the Americans time and again that the so-called Wagner Group – a private paramilitary organisation of Russian mercenaries – was involved, they exposed these men to an American bombardment; it seems that some two hundred men died because of this deliberate disinformation which resulted in the Syrian media accusing the Americans of a ‘brutal massacre’, while the Russian media accused the Americans of attacking them for economic reasons, because oil had been discovered in the region involved.

The Russian government continues to sacrifice the lives of its own citizens without any scruples whatsoever, when it’s a matter of protecting its own interests. This was shown clearly in the Chernobyl series: the people who supported the Soviet state and on whose support this state was based, were precisely the people who were crucified mercilessly by Soviet power.

In recent years, Vladimir Putin has been making ostentatious displays of his military strength. Some commentators have interpreted this as a threat to NATO and the United States. Which is the case; however, Putin is playing primarily to a Russian audience. Seeing that his popularity was waning (in January of 2019, only 33% of Russians said they had faith in their president, the lowest figure on record so far) the Russian president launched into rhetoric about an imminent nuclear apocalypse.

Recently, Putin claimed that Russia had just manufactured a new ‘invincible’, hypersonic nuclear missile, the Avengerd, which he described as ‘the best gift he could give to his country’. The Russian president also talked about a ‘nuclear apocalypse’, explaining that Russia would use its nuclear weapons to punish or avenge. Recently, the president has made frequent use of apocalyptic rhetoric, including in some of his speeches to the Federal Assembly, in which he has claimed that certain countries wish to annihilate Russia and that he would not hesitate to respond.

Putin isn’t the only person who is providing the Russian people with visions of the apocalypse; he has the support of many of his followers, including the Patriarch Krill who insists on repeating that Judgement Day is nigh. Aleksandr Duguin, the Kremlin’s chief ideologue, known for his Fascist ideas, has called Putin katechon, meaning an Orthodox leader who, so he says, ‘will prevent the reign of the Anti-Christ’. In this particular case, the Anti-Christ is represented by a combination of Western globalisation and post-industrial society.

There are even writers who support the messiano-apocalyptic message of the Russian president in their work. The extremely well-known novelist and TV presenter Vladimir Solovyov, in his novel Vladimir’s Apocalypse, calls Putin ‘a Tsar and a prophet’. The poet Elena Fanailova, too, recently wrote that ‘the contemporary world, just as was the case in the Middle Ages, longs for an apocalypse because a world without apocalypses would be unbelievably dull’. According to the American scholar Dina Khapaeva, this idea is linked to the beliefs of certain sects within the Russian Orthodox church, one of which claims that Putin is the reincarnation of the apostle Paul: ‘God has appointed Putin as president of Russia so as to prepare it for the coming of Jesus Christ’, in the opinion of Mother Fotina, the founder of the sect.

The much-read nationalist writer Aleksandr Prokhanov has also proclaimed that Putin is the Messiah. On top of which, he maintains that in our era, with a nuclear war upon us, something which ‘worries the minds of world leaders’, it is essential to reread the Apocalypse, the exclusively prophetic section of the New Testament which talks about the apocalypse and the Messiah. According to Khapaeva, the aforementioned Patriarch Krill, who has an enormous influence in Russia and supports Putin, has said, referring to this subject, that ‘You would have to be blind not to see that the terrible historical events described by Saint John in his Apocalypse, are not taking place now.’

If the Russian regime is afraid of a TV mini-series, this only goes to show how weak it is. And to hide this weakness, it presents itself to its people as a tough guy with powerful nuclear weapons, as a government that does everything well – because state propaganda turns everything into something positive and beneficial – and as a regime which, like a guardian angel, keeps watch over the good of the people, threatened by serious dangers from beyond its borders. This strategy has borne fruit: recently, Putin’s popularity has been on the rise, although it is unlikely to reach the 81% of 2007 or the 86% it had after the annexation of Crimea.

Global Poison Spring

Evaggelos Vallianatos

The power of the chemical industry in the United States all but wiped out the US EPA. The politicized department administers laws and regulations that prescribe what it can do. However, in practice, it’s the political appointees that decide what EPA does. Related to this political reality, and knowing the deep roots of industry influence in Congress and the White House, EPA does its work reluctantly most of the time.

In the case of hazardous chemicals, EPA is scared to even do the minimum of protecting the health of Americans, much less protect the integrity and health of the natural world.

