Action’s special offer for the Sept. 21 cLimate protests N ew readers who

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erable” shale gas reserves around the world. Vice President Joe Biden promoted fracking in Ukraine as part of his diplomatic visit there in April, working out a partnership with the European Reconstruction and Development Bank to spread the technology there.

The government’s enthusiasm for fracking is fed by gas industry campaign contributions to politicians of both major parties. The industry sent federal candi­ dates over $70 million during the 2012 campaign, in­ cluding over $750,000 to the Obama campaign. These political investments have garnered a massive payoff, as federal fossil fuel subsidies have skyrocketed 45% since Obama took office in 2009—to $21.6 billion in 2013—largely due to the increase in fracking, accord­ ing to a report by the group Oil Change International. While Obama mouths support for curbing fossil fuel emissions, U.S. taxpayers are paying $5 billion a year to increase oil and gas exploration and development.

Fortunately, the movement against fracking, and fossil fuels in general, is growing and has already won some small but important victories. The strongest anti-fracking movement is in New York, where Gov­ ernor Andrew Cuomo has so far had to forego open­ ing the state up to frackers. The moratorium there has lasted six years, in no small part due to hundreds of rallies and street protests around the state, includ­ ing pickets that follow the Democratic governor at his ritzy campaign fundraisers. The New York Supreme Court ruled in July that town governments can ban fracking in their zoning ordinances, and towns in other states have followed suit.

As ecosocialists, we believe that poisoning our wa­ ter supply, food supply, and climate to increase the profits of fossil fuel companies is insane. Giving away the taxes paid by working people to frackers so they Sept. 21 People’s Climate Marches, can now subscribe to Socialist Action newspaper for an entire year at a cutrate price of $12, or five months for $5.

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SOCIALIST ACTION AUGUST 2014 3

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(Left) Plastic bottles wash up on a beach. Close to 70% of human trash in the ocean is plastic.

Rapidly shrinking alpine glaciers, especially in the equatorial regions, are leading to water shortages in the Global South.

Industrial agriculture is the largest user of fresh­ water. To irrigate thirsty crops, water is diverted from major rivers in one region to satisfy the needs of another so that they run as mere trickles into the sea, leaving delta wildlife to languish. Aquifers are being over-pumped way beyond their rates of re­ charge. Ground and surface water depletion is being exacerbated by droughts, increasing the withdrawals that go ever deeper not only for food production but to supply densely populated urban centers.

It is especially distressing when water is wasted at one end of the country on silly lawns, golf courses, and swimming pools while tap water has been cut off to Detroit’s working-class poor, who have lost their good paying industrial jobs, despite generous government bailouts for the automakers, to offshoring and global­ ization.

There are other ways in which people are denied ac­ cess to the commons. With scarcity, comes hoarding and profiteering by greedy interests. Huge corpora­ tions have taken over municipal water treatment fa­ cilities, jacking up the price on this basic resource. In collusion with the IMF and the World Bank, giant transnationals are forcing privatization schemes upon the poor nations of the Southern Hemisphere, robbing indigenous peoples, peasants, and workers of their