Pollution Is Colonialism

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To think about distant places, to colonize them, to populate or depopulate them: all of this occurs on, about, or because of land. The actual geographical possession of land is what empire in the final analysis is all about.” MM: You were asking about what does the kind of good environmentalists do where they and that they don’t kind of realize they’re kind of implicated in colonialism? Well, that simple environmental position might be: let’s go to the state. Let’s go to Canada, the Canadian state or the U.S. state, and try to get them to regulate companies and prevent their pollution. But what that’s not thinking about is that state is a settler-colonial state, that what that action is doing is affirming settler-colonial jurisdiction over land and life and including Indigenous land and life. And so, pollution becomes colonialism too by the habit of trying to fix pollution is always affirming the settler state and that settler state along with the company. And you know, here in Canada, the settler state began as a company. It began as the Hudson’s Bay Company. In the United States, it began as the Massachusetts Company. Here in North America, the settler state is built out of colonial charter companies. And so the relation between the state and companies is very, very tight. The state is made to enhance and support the company. And so when these two things are kind of working together, you know, they are part of a legacy of saying they have an entitlement to disrupt land and life. The company and the state work together in there, affirming their entitlement to have no accountability and their right to just disrupt land and life with their actions. And that can be genocide, that can be taking kids away. That can be all sorts of things, and it includes putting pollution into the world. MM: Well, yeah, that’s very true. Max was the first person in academia that I met that had a similar biography to me that kind of came from a similar place that had to overcome obstacles in a similar way. And then working in a field science and technology studies and environmental justice. We both do that. But that field can be super white, and there were very few Indigenous people, even people of colour when I was younger in these fields. And so, you know, when I met Max, it was kind of life-changing. We also kind of look alike. We’re like the same height when we get like, we are collaborators, we have similar interests in like walking our talk. So like our work is not just words, but must be actions. And so I really learn so much from Max in terms of like the practise and method side of trying to do anti-colonial feminist work. And yeah, well, you know, you see kind of pictures of us. We almost look like twins or siblings are, you know, we’re definitely relatives of some kind. We just don’t know how. VS: I guess even just who you’re negotiating with, I mean, which nation that you’re negotiating with?

VS: You’re both working within mainstream academic institutions and you’re both anti-colonial scientists. So I’m wondering how you navigate the colonial academic scientific institutions that you’re dealing with or living with. VS: I love the story of the two of you because at first when you hear that you guys are connected in this way, it sounds like, Oh, is there a mentorship or? But the mentorship clearly goes both ways. But it's really hard to start a research programme by thinking about what not to do, since you have to do something. There were some key texts, like Mary O'Brien's "Being a Scientist Means Taking Sides" that showed me that choosing a couple of explicit values to base decisions on would be one way to go. I began to think about how to put equity, humility, and accountability at the centre of all my work, from doing statistics to taking out the trash. That's flourished into what we now call an anticolonial science. Through your work at Civic Laboratory for Environmental Action Research you aim to illuminate how pollution is not a symptom of capitalism but a violent enactment of colonial land relations that claim access to Indigenous land. How does this view add itself to a growing technological and urbanizing world as today? Sample collection in Arctic. Credit: Liz Pigogee Your book focuses on plastic pollution as the primary case study. With a growing plastisphere, what are the intricate ways in which plastic marks its presence within environmental, colonial and capitalist systems? How can one make themselves aware of this presence?

The last part of the book walks readers through some of the anticolonial science techniques we use or develop in my plastic pollution lab, such as being invited to do research by Indigenous groups rather than assuming access, using community peer review, and using judgmental sampling rather than random sampling among others.

MM: Yeah, maybe you got to stop some of them and take them apart and do some dismantling. That might be some first actions. In 2021, Max Liboiron, an associate professor in geography at Memorial University of Newfoundland, published a book titled, “ Pollution Is Colonialism,” in which they argue that the main causes of pollution are both chemicals and colonialism. Ongoing colonial conservation efforts continue to affect Indigenous communities globally. They end up losing access to their lands and can no longer earn a livelihood through agriculture, fishing, or hunting. EcoJustice. (2007). “ Exposing Canada’s Chemical Valley: An Investigation of Cumulative Air Pollution in the Sarnia, Ontario Area .” By 2008, countries in Asia and Africa gained independence from their colonial empires, which had by then returned to their homelands. And yet, colonialism is still not a thing of the past. It continues to oppress developing nations and minority communities globally — from Western Africa to Libya, Palestine to Ukraine, to places like Kashmir that are facing subjugation under military occupation.It is legal for some pollution to occur under Canadian and U.S. environmental law. Under the permission-to-pollute system in Canada, some effluents can be released to a certain amount, and spills and leaks are considered acceptable risks even though they happen regularly. Canada’s current toxics governance relies on industries to self-report their emissions, and to do the research that determines whether their own chemicals are harmful. It is thus difficult to get accurate information from the government about the past and present status of environmental harms. The Indigenous way of life does not match this idea of Western-imposed private property and cash crop farming that the colonizers had implemented by force,” said Assali. One of the crucial aspects of community peer review is that, like consensual sex, refusal can be indicated by something other than a clear “no.” We have watched our colleagues’ informants welcome them into their communities, feed them, give them places to stay, and then refuse at every other stage of the research by not showing up to interviews, coming late, saying questions or tasks are too complex, saying they don’t know the answer to obvious questions, or telling researchers they should talk to so-and-so, who is unavailable because they are on the Land for the next three months, the local sell-out, or dead. (p. 143) Max: Yeah, with the exception of extractive models, I don’t think there’s an inherently best way to do anti-colonial work. Yeah. And then I also, yeah, like I do research as a plastic pollution scientist with, you know, mostly Inuit plastic pollution researchers who may not have degrees and it doesn’t matter. And we make data together that answers their nations questions and needs, so that they can govern their lands in ways that matter to them. Chapter Two begins with Liboiron stating, “Not all pollution is colonial” (p.81). This statement is based on her understanding of pollution as a set of lived relationships between, say, humans, plastics, and a body of water (Land Relations). The discussion moves toward that of scale, with the explanation that “Scale is not about relative size. Scale is about what relationships matter within a particular context” (p. 84). Scale is then put in relation to Harm/Violence, where violence is the potentiality of causing Harm. This is important.