Sky empty of birds

The result of such calculated political indifference is bad for all life. In the last fifty years, birds in North America declined by 29 percent. Our skies are becoming empty of tiny and modest-sized flying animals. There are some 3 billion birds missing.

Perpetual use of deadly neurotoxic pesticides in a gigantic one-crop agriculture cripples, starves and poisons birds all over the United States and Canada.

Skyscrapers and other lighted large buildings and millions of lighted homes are another deadly trap for birds. In the evenings countless millions of lights on these man-made hills and mountains change night into day, all but erasing the stars. This artificial and thoroughly unnecessary situation creates a threatening reality for birds that guide themselves from the position of stars in the sky. The lights disorient flying birds. They die crashing on the glass windows and walls of tall buildings and homes.

“Modern” humans do more than build skyscrapers. They keep destroying wetlands, marshes, watersheds, and forests, home to millions of birds.

Collapse of fish

The other effect of spraying neurotoxins over the natural world is the killing of much more than honeybees. Neurotoxic neonicotinoids target insects, vital food for fish. Parallel to the sharp decline of birds, neonicotinoids are responsible for the collapse of fish.

Chemical hegemony of Europe

The Europeans are by no means more sensitive to the precarious anthropogenic threat and domination of the natural world. Germany gave us chemical warfare during WWI. It has continued its production of neurotoxins, including neonicotinoids. Germany is owner of the world’s most popular carcinogenic weed killer, glyphosate /roundup, a product of Monsanto that used to be a controversial agrochemical, bioengineering, and pharmaceutical company of the United States. In 2018, the German giant chemical company Bayer paid $ 63 billion for Monsanto.  Switzerland is home to very large chemical companies like Novartis, Syngenta and Roche.

European and North American agrichemical conglomerates dominate the Western political ruling class as well as agribusiness and  the chemical industry. Their products circulate all over the planet, making it almost impossible for a living being to avoid contamination and potential poisoning.

The 1984 Bhopal tragedy

In December 2, 1984, Union Carbide’s pesticide factory in Bhopal, India, blew up. Its deleterious methyl isocyanate filled the sky over Bhopal, asphyxiating 25,000 people and injuring hundreds of thousands more.

Did the world, including India, learn anything from that man-made calamity? No! Pesticides are even more popular in 2019 than in 1984.

For example, one in seven species in the United Kingdom is on the verge of extinction. The most responsible factor for this evolving ecological catastrophe is industrialized farming and the nasty habit of spraying country roads for “weeds.”

Global pesticide danger

The UK, the European Union, and North America are not alone in this blind path to oblivion. The entire world has been converted to the gospel of agrotoxins: the worldwide addiction to pesticides is appalling.

In November 2019, a group of researchers from the tropics published a comprehensive report in which they documented the extensive use of pesticides and their deadly effects on people and the ecosystems of the natural world. Their message is, watch out.

There’s legal and illegal spraying and over spraying of brand new chemicals as well as decades-old toxic and persistent insect poisons like DDT: with “drastic effect on most raptor species like Gypaetus barbatus (bearded vulture)… and Aquila adalberli (imperial eagle)… Other important components of ecosystems which are negatively affected by pesticide overuse are biological pest control…, soil fertility… and proper crop pollination.”

In the Punta San Juan Marine Protected Area, in Peru, a researcher found lots of DDT and DDT-like poisons in the blood of the endangered Humboldt penguins (Spheniscus Humboldt).

In Uruguay, researchers found high levels of neurotoxic pesticides in 14,800 beehives. The result was “bee disorientation.” This effectively means honeybees cannot find their way back to their hives. They die from cold or starvation.

This global study reported that even the “regular” spraying of pesticides is bad for human beings. For example, eating food contaminated by pesticides is worse than drinking pesticide-contaminated water or breathing pesticides. In out bodies, pesticides act like hormones, causing chaos in the body’s endocrine mechanisms of healthy development.

Finally, the study warns:

“Long-term low-dose [human] exposure [to pesticides] affects human health with reducing immunity, disturbs hormonal balance, reduces intelligence and causes reproduction-related problems and cancer.”

Lessons and remedies

Reading this timely and insightful report from the tropics, brought me back to my early days at EPA, only seven years after the EPA banned DDT in 1972.

This king of spray had its defenders. In fact, once a chemical passes the easy EPA “registration” (official approval) and ends up in the magic market, it’s extremely difficult to dislodge it. In addition to the corporate owner, a battery of industry scientists and scientists funded by the industry are ready to take oaths the chemical is innocent of all ecological and human health insults.

