Colonialism and Global Environmental Inequality

Catalog description

“Colonialism caused the climate crisis.” Statements about the colonial origins and nature of our current environmental crises are increasingly common. They are often implicitly referring to global environmental inequalities in the causes and effects of these inequalities, suggesting that the Global North holds responsibility for causing problems like climate change, and that the Global South is largely affected by them. Does this mean that these inequalities are colonial though? What is colonialism, and how does it cause or shape global environmental inequalities? What are other elements and explanations for global environmental inequalities? In addition to asking and answering these questions, we will examine the actors and mechanisms by which colonialism and other social forces propagate environmental inequalities. We will also briefly examine how these arguments about how these large-scale inequalities are created might help us tackle them.