CounterCurrents: The Anthropocene Is Here: Humanity Has Pushed Earth Into A New Epoch, Balochistan And The Oil And Trade Of India And China

Dear Friend,

Day 53. Curfew lifted but shut down continues in the Kashmir valley.  People hold marches and rallies in many parts of the valley. Clashes break out and several people are injured. Meanwhile a soldier was killed while attempting to foil an infiltration attempt across the Line of Control. A defence source told IANS that Lance Naik Rajender Singh of 3 Raj Rifles was killed in the Sunderbani sector of the LoC in Rajouri.

The Anthropocene Epoch has officially begun. The Anthropocene is a geological epoch when human activity, namely rapid industrialization and nuclear activity, set global systems on a different trajectory. It is an epoch when human activity has created an incredible impact on the environment of our planet. The Earth is now on course to see 75 percent of species become extinct in the next few centuries if current trends continue. Homo Sapiens too could be one of the species to disappear from the face of the earth. We are our own undoing! Time to buckle up and take charge of our lives on a war footing. 

Yes, some are doing that already. The Zapitastas in the Chiapas mountains of Mexico. The Zapitastas have opened up space for a wide range of alternative ways of re-organizing societies, economies, and food systems. They've opened up new pathways in autonomous education, decolonization, and gender equity. They've also achieved food sovereignty and food security. Lessons to be learnt. 

Meanwhile the neo-liberal regime is hyperactive in enclosing the remaining commons managed by indigenous communities. Protected Natural Areas is a pet IMF/World Bank project practiced world over, taking control of the forests collectively conserved and managed by the indigenous communities and eventually pushing them out of the Commons. Ana de Ita tells such a story from Mexico. 

And a lot of stories from around the world. 

If you don't mind, and if you think the content of this news letter is critical for the dignified living and survival of humanity and other species on earth, please forward it to your friends and spread the word. It's time for humanity to come together as one family! You can subscribe to our news letter here http://www.countercurrents.org/news-letter/.

In Solidarity

Binu Mathew
Editor
www.countercurrents.org

The Anthropocene Is Here: Humanity Has Pushed Earth Into A New Epoch
by Deirdre Fulton 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/30/the-anthropocene-is-here-humanity-has-pushed-earth-into-a-new-epoch/

The Anthropocene Epoch has begun, according to a group of experts assembled at the International Geological Congress in Cape Town, South Africa this week.
After seven years of deliberation, members of an international working group voted unanimously on Monday to acknowledge that the Anthropocene—a geologic time interval so-dubbed by chemists Paul Crutzen and Eugene Stoermer in 2000—is real.


Food Sovereignty In Rebellion: Decolonization, Autonomy, Gender Equity, And The Zapatista Solution
by Levi Gahman 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/30/food-sovereignty-in-rebellion-decolonization-autonomy-gender-equity-and-the-zapatista-solution/

When viewed in its geopolitical context, the Zapatista insurgency has opened up space for a wide range of alternative ways of re-organizing societies, economies, and food systems. Consequently, what the Zapatistas prove through their resistance (i.e., efforts in autonomous education, decolonization, and gender equity) is that a recognition of Indigenous people’s right to self-determination, in conjunction with anti-capitalist collective work and movements toward food sovereignty, can indeed provide viable alternatives to the world’s neoliberal food regime as well as revolutionize the struggle for food security.

Using “Protected Natural Areas” To Appropriate The Commons
by Ana de Ita 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/30/using-protected-natural-areas-to-appropriate-the-commons/

Even as worldwide pressures mount to protect sites with high biological diversity, indigenous peoples and local communities are redoubling their struggles of resistance against a “solution” that claims to protect ecosystems, the establishment of protected natural areas (PNAs). The policy of establishing PNAs, which seeks to maintain the best conserved redoubts of the planet, is often at odds with the rights of native peoples, since many of those redoubts exist in the first place only because indigenous communities have conserved, recreated, and maintained them.

Balochistan And The Oil And Trade Of India And China
by S G Vombatkere 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/30/balochistan-and-the-oil-and-trade-of-india-and-china/

An international People’s Demand for “NO WAR” (conventional, nuclear, biological, chemical or cyber), together with wider political realization of rapidly advancing GW-CC, could be a viable brake to the mindlessly competitive, relentless, lemming-like rush towards the brink of the precipice.


Prejudice Against Atheists Troubling
by Kristin Christman 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/30/prejudice-against-atheists-troubling/

The Democratic National Committee’s conspiring to sabotage Bernie Sanders’ campaign is disturbing on many levels, but what makes me livid is that the DNC was hoping to portray Bernie Sanders as an atheist. What’s worse than the intended smear is the belief that branding someone an atheist is a smear.

The Kashmir Upspring
by Sadiq Zafar 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/30/the-kashmir-upspring/

Generations have witnessed that the road which leads to New Delhi is blood-soaked. Under the camouflage of democracy India has done irreparable damage to generations. With its brutal and torturous armed forces, India has wiped away men who resisted against the oppression and atrocities, thus the biggest democracy failed in Kashmir and turned into an anarchist regime for the people of Kashmir.

#HappyToBleed Campaign Is Back

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/30/happytobleed-campaign-is-back/

Nikita Azad is back with #HappyToBleed campaign once again. Countercurrents.org was an active partner in the campaign. Lots of women and men came foward to join the campaign with a photograph holding a poster with #HappyToBleed written on it. Those photos garnered millions of views on Facebook. One single post even garnering 12.5 million views! After the campaign went viral and gaining international headlines, lots of worship places in India were opened up to women’s entry which was hitherto denied to them. Even court orders followed allowing women entry into worship places.

Saffron Heads With Neutral Masks: Spreading Disharmony Through Social Media
by T Navin 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/30/saffron-heads-with-neutral-masks-spreading-disharmony-through-social-media/

Such social media blogs, in the name of neutral media are only representatives of a highly reactionary right wing ideology. They can only be termed as Saffron heads with Neutral Masks. These are emerging as the representatives of the ruling party to ‘manufacture consent’ in favor of the party in power and Hindutva ideas. This poses a danger which needs to be exposed through establishing counter hegemony’ by left, democratic, secular and progressive forces.

Loyalty
by Gaither Stewart 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/30/loyalty/

Gaither Stewart explores the various forms that loyalty may take and in doing so raises questions about various relationships in our lives. For loyalty is perhaps the most bid for, but also most personal forms of connection and commitment. Much like trying to explain the multitudinous meanings of love, loyalty may not embrace and eschew love. I think that among the problems with our grasping what seems to be basic human concepts and attributes, is that the blasted English language is pitifully sparse when it comes to certain areas of the lexicon – certainly those things pertaining to life and relationships being a major one. This then loads immense amount of meaning, as well as ambiguity, onto a shakey platform of a few conjoined letters.