It's widely accepted that electric vehicles [EV] are a solution to the fossil-fuel problem. Unfortunately, the huge demand for lithium and other minerals is actually creating another massive wave of environmental degradation and environmental injustice. Have we learned nothing in the last 100 years about the disastrous effects of colonialism and irresponsible extraction‽ We … [Read more...] about Neocolonialism v. Stewardship & Rights of Nature
Search Results for: Colonialism
Climate Colonialism / Carbon Colonialism
Settler colonialism, and the capitalism that accompanied it, is not only responsible for slavery and the genocide of Indigenous peoples. One of the major effects on the environment was treating it as a commodity or proper that people could own. Most Indigenous people recognized the living environment as a collection of interconnected beings, which is why the most effective … [Read more...] about Climate Colonialism / Carbon Colonialism
Decolonizing Minds, Including My Own, About U.S. Capitalist State Settler Colonialism
Gary Olson “The discovery of gold and silver in America, the extirpation, enslavement and entombment in mines of the aboriginal population, the beginning of the conquest and looting of the East Indies, the turning of Africa into a warren for the hunting of black skins, signaled the rosy dawn of the era of capitalist production. These idyllic proceedings … [Read more...] about Decolonizing Minds, Including My Own, About U.S. Capitalist State Settler Colonialism
Colonialism
The U.S. was built through settler colonialism, which involves taking over lands already in use by other people, displacing the people and often destroying their cultures. (Sometimes the goal was simply to use the land for their own settlements; in other cases the goal was to extract minerals & other resources. In the U.S. & Canada, settlers not only made war on the … [Read more...] about Colonialism
Peter’s blog: ‘Thanksgiving & Colonialism’
Thanksgiving Day seems an appropriate time to post this brief historical note about Colonialism in the United States. I'll start by mentioning that this is the original territory of the Lenape, now known as the Delaware. Like most parts of North America, Pennsylvania & New Jersey were occupied by Indigenous people for thousands of year before the first European settlers … [Read more...] about Peter’s blog: ‘Thanksgiving & Colonialism’
Faramarz Farbod Interviews Miko Peled on Palestine & Israel
[Partial transcript of an interview on Berks Community Television, April 11, 2023.] Faramarz Farbod: Can you explain what you mean by Zionism? Miko Peled: To put it as simply and succinctly as possible, Zionism is an ideology that says the Jewish people all over the world have a right to Palestine at the expense of Palestinians. It created a theory that because all Jewish … [Read more...] about Faramarz Farbod Interviews Miko Peled on Palestine & Israel
Who Are We?
By Robert Jensen Editors’ Note: This is the Introduction to the book An Inconvenient Apocalypse, by Robert Jensen and Wes Jackson. In the many phone conversations between the authors when this book was under construction, one of us would say that a particular point was so important that we need to get it right up front. After a few of these comments, we joked that there … [Read more...] about Who Are We?
Notes from the Editor
The denial of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination is arguably the very heart of the injustice in Palestine. Most north Americans are unaware that Article 55 of the Charter of the UN recognized this right in the aftermath of World War Two. It states in part: “With a view to the creation of conditions of stability and well-being which are necessary for … [Read more...] about Notes from the Editor
Thacker Pass project — another travesty
Thacker Pass is a project to mine Lithium on sacred lands of the Shoshone & Paiute in Nevada — and it is a serious threat to the native people's health, culture, and environment. The Bureau of Land Management should never have approved it, but the administration pushed hard for its approval and is defending it in court. The Thacker Pass project not only fails the basic … [Read more...] about Thacker Pass project — another travesty
Navigating our Humanity: Four Lessons from Ukraine
Ilan Pappé USA Today reported that a photo that went viral about a high-rise in the Ukraine being hit by Russian bombing turned out to be a high-rise from the Gaza Strip, demolished by the Israeli Air Force in May 2021. A few days before that, the Ukrainian Foreign Minister complained to the Israeli ambassador in Kiev that “you’re treating us like Gaza”; he was furious that … [Read more...] about Navigating our Humanity: Four Lessons from Ukraine