We have not learned this lesson either. Or, rather, like in the case of Bhopal, the chemical billionaires are bribing politicians and televisions and academics to keep painting a rosy picture of industrialized farming hooked on pesticides.

I am not a prophet. But putting to use my long-term experience with the EPA and learning from history enable me to reasonably predict the outcome of this pathology.

Alas for the younger people brought up in this irresponsible and amoral age. They will pay the highest price in health, ecological devastation, and personal dignity and survival.

My advice to people younger than forty is to overthrow their parents’ ecocidal economics for a just ecological civilization. The key in this desired metamorphosis is love for the natural world.

Learn from science: abolish pesticides and fossil fuels; learn from the wisdom of ancient societies – and never allow any person to become a billionaire.

Russia’s engagement in Asia Pacific is largely underrated

Yead Mirza

Although Russia had a significant military and economic engagement in the Asia Pacific region during the days of the Soviet Union, the demise of the union had significantly hampered Russia’s relations with the regional countries. However, Russia again wants to re-establish its lost military relations with the regional countries and has been trying to do so for the last one decade.

In recent times, Russia has been selling weapons and other advanced military technology to a number of Asia-Pacific countries in order to bring these countries into its geopolitical orbit.

Despite the existence of a geopolitical rivalry between China and India, Russia had successfully managed to keep close military relations with both these rival nations. Moreover, Russia is increasingly building good relations with many South Asian and Southeast Asian countries, including Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, the Philippines and Thailand.

Furthermore, Russia is on a spree of building certain infrastructures in several Asia Pacific countries, including a nuclear-powered plant in Bangladesh, a small country located in the intersection of South Asia and Southeast Asia.  These infrastructures would make these Asia Pacific countries dependent on Russia for the proper functionality and technological aspects of those infrastructures.

Russia has also been showing-off its muscle power in the region. Late last year, many regional countries were surprised by Russia’s large scale war game. The fact that the war game was conducted in the eastern part of Russia – which forms part of the Asia Pacific region, unlike Russia’s western part that forms part of Europe – raised many eyebrows in Western capitals who thought they now have a new competitor in Asia Pacific region.

The war game – namely Vostok-2018 or East-2018 – involved more than 300,000 troops, 36,000 tanks, 1000 aircraft, helicopters and drones and 80 warships and support vessels.

More surprising was the inclusion of the Chinese military into the war games alongside the Russians. Around 3500 Chinese troops were said to have taken part in the Russian war games. Troops from Mongolia too joined the drills.

Sergei Shoigu, Russian Defense Minister, boasted about the drills saying, “Imagine 36,000 military vehicles moving at the same time: tanks, armored personnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles – and all of this, of course, in conditions as close to a combat situation as possible.”

It seems that although Russia’s military clout in Europe and Middle East are well understood and acknowledged, Russia’s growing engagement in the Asia Pacific region is largely underestimated and underrated.

Accordingly, the growing influence of Russia in the region finds less attention on the regional media outlets, the regional discussion platforms and the think tank papers produced across the region. This is a total contrast to Russian involvement in Europe and Middle East, something which receives huge coverage.

Despite the low coverage of Russian activities in the greater Asia Pacific, Russia’s growing military relations with regional countries and its large-scale drills suggest that Russia’s geopolitical presence is increasing in the region and it will soon become a potent regional power to reckon with.

Why India is turning into Rapistan? What measures we can take to control it?

Arshi Alvi

Time and again rape incidents stir our conscience and sends chills down the spine after listening to brutal,insensitive assault on girl/women & the mental trauma they must have undergone.

Although a crime like rape is nothing new but the rate at which it’s increasing in India is quite worrying &gives us goosebumps.

I feel we have become more of insensitive,morally bankrupt,emotionally drained out unsympathetic,uncompassionate unapologetic Society.

Its sad to see when we can’t even provide safety & freedom to a girl as young as 4 or 6yrs or as old as 70 yrs.Age is no bar for the rapists.

The world is too harsh for gentle souls ,which is full of monsters in shape of humans today.

Although we are in 21st century where girls are given education they happen to know more about their rights,they know how to keep a check on such flesh eaters,still many cases go unreported either due to the fear of society or family pressure..as if being victim to the rapists is a bigger sin than the one who does it.

And the misery caused to the victim is huge even after reporting and filing FIR,the accused are not arrested immediately and even though if they get arrested they get the bail.

