The world’s top ten most polluted places

The Blacksmith Institute’s top ten most polluted places tells an interesting story. One can’t help but note that five of the top ten worst spots are in regions of the former Soviet Union. The business community of the US and their conservative ideological supporters will certainly point the finger at ‘communism’ for this. But let’s take a closer look, too. Worldwide, what are the activities that most pollute our planet, no matter what kind of economy is involved? The answers would be; mining and war making.

Now, in the context of that information, what happened in the former Soviet Union that produced so much mining and war making? The 20th Century started out for Russia being in a war with Japan. Shortly after that war terminated, the Czarist government dragged Russia into World War 1 which led to terrible devastation and huinger, out of which came the Russian Revolution. World War 1 continued inside of Russia and in the surrounding territories, even as it ended elsewhere. The capitalist countries of the world did not want a non capitalist Russia, so they continued to supply their allies within Russia itself, continuing the bloodshed.

Even when peace finally came, it barely lasted over a decade, as capitalist and fascist Nazi Germany invaded Russia, causing a horrible devastation and destruction to that country, now called the Soviet Union. The Russians fought the foreign invaders,and eventually threw them back outside of Soviet boundaries. The Americans came in at the end and gave the knockout blow to an already knocked down Germany. Result, the Americans immediately began the misnamed Cold War against the Soviet Unon, with the powerful message delivered by 2 dropped atomic bombs.

The Soviet Union got no peace post their victory over the Nazis, but immediately began to have to defend themselves from the threat of an American instituted atomic attack. Trillions of dollars spent on this so-called Cold War later, the Soviet Union collapsed, defeated at last by its own party bureaucracy, and the imperialist capitalsit allies they began to court under the direction of Gorbachev. So what did decades of war and mining to support those wars leave behind? Part of the answer is, that it left behind 5 out of 10 of the world’s most polluted areas.

The top ten list by the Blacksmith Institute clearly shows the interconnection between war and mining, and how that makes for horrible toxic dumps. Capitalism aggravates industrial pollution by its constant surge to producing warfare for private profit. The military uses much of the chemicals and metals that contaminate our world. If you want a Green America, a Green Mother Earth, then you must work to help stop the rampant militarism that infects every facet of our current society. Until we do, the cesspool that is already made will just continue to keep getting nastier, nastier, and nastier. Until we kill ourselves.