28 July 2022 – by Ottoline Mary
As a global dynamic generating an unfair distribution of power and wealth, colonialism is largely responsible for shaping the North-South divide that we witness today. Moreover, many aspects of our lives remain determined by its ongoing legacies. Whether glaring or more insidious, these legacies tend to underlie our relationship to the world, and should especially be factored in when analysing global events.
A recent Greenpeace report highlights the colonial roots of climate change.
“Colonisation established the model of a global extractive economy, [as well as] a model through which the air and lands of the Global South have been polluted or used as places to dump waste that the Global North does not want.“
Moreover, neo-colonial dynamics continue to protect the West from the consequences of its actions, while the rest of the world burns. The negative impacts of climate change tend to concentrate in regions that have barely contributed to the global greenhouse effect; this mismatch of vulnerability and responsibility coincides with a power imbalance stemming largely from colonialism.
The same dynamic is reproduced at a sub-national level in Western countries, where people of colour are overexposed to the consequences of climate change. For example, the London borough of Newham has both the highest level of air pollution and the highest Black, Asian, and other ethnic minority population in England.
By calling attention to the neo-colonial dimensions of climate change, this report provides us with conceptual tools to reflect on climate-induced migration – for instance, by supporting the inclusion of climate reparations in the global case for colonial reparations.
