Keep Countercurrents Alive ! An App...
For nearly two decades now Countercurrents has...
Environment
Amazon Rainforest Will Collapse by 2064, New Study Predicts
Tiffany Duong | January 11, 2021
Towards Greener and Cleaner Cities, With Special Care For The Poor
Bharat Dogra | January 6, 2021
Will the government hold Big Polluters liable for air pollution, preventable diseases, and untimely deaths?
Sandeep Pandey | January 2, 2021
Featured Stories
World
Preview signals Biden’s foreign policy shifts
In his first media interview, the incoming US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan has given a preview of Joe Biden administration’s foreign policy directions in regard of Russia, Iran and China. Major shifts can be expected in the policies toward both China and Iran while selective engagement of Russia is on cards. First, Russia. Sullivan noted that it was “most[Read More…]
India
International Support Continues for Protesting Farmers in India
On 5 January, British MP Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi wrote a letter to Boris Johnson urging him to convey to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi the “heartfelt anxieties” of MPs’ constituents (many emanating from Punjab) regarding the treatment of protesting farmers in India. The letter was signed by more than 100 MPs and Lords and had cross-party support. Dhesi stated that[Read More…]
Globalisation
Dispossession and Imperialism Repackaged as ‘Feeding the World’
The world is fast losing farms and farmers through the concentration of land into the hands of rich and powerful land speculators and agribusiness corporations. Smallholder farmers are being criminalised and even made to disappear when it comes to the struggle for land. They are constantly exposed to systematic expulsion. In 2014, the Oakland Institute found that institutional investors, including[Read More…]
Human Rights
Julian Assange, WikiLeaks and Australia’s Complicity
Australia’s Foreign Minister, Marise Payne, said little in the statement from her department, which was a good thing, as it might have been dangerously useful. The finding of a UK court on whether Julian Assange would be extradited to the United States was made “on the grounds of his mental health and consequent suicide risk.” She does not care to[Read More…]
Imperialism
POW Nation – When Will America Free Itself From War?
“POWs Never Have A Nice Day.” That sentiment was captured on a button a friend of mine wore for our fourth grade class photo in 1972. That prisoners of war could never have such a day was reinforced by the sad face on that button. Soon after, American POWs would indeed be released by their North Vietnamese captors as the American war[Read More…]
Communal Harmony
Indian Communalism – A Deep Dive
Written by Hemanty Tudu and Vidhyam Introduction Communal harmony has barely been upheld in recent Indian history. It is always one issue or the other that gets attached to religion and then the communal terrorism commences. Kashmir, Ayodhya, mob lynching, elections, these all had their fair share in creating tensions in the name of religion. It is high time we[Read More…]
Climate Change
An Exhausted Planet Limps Into 2021
Early this new year, the Alliance of World Scientists (13,700 strong) delivered a biting report, not mincing words: “Scientists now find that catastrophic climate change could render a significant portion of the Earth uninhabitable consequent to continued high emissions, self-reinforcing climate feedback loops and looming tipping points.” (Source: William J. Ripple, et al, The Climate Emergency: 2020 in Review, Scientific[Read More…]
Environmental Protection
Amazon Rainforest Will Collapse by 2064, New Study Predicts
The future of the world’s largest rainforest looks bleak. A new report for Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development concluded that the Amazon rainforest will collapse and largely become a dry, shrubby plain by 2064. Development, deforestation and the climate crisis are to blame, study author and University of Florida geologist Robert Toovey Walker found, UPI reported. Walker reviewed recent research, offering that heavy development in Amazonian[Read More…]
Counter Solutions
Yearnings for Alternative Food and Farming Systems
“Men who can graft the trees and make the seed fertile and big can find no way to let the hungry people eat their produce . Men who have created new fruits in the world cannot create a system whereby their fruits may be eaten. And the failure hangs over the State like a great sorrow.” – John Steinbeck[Read More…]
Resource Crisis
Fossil Fuel Production Is Reaching Limits in a Strange Way
Strangely enough, the limit we seem to be reaching with respect to fossil fuel extraction comes from low prices. At low prices, the extraction of oil, coal, and natural gas becomes unprofitable. Producers go bankrupt, or they voluntarily cut back production in an attempt to force prices higher. As the result of these forces, production tends to fall. This limit comes long[Read More…]
Alternative Energy
Solar is now ‘cheapest electricity in history’, confirms IEA
The world’s best solar power schemes now offer the “cheapest…electricity in history” with the technology cheaper than coal and gas in most major countries. That is according to the International Energy Agency’s World Energy Outlook 2020. The 464-page outlook, published today by the IEA, also outlines the “extraordinarily turbulent” impact of coronavirus and the “highly uncertain” future of global energy use[Read More…]
Patriarchy
Encroaching Identity
During the hearing of the farmer movement, the Supreme Court expressed concern towards the elderly and women and asked them to withdraw from the movement which is revealing the court patriarchal mentality towards women as well as the movement. Supreme court is directly trying to disturbed unity and organization of the movement. Chief justice of India said That “We do not[Read More…]
Palestine
Covid-19 under Apartheid: How Israel Manipulates Suffering of Palestinians
Israel’s decision to exclude Palestinians from its COVID-19 vaccination campaign may have surprised many. Even by Israel’s poor humanitarian standards, denying Palestinians access to life-saving medication seems extremely callous. Amnesty International, among many organizations, condemned the Israeli government’s decision to bar Palestinians from receiving the vaccine. The rights group described the Israeli action as evidence of the “institutionalized discrimination[Read More…]
South Asia
United States of South Asia
In more ways than one, South Asia has been pushed back to the 1940’s. If we were to take stock of the situation in the entire subcontinent, we can easily find out that we have made little progress and have got stuck in the status-quo mud for the past three-quarters of a century. Besides providing a binding social order, the[Read More…]
Annihilate Caste
State And Annihilation Of Caste
Indian state is part of Indian society and Indian society is built on caste based social order. That way state or the government can do very little to destroy the caste system because as the state is built on the caste and the caste society is controlled by the top castes – the state cannot go against the system[Read More…]
Life/Philosophy
Death by lethal injection: An inhumane way to die
Capital punishment is the most premeditated of murders – Albert Camus What could be worse than death? The answer perhaps would be to know exactly when one is going to die. Locked up in a condemned cell, time crawls like a snail for someone who is on death row. Every waking hour of the day and night, the thought of[Read More…]
Arts/Literature
Covid-19 lockdown: Confronted with hardships, 15-year-old Sania chose to rap
Written by Arun Kumar & Jonita Colaco ‘Will there be singing in the times of darkness Yes there will be singing about the darkness’ — Bertolt Brecht Par kabhi socha hai Jo Govandi mein rehete hain Unka kya hota hai Vote dene wala Har ghareeb rota hai, kyun? This is an excerpt from 15-year-old Sania Mistree’s rap[Read More…]
Book Review
Two Streams of Freedom Movement Often Supported and Complemented Each Other
An aspect of freedom movement of India which deserves to be better known in India, particularly among youth, is that various streams of freedom movement in India often supported and complemented each other. This is particularly true of the two most important streams, one identified mainly with Mahatma Gandhi and the other predominantly with Shahid Bhagat Singh. In a very[Read More…]
