Here's an angry, bitter rant about colonialism by Indi Samarajiva that really resonates with me...
_________________________________
"Why Renewables Won’t End Environmental Destruction"
Colonialism began with renewable energy: wind to sail across the world, solar to grow cash crops, and human blood, sweat, and tears to grow them. By this logic, you could say that early colonialism was ‘sustainable’ but it obviously wasn’t. Because the problem isn’t the energy source, it’s what you use that energy for.
Colonialism actively destroyed natural ecosystems to plant cash mono-crops. They brutally hunted land cousins for their skin and ocean cousins for their bodily oils, bringing many species to the brink of extinction, and quite a few over it. To accomplish this without energy slaves, they trafficked human slaves across the world, leaving millions at the bottom of the ocean.
Colonialism both actively and passively spread disease across the world, leading to genocidal levels of depopulation. Then of course there was the outright killing, raping, and stealing.
Most perniciously, they framed all this as ‘progress’ and ‘civilization’, which is still the frame we live in. We call this ongoing process ‘capitalism’ or ‘development’ now, but it’s the same thing — destroying the natural world to make artificial profits. The truth is that colonialism never ended. We’re still in it, just with different branding.
Today we think we can switch from ripping coal and oil out of the Earth, and just rip out lithium and copper instead. But ‘renewable’ rape does not change the fundamental raping going on. An electric bulldozer rips up the earth as much as a diesel one.
The process of exploitation might change names and change colors, but the process remains the same. Early colonialism started with renewable energy and late capitalism is ending there. There’s nothing new under the sun, not even ‘renewables’. I’ll repeat myself because history repeats. Same shit, different day.
_________________________________
FULL ESSAY -- https://indica.medium.com/why-renewables-wont-end-environmental-destruction-2c3ee480705e
#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #Colonialism #Capitalism #Pollution
