July 15, 2008 --The planet is facing a meltdown -- from the global financial system to the unprecedented environmental crisis. Almost everyone from stockbrokers to scientists to economists agree the situation is dire.

Yet Wall Street banks are given hundred-million-dollar bailouts, while millions face home foreclosures. In the Third world it's worse -- crops are used to provide fuel for thirsty rich-world SUVs, while 100 million more people face starvation due to the growing food crisis. The disregard for the hardship of the majority has seen food riots and strikes hit over 30 countries.

How can we understand the crisis, how is it effecting the "Rudd honeymoon" and how can we organise for sustainable, people and planet-centred solutions?

Jim McIlroy (pictured right) explores the roots of this global crisis in a talk delivered to a Green Left Weekly forum in Brisbane on July 15, 2008.