After coming out on bail the risk of life of a victim and her family members increases manifolds ,as the accused if belongs to any political party or has influences in the govt threatens them to withdraw the case or attack them to harm them.

That’s the reason many cases of women abuse,molestation,child sex abuse,rape,eve teasing stalking etc goes unreported.

Rape is a severely under-reported crime with surveys showing dark figures of up to 91.6% of rapes going unreported.

As how many girls in India have courage to go through this journey of pain after physical &mental assault by the rapist during rape?

The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) has released the annual Crime in India Report 2017 on October 28, after a delay of two years.

According to the report, a total of 3,59,849 cases were reported against women in 2017. In comparison, in 2016, 3.38 lakh cases of crime were registered against women, while 3.2 lakh cases were recorded in 2015. The number of cases reported has increased.

Looking at state-wise data, Uttar Pradesh has again topped the list with 56,011 cases of crime against women. It is followed by Maharashtra with 31,979 cases and West Bengal at 30,002.

The most disheartening to see that even after the rise in the cases the conviction rate is too low.
While the conviction rate for all crimes against women stands at a measly 19% across India as compared with an average conviction rate of 47% for all crimes.

A troubling observation is that while cases being reported have increased over the last five to six years, conviction rates, unfortunately, have remained stagnant to slightly falling.

For crimes against women overall, pending cases increased from 1,081,756 to 1,204,786. Of course, this is a consequence of the larger inefficiency in the judicial system which had pending cases increase from 9,012,476 to 9,703,482, a truly staggering number.

Although many amendments have been brought in India’s legal system, including the passing of stricter sexual assault laws,creation of fast-track courts for prosecution of rapes. Recent cases have also led to legislative changes. At least four states – Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh have introduced the death penalty for rapes of minors, defined as below 12 years of age. According to news reports, the Centre is also contemplating amending the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act to introduce the provision of the death penalty for raping minors aged below 12 years.

But then what’s stopping the fall of crime rate graph against women/girls?

Just making laws will not help unless there will be a strong will to execute those laws practically and unless authorities are made to be answerable for not solving the case in time.

All this makes me ponder more, Being a mother I fear for my child,I am more worried for the downfall of our society’s morality status.

More worried that when my daughter will grow up and will leave me for higher education,job or after marriage will people be considerate compassionate, empathetic and supporting towards her the way I am today for her?

Will they have a big heart to respect her difference of opinions the way I do ?

Will they forgive her for her immaturity,her faults,mistakes and follies without shaming her ?

Will she be able to enjoy her rights while she will be executing her duties in future?

Even after educating her about her rights,duties,responsibilities and making her empowered will she be able to break those shackles of patriarchy society?

Will she ever be free to express her views,emotions and expressions through her own ways without being judged?

Will she be able to enjoy the life of a free girl ,spirit of happy womanhood and not be dictated with rules,norms under the pretext of the fact that she belongs to the weaker gender?

Being a girl will she be needed to submit to the wishes ,choices and decisions of a male counterpart who is there in the form of friend,father,brother,husband or in laws or in any form of relation?

But worrying alone is not the way to find out the solution to a problem.

It needs to be tackled seriously and intellectually not alone for the happiness of our daughters but for the betterment of society and humanity.

To me there are various precautionary ways to check and keep a control on such incidents.

1.Parenting:

To start with I feel Parenting the child in the right way will make a healthier and most positive impact.Which will go long way.

Sadly but true ,as said_ “Too many of today’s children have straight teeth but crooked morals”

As a parent our job is not just to worry about their looks,their physical health, education,employment &marriage aspects.

The most important part in building up the personality of a child is their mental health, the morals we teach them right from the begining not just by telling but by practising them ourselves in a family.

A family is the smallest unit of the society.If a family will have mentally ,physically,morally healthy individuals only then it will help in making a better,positive society.

Children imbibe more from the surroundings ,rather than what they are told or dictated.

If a boy in a family will see how his father ,respects his mother,loves his daughter,gives equal rights and freedom to his wife.And ask his son to be compassionate towards one sister,mother or any female individual,it will become easier for him to follow this in his life and he will be equally well behaved when he will go out in the society with other girls when he grows up.

Teach your boys how to respect the girls consent, feelings, emotions &difference in opinions.

One must definetly learn to respect the difference without making it an ego clash.

One must learn gender sensitisation.

On the other hand educate your Girls ,empower them &make them emotionally strong to take control of themselves.

Along with that few rules must be followed in the family like:

*No abusing atmosphere,specially men should strictly avoid it in the house.

