{"id":22298,"date":"2020-01-19T12:00:30","date_gmt":"2020-01-19T04:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/?p=22298"},"modified":"2020-01-24T01:18:16","modified_gmt":"2020-01-23T17:18:16","slug":"australias-bushfire-catastrophe-a-socialist-view","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/2020\/01\/19\/22298\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia\u2019s bushfire catastrophe \u2013 a socialist view"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Australia shows the climate disaster is already happening<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

By Jeremy Trott, Socialist Action (CWI in Australia)\nadditional reporting by Adam N Lee<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The scale of this year\u2019s bushfires is unprecedented,\naffecting every state on the continent. They are the largest bushfires ever\nrecorded in Australia. At the time of writing, almost 6 million hectares have\nburned \u2013 an area equivalent in size to Vietnam. Twenty seven people have been\nkilled and thousands have lost their homes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The effect on wildlife has been staggering. 480 million\nanimals have been killed including a third of all koalas. At least 30 rare\nspecies have become extinct. The impact of this mass extinction on biodiversity\nand the ecological balance is frightening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For weeks on end a haze of toxic smoke has engulfed Sydney,\nBrisbane and Canberra. On most days air quality is worse than Beijing. In the\nfirst two weeks of December, dozens of Sydney offices were evacuated when\nindoor fire alarms were triggered by smoke creeping inside. Ambulance call-outs\nfor respiratory difficulties jumped 30% in the same period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As this disaster unfolds, the Liberal-National coalition\ngovernment is asleep at the wheel. Like Emperor Nero fiddling while Rome\nburned, Prime Minister Scott Morrison holidayed in Hawaii during a state of\nemergency, prompting widespread public condemnation.  Morrison\u2019s holiday summed up the callous\nattitude of a government  of \u2018climate deniers\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For decades scientists and fire experts have warned that\nclimate change will exacerbate bushfires in Australia. These warnings are now a\nreality. The bushfire season is lengthening, with reduced rainfall and longer,\nhotter summers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Australian capitalism and its politicians have done nothing to prepare for this situation. Firefighting in rural Australia is performed predominantly by thousands of unpaid local volunteers, sacrificing their time \u2013 and sometimes their lives \u2013 usually without compensation. Starved of government funding, volunteer firefighters often rely on community fundraising efforts to provide basic supplies. Both the Queensland and New South Wales Rural Fire Service faced budget cuts shortly before the 2019 fire season. These cuts cost lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While forcing crucial fire services to run on a shoestring\nbudget is criminal, the political establishment\u2019s biggest crime by far is its\nclimate policy. Servants to the greed of the fossil fuel industry, both the\nLiberal and Labor parties have expanded gas and coal production instead of\ntaking rapid action to transition to renewable energy.  They blindly follow the logic of the\ncapitalist market: short term profits no matter the cost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In early January, 40,000 people took to the streets to protest\nin Sydney, 15,000 in Melbourne, and many more in at least seven other cities.\nThis mass mobilisation is indicative of the simmering anger in society that\nmust be harnessed to build a serious movement capable of transforming the\nsituation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to more student strikes, trade unions need to\nspearhead this movement by stepping up to organise collective workplace action.\nWalk-offs by construction, maritime, and electrical workers in Sydney have\nalready taken place on health and safety grounds in response to the toxic smoke<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These small-scale stop-work actions should be escalated into\na national strike of workers and students to demand immediate funding for fire\nservices and action on climate change. A mass strike and protests to shut down\nthe economy for even one day would put immense pressure on the government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The climate crisis and its disastrous consequences requires\na radical restructuring of the economy. It is clear that as long as society\u2019s\nwealth, resources and industries are privately owned, corporations will put\ntheir own profit interests ahead of the interests of the community<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We need public ownership and control of the key parts of the\neconomy.  If we brought the big oil, gas\nand mining companies into public hands we could begin a planned transition to\nrenewable energy. Instead of cutting jobs, workers in those industries could be\nretrained and deployed to sustainable jobs elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We cannot rely on the private sector to make important\ndecisions about our environment and livelihoods. A democratic socialist plan of\nproduction, involving workers in all sectors, is urgently necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australia shows the climate disaster is already happening<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":22309,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[148,124],"tags":[199,223],"class_list":{"0":"post-22298","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-international","8":"category-news","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-climate-change"},"yoast_head":"\nAustralia\u2019s bushfire catastrophe \u2013 a socialist view - China Worker<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/2020\/01\/19\/22298\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Australia\u2019s bushfire catastrophe \u2013 a socialist view - 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