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To fix the climate crisis, we must face up to our imperial past

It’s time to join the dots between our overlapping crises of – and shared solutions to – environmental degradation, damaged health, racial oppression and gender injustice.

By Daniel Macmillen Voskoboynik
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Image: Deforestation in Brazil. Rights: NASA/Wikicommons, CC 2.0

‘The invading civilization[s] confused ecology with idolatry. Communion with nature was a sin worthy of punishment… Nature was a fierce beast that had to be tamed and punished so that it could work as a machine, placed at our service for ever and ever. Nature, which was eternal, owed us slavery’ (1) – Eduardo Galeano

There are many ways to see colonialism. A breakneck rush for riches and power. A permanent pillage of life. A project to appropriate nature, to render it profitable and subservient to the needs of industry.

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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0