*In case maids have been beaten by their husbands after drinking ,try counselling them next day about its repercussion on their children.

*vulgar movies with rape scenes,vulgar comedy belittling women should not be seen either on TV or in movie hall,as things like that somehow normalises the gender biased environment.

*Treat your son and daughter equally.

*Teach your children virtue like modesty,which needs to be taught to both girls and boys.

*Drill the morals,good manners right from childhood.

*Pay attention to the grievances or worries of your child on urgent basis because if things not dealt in at the right time will lead to depression or mental ill health.

*Educate your child about Good touch and bad touch.

*Educate your child about the child sex abuse which might happen at school or at public places or may be at home by known people.

*Be open and frank with your children so that they don’t fear to report you in case they have been mishandled by someone outside.
Tell them it’s not their fault but the culprit is he who did the wrong thing.

2. Impact of Movies on our society :

Movies are a powerful medium to spread a message in the society.

Sometimes movies are made to inspire society like we had 3 idiots, Tare zameen par etc & sometimes movies conspires to pull it down.

Movies unknowingly or knowingly plays an important role in a country specially when illiteracy rate is high,where people are not able to distinguish between what’s wrong and right but copy their favourite actor character be it ethically or morally wrong from the screen.Forgetting that they are there just to play a role of a bad or good guy for which they are getting paid.

In India less educated people follow their movie icons blindly,sometimes to the limit of making them feel “God like”

In such a scenario the onus also lies on the film industry to use a decent language or dialogues which do not promote gender biasness and do not promote stalking,raping ,abusing language, belittling of women or to project them as sex symbol or as an object of the glamour world.

For instance these are the dialogues from a recent Akshay kumar’s film,called “Houseful 3 “,sadly it evokes cheap laughs.And the audience has no problem with it.

• “Uski ovaries nikal do. Na mamma banegi, na mia milega. Mamma Mia!”
• “Hey! Kya tum meri tawayaf, oh, wife banogi?”

Normalising every abusing word,every act of stalking,cheap commenting,vulgar comedy & then cheap laughs over it.

Talks about the mental status of the society.We need to take care of our mental faculty too.A healthy mind does not believe in negativity.

I think we should restrict such filthy or derogatory remarks to come out into the society through movies.We should have filters to control such things if a movie is getting “U” certification from the board.

3. Political scenario: (Talking in context with India )

One thing I don’t understand is how rapists,criminals and sex offenders in India get through the process of filing their nomination papers for elections in India?

How can a person who has in past done hate speeches based on raping dead bodies of a particular community get through as clean?

How come people with criminal backgrounds of rapes and murders,communal violence and abuse cases can file their papers so easily without any objection from the election commission?

They must be rejected then and there without any further explanations from them.Even if they have got the bail in such cases or if the cases are pending in the courts they are still the accused of such heinous crimes.

But in India getting in power absolves all your previous sins.

All the criminal records get rolled out.All the criminals be it even an accused terrorist like Pragya Thakur gets the clean chit. And they are again in a position to play their next innings of blood and lust.

And we the citizens are fool enough to vote them to power because they play with the mind set of the people,play hatred agenda against minorities and on that basis they get to power.

But are we so insane not to analyse the facts and figures in today’s situation where 49%(223) MPs are facing criminal charges with 29%(159) MPs facing serious charges (Rape, murder, crime against women etc)-BJP(87) ,CONG(19)

On one hand we vote for rapist and on the other hand we cry for justice.

How can we expect rapists to make rules and laws against themselves?

Do you really think they are bothered about girls/women safety?

“Beti Bachao” is another jumla for them.

Amongst many one latest case of Hyposcrisy from BJP party was hours after protesting for Hyderabad rape victim,BJP youth leader Ashish Goud was booked for sexual harassment. Ashish is also a member of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM). “The accused is absconding and we are yet to apprehend him,” said the police.

Many leaders and supporters from their party like Sengar, Chinmayanand,Sakshi Maharaj,Asaram Bapu,Ram Rahim,Nityaanand etc are either BJP leaders or fraudulent babas which under BJP cover are still roaming free even after facing serious charges of Rape or were brought to books when the public protested against them. Even BJP party was involved in child trafficking.

When an 8 year old girl Asifa from Kashmir was raped in the temple for couple of days and then murdered,then the public and the leader from BJP party marched in support of the rapists.

