Wildfires a smoke signal for capitalism in decay

June 7—As we go to press, wildfires are burning across six Canadian provinces and a territory and they’re still spreading, pouring more smoke throughout the Atlantic Coast as Code Red for air quality spread. The equivalent of 5 million football fields are on fire!

New York City is declared to have the worst air quality in the world today. One calculator suggested breathing in the air here for 24 hours is the same as smoking 22 cigarettes (Daily Mail, 6/7).

For almost 50 years, scientists have warned us about how global warming—climate change—will destroy our lives. But the bosses have slow-walked any reduction in carbon emissions, and now we are choking to death in Canada and the U.S. while the fossil fuel industry merrily takes its profits to the bank.

There are at least three phenomena that are caused by climate change: rising sea levels, heat waves and forest fires. High temperatures, which are typically not seen until the summer months in Canada, are causing dry conditions and allowing forest fires to break out and spread.

Even Canadian Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said, “It is a simple fact that Canada is experiencing the impacts of climate change, including more frequent and more extreme wildfires, and the amount of forests burned by wildfire is projected to double by 2050 due to our changing climate, causing longer and more intense wildfire seasons, more extreme weather conditions and increased drought.”

A classic case of Nero (the bosses) fiddling while the working-class burns. It’s capitalism that deserves to go up in smoke, not the working class. Our very survival depends on fighting for communism and burning this vicious capitalist system down. The earth belongs to us, and with the working class in power, it will rise on new foundations.