Review:
Workshop "Climate crisis decolonial – What must change?" 06.11.2022
by Jessica Rabi Aboubakari
On 06.11.2022 the workshop was held from 10 a.m. to 13 p.m. on "Climate crisis decolonial – What must change?" We invited Dodo and Laura Bechert, who in 2021 together with Shaylı Kartal under the BUND Youth, the brochure "Colonialism and Climate Crisis – Over 500 years of resistance published.
At the beginning, in addition to the more precise classification of the political term 'white-sein' and GDPoC, the self-designation MAPA (Most Affected People and Areas, translated: most affected persons and territories) as explained above. In contrast to the frequently used description of 'People of the Global South', the term MAPA is a self-selected designation of the persons concerned.
In order to be able to arrange more closely today's debates on racism within the climate movement and in dealing with the climate crisis, a glimpse of the history of colonialism was therefore cast. It was explained how a racist and false depiction of history (Bsp. "The Discovery of America 1492) hides that both people were forcedly colonized, enslaved and murdered and also territories could only be carried out with the help of violent destruction of the entire ecosystem.
This could only be justified by the process of "ethering" being equivalent to white people as civilised, educated, modern, progressive and male and GDPoC as "the others" and uncivilized, wild, emotional and female.
Thus, it can be clearly explained that these colonial and racist thoughts are internalized even today in people of the Global North, that is, also within the climate movement, and contribute to the fact that MAPAs are not visible in public discourses.
This was especially evident from the example of Vanessa Nakate, a Ugandan climate activist who was cut out as the only black activist from a press photo with otherwise only white climate activists such as Greta Thunberg and Luisa Neubauer.
This can also be seen by means of supposed "green" technologies, such as lithium mining, which is used for the production of rechargeable batteries. The salt desert Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia is destroyed, enormous amounts of water are wasted and waste water is poisoned, leading to an acute lack of drinking water for people living in these regions. Colonial continuity is continued by keeping it self-evident to enrich and ignore the resources of others.
Workshop "Resistance Fights of BIPoC* in the climate movement
After the first light of light, in which the divisional associations were able to share the concept of 'climate justice', the change in the concept of 'climate independence' has already made clear the climate movement marked by racism.
Through an input lecture by the two referencing persons, more conscious and existing structures were excluded votes by MAPA (Most Affected People and Ares, translated: the most affected persons and territories).
According to a study by Carbon letter, which examined the most cited scientific articles in the field of climate between 2016 and 2020, are located less than 1% on the African continent, whereas more than 75% live in Europe or North America. Among these 100 articles there are also only 12 authors.
"Unheard but not voiceless (transmitted: unheard, but not without voice)" says it. At the same time, within the white climate movement, perspectives of MAPA are often instrumentalized and confused by their own fantasies and the belief that MAPA would have supposedly believed. This again leads to a Eurocentric foreign perspective.
The demand from the participants, but also many more GDPoC*s in both the Diaspora and the Global South is therefore really listening, questioning its own privileges and the previous approach of the climate movement and supporting MAPA and BIPoC to correct climate justice.
- Alaa Abd El-Fattah (British Egyptian activist, blogger and journalist) who has been in prison since 2014 due to the alleged spread of Fake News in Egypt. He continues to fight for more democracy from prison.
- Francia Márquez became the first Afrokulumbian vice president in Colombia on 19.06.2022. She is actively engaged in environmental and land law for African people and was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2018.
- Elizabeth Wanjiru Wathuti is the founder of the Green Generation initiative in Kenya, which, in addition to planting trees, also promote safe food supply.
- Mitzy Violeta Corés Guzmán is part of the Futuros Indígenas network. It is committed, among other things, to the restoration of displaced languages and destroyed knowledge of indigenous peoples. In 2022 she won the Global Citizen Price.
We thank Laura and Dodo as well as all participants for an interesting and educational exchange!
Here you will find the web version of the brochure "Colonialism and Climate Crisis. Over 500 years of resistance".