Many other rapist were also given power & position by the govt. This is the example they are setting for the rapists. In such conditions do you think there will be any fear of law and order in the hearts and minds of public for this crime?

So basically If we vote for a rapist then we are a supporter of rape.We are equally responsible for their crimes.And we have no right to make hue and cry if we send such criminals to the parliament to represent us.

What you sow,so shall you reap.

Yesterday it was someone else’s daughter,tomorrow God forbid it can be your sister or daughter.

Therefore start raising awareness,start asking questions to the leaders,police and set them accountable for the justice you want.

Media should play a responsible role by being a spokesperson of the public & victim instead of the leaders who are hand in glove with the criminals.

Let them feel the pressure of public to mend their ways.

In my opinion the severe punishments are the deterrent in the path of crimes.
Fast track hearing of such cases should be done and strictest punishments should be given to the criminals.

4. Rape Used as Fear Tool :

Some rapes are communal, which are difficult to forget and forgive because they are done with the agenda.

Political party like BJP used Rape as a fear tool against minorities ,this is the lowest anyone can get to.

Yes,this happened in 2002 Gujarat riots under Modi who was a CM then.It was a state sponsored Communal riots.

No one speaks about those 330 gang rapes during the 2002 Gujarat riots where one thing distinctly rotten about it was use of rape as a form of terror.

And all those rapists are living freely out there, most probably with an even higher position in society today.

Harsh Mander writes about women and children who were subjected to the most sadistic and vicious forms of violence during the 2002 massacre.

Even more horrifying than the use of sexual violence during #GujaratCarnage as a tool to subjugate, humiliate was to see how it was being ‘celebrated’ months later, when Modi took out his #GauravYatra stopping sometimes at sites of grave crimes. I wonder how do such people sleep at night and those cries of innocents and bloodbaths do not hunt them?

The man who used #Rape as a fear factor in #Gujarat is secretly applying same strategy in #Kashmir by either through army or through squads which he had sent to Kashmir.

Few activists have managed to get the ground reports from there which are disturbing.

The stories of humiliation are still under cover as Kashmir has been locked down from past 4months ,where net,mobiles and schools etc are all shut down.And people are not allowed to express their concerns.

So do we expect his govt to do justice to #DaughtersOfIndia ?

When he himself is partner in such crimes like rapes?

Ask your conscience.Think rationally and then come to the conclusion if I am wrong in judging him.

Conclusion:

Start Parenting your children with responsibility.Teach them the true meaning of morality empathy,compassion, consent and respecting of differences.

Society needs to be more responsible too about their surroundings.Help the girl/women if she is in need.Protect her like a brother or father,on the road,in public places etc.

Film industry and Media have to take a stand to make this society more positive and stop promoting patriarchy and negativity towards girls /women.

And If a society expects to have justice,it needs to stop voting such immoral,irresponsible,corrupt, criminal leaders into power.

Strict law and order needs to be set up by the Police. Judiciary needs to punish the rapists who so ever it may be irrespective of position and power.

And those markets and shops are needed to be raided where rape videos are widely sold out in markets. The availability of such videos on Whatsapp can boost the rape culture.So it needs to be dealt in with hard rules.

Be the change,you want to see in the world. Start from yourself.

Why Citizenship Amendment Bill be rejected?

 Aftab Alam

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led government at the centre is all set to introduce the controversial Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) in the Parliament on December 9. The existing Citizenship Act was enacted in 1955 which along with articles 5 to 11 of the Constitution of India determines Indian citizenship.

The original Citizenship Act of 1955 has been amended several times in the past but it had never attracted such media and public galore as it has received this time. It is intriguing to explore as to what makes the current CAB so controversial. Is there anything serious in the proposed CAB that Muslims should be worried about? How CAB is linked with the National Register of Citizens (NRC) which BJP is planning to carry out at the national level?

The government had first introduced the CAB in 2016 after 2014 general elections but due to lack of a requisite number in the upper house it could not get through that time. This time, however, the government seems to be visibly more confident after Parliament’s nod to the triple talaq bill and abrogation of Article 370 with support from crucial alliance partners like Janata Dal (United) and some regional parties like AIADMK, BJD, TRS, YSRCP and some Independents.

The main provision which has made CAB a controversial legislation is the promise to grant citizenship on the basis of religion. The proposed CAB seeks to grant citizenship to all Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Christians, Jains and Parsis illegal migrants fleeing religious persecution from Muslim majority states of Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan if they had entered India on or before December 31, 2014. The existing laws debar illegal migrants from applying for Indian citizenship.

