The fossil fuel economy is just the modern extension of settler-colonialism: forcing people off of their land to extract and exhaust the natural resources there for profit.
That evict, extract, and exhaust mindset is part of what's driving us into climate crisis. (thread time!)
That evict, extract, and exhaust mindset is part of what's driving us into climate crisis. (thread time!)
This mindset reduces the earth and the people on it to resources to be exploited for profit.
Its practitioners drove indigenous people off of their land at gunpoint (most aggressively in the Americas and Africa), and not just centuries ago, but continuing until now...
Its practitioners drove indigenous people off of their land at gunpoint (most aggressively in the Americas and Africa), and not just centuries ago, but continuing until now...
...either to be enslaved, for their labor, or simply so that their land could be taken.
This mindset reduced whole peoples to bodies and labor, dehumanizing them as "savages" who couldn't be trusted to steward their lands, or who could be morally bought and sold as property.
This mindset reduced whole peoples to bodies and labor, dehumanizing them as "savages" who couldn't be trusted to steward their lands, or who could be morally bought and sold as property.
As the extract-and-exhaust economy has spread around the world, it has dumped its waste in poor communities, particularly communities of color.
That blatant disregard for the byproducts of our economy has allowed us to spew countless megatons of greenhouse gasses...
That blatant disregard for the byproducts of our economy has allowed us to spew countless megatons of greenhouse gasses...
...and that's how we get from the first colonists to the climate crisis in one connected line.
Indigenous people, in their fight for land sovereignty, have been on the forefront of the fight against the climate crisis, both physically and ideologically.
Indigenous people, in their fight for land sovereignty, have been on the forefront of the fight against the climate crisis, both physically and ideologically.
The fossil fuel economy is toxic: it dumps CO2 into the air, spills oil into the ground, and leeches toxins into the water. Massive landfills store its refuse.
Nobody wants those byproducts near them, but only the wealthy/powerful are able to successfully lobby to keep them out.
Nobody wants those byproducts near them, but only the wealthy/powerful are able to successfully lobby to keep them out.
We call these wealthy suburbanites NIMBYs, "Not In My Back Yard".
But when indigenous people object to a pipeline running through their lands, fearing oil spills in their groundwater?
We call them a threat to profits, and use violence to remove them (e.g. Standing Rock)
But when indigenous people object to a pipeline running through their lands, fearing oil spills in their groundwater?
We call them a threat to profits, and use violence to remove them (e.g. Standing Rock)
If everybody had the power to keep polluters out of their communities, there would be nowhere for them to turn. Clean energy would be the only option.
Polluters' continued existence is an extension of the same mindset that dehumanized some people as unfit to steward their land.
Polluters' continued existence is an extension of the same mindset that dehumanized some people as unfit to steward their land.
We say implicitly to these people: wealthy, powerful people don't want their communities polluted & trashed, but they want to continue to profit from the fossil fuel economy, and so your homes & lives are our sacrifice to make.
We say: You can't fight back. Profit has spoken.
We say: You can't fight back. Profit has spoken.
We stand with all indigenous people fighting against pipelines or any other fossil fuel infrastructure being forced upon their land, their water, or their air.
We all have the right to protect our homes from the industries which would claim them as their dumping grounds.
We all have the right to protect our homes from the industries which would claim them as their dumping grounds.
