Climate change, pollution and fascism

By Val Reynoso

The most recent report on Climate Change that was commissioned by the UN explicates that by 2040, the globe will be struck with a severe environmental crisis where there will be a mass death of coral reefs, wildfires and worsened food shortages, among other issues resulting from climate change.

Climate change and other environmental issues are a direct result of capitalism-imperialism and its drive for extracting infinite profit from the finite resources of the planet. Mega-corporations, big businesses and companies and the politicians who enable them are the spearheads of the rapid deforestation, mass pollution, accumulation of plastic waste, rising sea levels, etc. that have significantly augmented in the world in the past decades until now.

One instance of this is how in Brazil under the Temer administration in 2017, a plot of land in the Amazon rainforest that was the size of Denmark was appropriated in order to dedicate solely to gold mining, which not only results in further deforestation and contamination of the planet, but also displaces and kills indigenous communities of those regions, as will be continued under the far-right Bolsonaro administration.

This further proves that capitalism-imperialism breeds racism through this socioeconomic terrorism and neocolonialism. Countries like China have taken measures to reduce pollutions and its imprint on the planet, such as building forest cities and making other reforestation efforts.

In regards to pollution in India, New Delhi is the 6th most polluted city in the world according to a list released by the WHO, with 10 other cities of the 12 ranked also being in India. The WHO also reported that 93% of all children in the world breathe air with pollution that exceeds their guidelines, with vast majority of these children being in India.

Some factors that contribute to the mass air pollution in New Delhi are cars, burning of coal and wood for cooking, dust storms, forest fires that have an impact on most of India, and India’s hills and mountains trap toxic air over the country to the point where breathing it is potentially fatal.

Authorities are planning to cope with this issue in having established the Air Quality Early Warning System in New Delhi, which is a 72-hour pollution forecast system that will forecast the state of the air three days in advance for several areas of the capital and other localities, in an attempt to help residents prepare for bad air days and so enforcement agencies may take due action.


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