The CAB, however, palpably excludes Muslim migrants of these countries from acquiring Indian citizenship even if they had suffered similar religious persecution. There is no clear answer from the government as to why the CAB discriminates against Muslims.

If anyone wishes to understand the true motives behind the CAB one have to view it against the backdrop of recently concluded National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam wherein at least 19 lakh people, mostly Hindus, have been excluded from the final list.

Upset with NRC’s final list, BJP’s Assam unit quickly rejected it. Its leader and Assam’s Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma explained that his government had decided to reject it because it “included many who should not have been and excluded many who are genuine Indian citizens”.

The Assam NRC has exposed the BJP which has been falsely propagating that after the 1971 War a large number of Muslims, ranging between 4 million to 10 million, had illegally migrated to India from Bangladesh. This, according to BJP, has not only changed the demography of the some north eastern States particularly Assam but also seriously undermined the right of the local people over resources.

During the 2019 election campaign the Home Minister Amit Shah had even described the illegal immigrants as ‘termites’ who were eating the grain that should go to the poor, and are taking our jobs. Stoking the communal passion he also pledged that every single infiltrator from this country would be removed, except Buddhists, Hindus and Sikhs.

This narrative has helped the BJP to gain power in the region but the Assam NRC has come as a huge disappointment to the party. Its bogey of illegal Muslims infiltration has not only fallen flat but has even backfired. The party is now being blamed for this humanitarian catastrophe of making 19 lakh people as stateless.  The BJP is facing stiff resistance in the region both from within and from the opposition parties after the NRC in Assam.

Upset with the developments in Assam, the BJP now wants to correct its political folly through CAB which it thinks will prove as a two–edged sword. Through CAB, BJP wants to give citizenship to all Hindus illegal migrants who have been excluded from the Assam’s final NRC list but at the same time, it can easily exclude Muslims out of it. It will help boost BJP’s image of a party that cares Hindus not only living in the country but also outside the state.

The RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat had already announced that Hindus need not be apprehensive irrespective of whether their names feature in the NRC or not in Assam and elsewhere. The BJP president and the Home Minister, Amit Shah has also echoed the same view. Recently he stated that “I assure all Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Jain refugees they won’t have to leave the country, they will get Indian citizenship and enjoy all the rights of an Indian national.”

With the government’s proposal to conduct a nationwide NRC after CAB, Muslims seem to be worried. They fear that if their names are left out in this exercise, due to one reason or the other, they would eventually lose their citizenship but if non-Muslims are somewhat excluded they would always have a chance to get the citizenship back through proposed CAB.

While refuting the allegation of the opposition that the proposed CAB is communal legislation specifically targeting Muslims, the BJP has come out with the following arguments: Firstly, it claims that religion is not the basis of the grant of citizenship under CAB rather religious persecution. Secondly, BJP argues that while Muslims have many countries to seek refuge, Hindus have no other place to go except India. It further considers all Hindus as the natural citizens of India.

But it has no answer to the inclusion of Christians, Buddhists and Parsis as like Muslims they do have many alternative places to seek refuge. The rationale that BJP has given for the exclusion of Muslims from CAB is not only flawed and devoid of logic but also constitutionally impermissible and must be rejected in its present form.

Australian cities bathed in smoke from hundreds of bushfires

Martin Scott

The horror early start to Australia’s bushfire season has continued this week, with fires burning out of control in the states of New South Wales (NSW), Queensland, Western Australia and Victoria.

Sydney has been enveloped in toxic smoke for days on end as a result of blazes burning to the south, west and north of the city. The NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment reported that air quality was “hazardous” in the city on 12 days last month. At times, smoke haze has caused air quality in both Sydney and Brisbane to rank among the worst in the world.

In the latest flare-ups, the NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) issued an emergency warning for a fire burning at Gospers Mountain, northwest of Sydney. The fire, which has already burnt more than 250,000 hectares, merged with two smaller blazes on Friday morning.

Southwest of Sydney, the Green Wattle Creek fire has consumed more than 45,000 hectares and jumped Lake Burragorang, Sydney’s main water supply reservoir. Three firefighters were injured fighting the blaze and had to be airlifted to hospital on Thursday. Press photographers and firefighters described witnessing a spontaneous explosion of bushland on Thursday night that was unlike anything they had seen before.

