The green in Green Left Weekly
Howard's offer to the South Pacific countries seems perfectly reasonable. In exchange for these island nations' support for his disastrous greenhouse emissions policy for Australia, the Olympic flame will be carried through the region, focusing the eyes of the world on this little known corner.
It would be a kind of last-stand publicity for the Pacific nations because, if Howard gets his way, it won't be long before rising water levels completely obliterate them.
Among ordinary Australians, awareness of our role in safeguarding the future of the planet is still very strong. The only ones who seem unconcerned are big business leaders, who stand to make enormous profits from environmental vandalism, and their agents in the parties of government, who will do anything to help guarantee those profits and, therefore, their personal futures.
As part of countering these environmental dinosaurs, Green Left Weekly is committed to getting out as much news and information as possible about environmental and social justice issues — and the links between them.
It is because it draws together the "green" and the "left" that this project is so valuable. Environmental news and the discussion about how to save the planet can't be considered separately from the economic and political conditions which shape government policies.
At Green Left Weekly we say that jobs and the environment don't have to be counterposed. We say that immigrants are not to blame for the jobs and environment crises. We put the blame firmly where it belongs — on an economic and social system that encourages irrational decisions to be made in the name of economic rationalism.
But Green Left doesn't only offer a better analysis of the causes of environmental destruction. Just as importantly, it provides information and encouragement to strengthen campaigns that can bring real change, both locally and globally.
If you too refuse to believe the lies of those who presently wield power, then make sure you get the real news on a regular basis. Subscribe to Green Left Weekly and get a green point of view with a social conscience. Green Left Weekly — it's your paper.