The current epoch, called the Holocene, began shortly after the end of the last major ice age, around 11,700 years ago. Though in recent decades, some scientists have argued the term is antiquated, instead popularizing the word, “Anthropocene” — ‘anthropo’ for “human” and ‘cene’ for “new,” where they suggested Earth’s instability began suddenly in 1950. It emphasizes how human activity has an extractive relationship with the Earth, its land, air and oceans, destroying natural ecosystems, its consequences impacting its climate. Some scholars argue the term assumes the crisis is caused by universal human nature, rather than the result of colonialist, capitalist action over centuries; its motive was plunder and subjugation. It also implies that the Earth was stable prior to 1950, denying the history of those who suffered exploitation and death under these regimes for centuries
From the innumerable crimes of the Dulles Brothers of the United Fruit Company, now Chiquita Brands International, to the Bolivian water crisis in recent decades, in which Nestle has, in effect, stolen a nation’s water by outlawing rainwater collection, a practice which sustained many of its people since time immemorial. This dogma of extractive rule is an old one, colonization by another name, and its results have been dire: exploitation and loss of life in all forms, in the interest of profit. It caused desertification in many colonies by outlawing traditional methods bespoke to the regions and enforcing monoculture, plantations of tillable soil with miles of cash crops. When the land started losing its vegetation, they blamed the practices of migratory tribes and other Indigenous people that they themselves had caused.
The worsening of fires in New Zealand are a result of the Maori tribes’ landholdings dwindling as the colonizers sought to extract as much timber as possible, resulting in a loss of forest cover of 60 percent since its colonization. Colonizers in Southern Australia banned indigenous practices of controlled burns, which effectively cleared away thick layers of dry vegetation on forest floors that under summer suns become highly flammable.
Now, torrential rainfall causes displacement and strife throughout the Global South, triggering landslides, droughts and floods, leading to high casualties. The Caribbean and Central America contend with La Niña and El Niño, transitioning between droughts and floods. Heatwaves are exacerbated by intense droughts, which became increasingly widespread in the northern half of South America. There are 36,695 deaths attributed to heat-related excess between 2000 and 2019 throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, likely an underestimate.
Sea levels rising at a higher rate than the global mean in the South Atlantic and subtropical and tropical North Atlantic, threatening coastal populations in Latin America and the Caribbean, salinating freshwater aquifers, the shore ever pushing inward. In just the last two years, the intensity of Australia’s wildfires have increased tenfold, with far less catastrophic northern areas of the country that did not outlaw controlled burning. Fires threaten not just humans but other animals, in addition to plants and further biodiversity in what precious little wilderness is left.
Those least responsible for climate change are facing its worst impacts. The United States is responsible for nearly 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, the European Union accounting for 13 percent, whereas Africa, as a continent, accounts for only 3.8 percent. The countries of the Global North account for over 92 percent of carbon emissions. The Global South, impacted by poverty rooted in colonial exploitation, suffering the worst impacts of decisions largely made by their oppressors. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change first mentioned the term “colonialism” in a 2022 report, at last conceding at least that it is responsible for historic and persistent causal factors of the climate’s crisis.
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