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The War on Democracy
Directed by John Pilger & Chris Martin
96 minutes
In limited release nationally

A massive drop in Arctic sea ice during this year’s northern summer has opened up the Northwest Passage — a sea route that passes between the frozen Arctic region and northern Canada that could provide a quicker shipping route between Europe and Asia than previously allowed by either the Suez Canal or the Panama Canal — for the first time since satellite recordings began in 1978.

This year, Walk against Warming rallies are happening two weeks before the federal election. The rallies will be an important way for thousands of people across Australia to send a direct message to governments about the massive changes we need to avoid dangerous climate change. But more than that it will also give young people a voice and inspire them beyond the federal election to get active in grassroots campaigns to stop climate change.

The images on the television screen are now so familiar we become immune. Unimaginable numbers of people suffering and dying in a part of the world we know little about for reasons we know even less. What is it that we feel? Sadness, pity, a sense of anger, a sense of hopelessness? So we make the right noises, perhaps make a donation to the relevant charity and move on to the next news item. Yet the people suffering are just like us; the only difference is that we are lucky enough to have been born here.

Based on a new household survey conducted in Iraq in August, the British Opinion Research Business (ORB) polling agency estimates that the Iraqi death toll from the four-and-half year US war exceeds 1.2 million.