On the NSW South Coast, a fire originating near Currowan has threatened residents throughout the week. The fire crossed the main coastal Princes Highway on Monday, leaving residents of Depot Beach, Pretty Beach, Pebbly Beach and Bawley Point with no way to leave. The fire has spread over more than 70,000 hectares and destroyed at least one home. While it has been downgraded to “watch and act,” residents of the South Durras area have been encouraged to leave.

Less than 100 kilometres inland, a fire in the Tallaganda National Park burnt through more than 30,000 hectares in 10 days. Residents in Braidwood and surrounding areas, not far from Canberra, are still being told to monitor the situation carefully, as hot, dry and windy conditions are forecast for the coming days.

There are currently 100 bush and grass fires burning across NSW, 13 of which carry “emergency” or “watch and act” warnings. Since July, bushfires in the state have scorched more than two million hectares of land, and destroyed more than 680 homes. Six people have been killed.

In southeast Queensland, Cypress Gardens and Forest Ridge were evacuated on Wednesday, threatened by the worst of the 47 fires burning across that state. While the blaze continues, the warning has been downgraded to “watch and act.” So far, at least three homes have been lost.

There is no reported immediate threat to human lives from bushfires currently burning in Victoria, but fires in East Gippsland last weekend claimed the life of a 69-year-old worker assisting the firefighting effort when his vehicle rolled down an embankment.

The most serious fire in Western Australia is at Nambeelup, just south of Perth. Although the fire is currently contained, the weather forecast is for strong winds and high temperatures, raising concerns the fire may spread toward built-up areas.

The danger of bushfires is not limited to the immediate vicinity of the fire. Smoke from the fires has travelled as far as New Zealand and South America.

While the sight of ashes falling from the sky is a stark reminder of the ongoing catastrophe, the invisible components of the smoke present a greater threat. Tiny (smaller than 2.5 micrometres) particles in bushfire smoke cause irritation in the eyes and throat, and enter the bloodstream through the lungs.

The effects are unpleasant for otherwise healthy people, but for sufferers of respiratory illnesses, including asthma, lung cancer and emphysema, or those at risk of heart attack, this level of smoke pollution can be life-threatening.

In NSW, ambulance calls related to asthma or breathing issues are up 30 percent on the weekly average, and emergency presentations are up 25 percent due to the smoke haze.

Smoke-polluted air is also known to cause an increase in the number of people needing medical attention for deep vein thrombosis, complications of diabetes and neurological disorders including Parkinson’s disease.

A recent US study found that short-term exposure to fine particulate matter was positively correlated with an increase in deaths and hospital admissions resulting from conditions not previously thought to be related to air pollution, including septicaemia, fluid and electrolyte disorders, renal failure and intestinal obstruction without hernia.

The NSW government has denied reports that its fire services have suffered cuts of up to $40 million. But it is clear that spending on firefighting personnel and resources is not keeping pace with the impact of climate change, population growth and shoddy construction practises, including flammable cladding on apartment buildings.

Unlike police officers, firefighters are not designated “frontline workers” and are therefore not exempt from the NSW Labour Expense Cap, an austerity measure ordering government agencies to limit promotions, cut overtime payments through increased use of part-time and casual workers, and reduce staff numbers through “natural attrition.”

This means greater reliance on volunteers. The annual labour cost for the state’s RFS volunteer force is less than $120 million, in the form of insurance, workers’ compensation and a payroll tax exemption for employers while their employees are fighting fires.

As climate change increases the number and intensity of bushfires, and the length of fire seasons, ever-greater demands are being placed on volunteer firefighters. Former chief executive of the Country Fire Authority (CFA), the Victorian equivalent of the RFS, Neil Bibby, recently told reporters: “Disasters are becoming bigger and lasting longer, and starting earlier and finishing later in the year… [W]e’re coming to the tipping point where the ability to rest people and the ability to do the job the volunteers do is diminishing.”

The sustainability of volunteer-based fire services is being further undercut by the ageing of the population. This is exacerbated in rural areas by an exodus of younger people, driven by high unemployment, lack of educational opportunities and the consolidation of small family farms into massive agribusinesses.

Longer working hours, more families with both parents working full-time and increased commute times as a result of inadequate infrastructure and overpriced housing, also leave workers with little time to volunteer for fire fighting.

Nonetheless, thousands of workers still come forward, saving countless lives and homes. The bravery and generosity displayed by ordinary people in times of crisis stand in sharp contrast to the response of capitalist governments, which put the profit interests of big business and tax cuts for the wealthy ahead of the health and safety of people and the environment.