If you don't do what you call systematic thinking, you only ever play in the sandbox the dominant system as already laid out. You can tweak the system, but you can't change it. The example in the book is regulated pollution levels. It would seem like a good thing to regulate industry so it doesn't pollute more that is allowed, more than causes irreparable harm to the environment. This is based on the idea that land and bodies can absorb, metabolize, dilute, or purify some amount of pollution. But this needs land. It assumes settler entitlement to Indigenous land (and often people's bodies in the case of body burdens) for industry production. Even the environmental science that so much of our activism and certainly our state laws are premised on also assume access to land for settler and colonial (and industry) goals, needs, and desires. That is, it's based on colonial land relations. I'm saying that something good in one way can still also be colonial

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A 2021 study published in Nature highlighted that research is less likely to investigate climate change impacts in the Global South, even though those 78 low-income countries are facing the worst impacts. They are also the least responsible for climate-warming emissions; the entire continent of Africa accounts for the lowest share of greenhouse gas emissions at 3.8 percent. In contrast, the U.S. and European Union are responsible for 19 percent and 13 percent of global emissions, respectively. For librarians and administrators, your personal account also provides access to institutional account management. Here you will find options to view and activate subscriptions, manage institutional settings and access options, access usage statistics, and more.

Tŝilhqot’in National Government. (2017). “ In time of crisis, B.C makes unbelievable move to approve drilling permits for twice rejected New Prosperity mine .” Oil and gas are extracted to create plastic and other disposable products consumed by the U.S., UK, and European Union. Meanwhile, the burden of recycling and incinerating plastic pollution falls on a few developing Asian countries. Former colonial empires set up this inequitable international trade that exploits developing countries by forcing them to get rid of their hazardous waste for cheap. This unjust practice is called waste colonialism. The problem, some scholars say, is that the term assumes the climate crisis is caused by universal human nature, rather than the actions of a minority of colonialists, capitalists, and patriarchs. And the implication that the Earth was stable until around 1950, when the ‘Anthropocene’ supposedly began, denies the history of people who have been exploited by those systems for centuries. Pollution Is Colonialism] should be required reading for researchers who are working in any type of laboratory setting.... I also believe that a more general audience will find this work interesting and thought provoking.” — Jacqueline Stagner, International Journal of Environmental Studies Reading this book was an incredible experience. Max Liboiron has written an deeply thoughtful, concise, and accessible text in Pollution is Colonialism, discussing a perspective that should be at the forefront of all academia (so if you’re thinking, “What could I stand to learn from this book? I’m not an environmental scientist/Indigenous person/someone who does any kind of scientific research,” reconsider—there is a lot for you here).

VS: This idea that we are part of chemicals or chemicals are part of us or, you know, that it’s irreversibly changed us or changed our world. I mean, all of this could sound very, all of this could sound very negative, but neither of you focus on the negative. Can you talk a little bit about that, just continuously resisting and how you do that? To make capitalism and colonialism synonymous, or to conflate environmentalism and anticolonialism, misses these complex relations... Because of this nuance and its repercussions for political action, political scientist Glen Coulthard (Yellowknives Dene) has called for scholars to shift their analysis away from capitalist relations (production, proletarianization) to colonial relations (dispossession, Land acquisition, access to Land)” I use the term dominant science instead of Western science for two reasons. First, dominant keeps the power relations front and centre, and it’s these power relations I am usually discussing. Western science is a cultural tradition where ways of knowing start with the Ancient Greeks, get influenced by various forms of Christianity and Judaism, and move through the Enlightenment. Generally, I have no problem with that culture. The problem is when it becomes dominant to the point that other ways of knowing, doing, and being are deemed illegitimate or are erased. Second, not all Western science is dominant. Mid-wifery, alchemy, and preventative medicine are part of Western science that suffer at the hands of dominant science.”