Climate change is widely perceived as a byproduct of our contemporary socio-economic model, which rotates around the exploitation of nature, unrestrained extractivism, excessive pollution, deforestation, and land degradation. Nevertheless, the environmental crisis is in itself a consequence of colonialism, as imperial expansion heavily relied on the widespread plunder of colonies’ natural resources, thus marking the genesis of environmental destruction. Nature’s conservation became a priority when colonisers recognised the rapid environmental decay caused by their own activities, as it acted to their detriment. It is thus important to highlight that, albeit framed as a universal good, the first environmental policies were structured to solely benefit the West.

ENVIRONMENTALISM AND A HISTORY OF DISCRIMINATION 

In the words of intersectional environmentalist Leah Thomas, “environmentalists need to hold themselves accountable and do the inner anti-racism work to achieve both climate and social justice”. Environmentalists are rarely acquainted with the fact that the movement’s pioneers held deeply racist beliefs; for instance, men such as Madison Grant and John Muir espoused white supremacist ideology and blatantly asserted their disdain for Native Americans. Scholars, historians, and proponents of environmental justice acknowledge that certain environmentalist rationalities, such as the disinterested objectivity of environmental science, conservation practices, and environmental interventions/custodianships, mirror Western-centric biases. Mainstream environmentalism has thus remained strongly white and middle-class in character. It has repeatedly neglected the experiences and rights of people of colour, reflecting the imbalance of power established through colonialism. Herein lies the weakness of the environmental movement: it traditionally seeks solutions “from the very demographic that is most complicit with causing and benefiting from exploitation and environmental degradation”. 

LEGACIES OF COLONIALISM: THE BLUEPRINT FOR WIDESPREAD HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES

Colonialism’s multigenerational legacies, including Indigenous genocide, the dispossession of native communities, and their displacement, are reflected in the environmental crisis, as it compounds the “racialised inequalities between the winners of the rapacious global capitalist system and those who are impoverished by it; those who make claim to ‘global’ resources and those whose claims to territory, livelihood and wellbeing are extinguished at the local level; those whose luxury is being protected and those whose survival is being sacrificed.” Present-day resource extraction is rooted in colonial logic, as communities in developing countries seldom hold political power over their land and resources. This is accentuated by what activists have termed colonial conservation. Under the banner of environmental protection and natural preservation, governments and conservation charities are seizing land owned by Indigenous populations. 

In 2003, 154 states formalised the commitment to the so-called “rights-based” conservation, a new model that acknowledges the importance of ancestral lands to Indigenous groups and included them “in the management of protected areas on a fair and equitable basis in full respect of their human and social rights.” Nevertheless, the aforementioned land dispossession and the ensuing forceful eviction of native inhabitants constitute a blatant and grave violation of human rights, in addition to causing irreversible social harm for some of the world's poorest people. 

The Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) is set to agree by May 2021 on a new target to place 30% of the Earth’s surface under conservation status by 2030. In September 2020, over 100 environmental and human rights NGOs positioned themselves against this drive to increase global protected areas. The NGOs warned that this would negatively impact as many as 300 million people, unless stronger safeguards were enacted to protect the rights of Indigenous peoples and other traditional environmental stewards. What must not be overlooked is that racial discrimination and environmental injustice lie at the heart of this issue; the persistent patterns of exclusion thus hinder the achievement of environmental justice. As stated by Stephen Corry, British Indigenous rights activist and CEO of Survival International:

The call to make 30% of the globe into “Protected Areas” is really a colossal land grab as big as Europe's colonial era, and it'll bring as much suffering and death. Let's not be fooled by the hype from the conservation NGOs and their UN and government funders. It's really all about money, land and resource control, and an all-out assault on human diversity. This planned dispossession of hundreds of millions of people risks eradicating human diversity and self-sufficiency—the real keys to our being able to slow climate change and protect biodiversity.

THERE IS NO ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE WITHOUT RACIAL AND ETHNIC JUSTICE 

The year 2020 has crystallised the inextricable link existing between gender, racial, ethnic, social, and climate injustices. Environmental destruction and systemic oppression are interrelated, as the climate crisis is not divorced from structural inequalities rooted in anachronistic and (white) supremacist norms of domination. It is key to analyse environmental issues not only from a social justice angle, but also in terms of an emancipation from the colonial legacy and racism inherent in the global structure. We must not overlook how the impact of climate change is disproportionately stratified across racial lines as a corollary of colonialism. Developed countries hold greater responsibility for causing environmental damage, therefore they must be held accountable for the perpetuation of colonial legacies and the related human rights abuses in the developing world. The movement to mitigate the climate emergency must not be devoid of social thought. We are the last generation with the power not only to reverse climate change but to advocate for structural change by unconditionally prioritising justice and equity whilst tackling the crisis. May we not forget that it is our responsibility to become more ethical than the society we grew up in.  

Keila is the Co-founder of E&U For the Climate and an LL.M candidate in Public International Law. She is passionate about human rights and justice in all of its forms. She coordinates legal research projects at Road of Hope, an Amsterdam-based organisation that is committed to protecting the human rights of forcibly displaced migrants. Her research rotates around the impact of climate change on human rights, environmentally-induced migration, environmental justice and minority rights.

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