According to St.

Matthew, God maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain
on the just and on the unjust. It might not be fair to argue with someone who has been dead for
!!! "ears, but its getting #rett" difficult to take ideas like this seriousl". God seems to be #la"ing
an ever shrinking role in the weather and when the storms come, the just and the unjust are not
evacuated e$uall".
%he costs of what we are doing to the #lanet are not being #aid e$uall". &r more #recisel", some
#eo#le are wrecking the #lanet, #um#ing it full of to'ins, levelling forests, destro"ing its waters and
making obscene amounts of mone" ( and the rest of us are having to #a" the #rice for their greed
with our lives, our bodies, our health.
)nvironmental destruction is likel" to dis#lace between *! to !! million #eo#le b" !*!. A
considerable number of these will be due to the effects of climate change on #oor countries. +ising
sea levels around ,angladesh is likel" to dis#lace u#wards of ! million -it has alread" dis#laced
half a million.. All /,!! islands of the Maldives are likel" to sink beneath the ocean ( dis#lacing its
entire #o#ulation, currentl" over 0!!,!!! #eo#le. 1e should be clear2 we are talking about the
destruction of an entire nation. %his is nothing short of genocide b" climate change. %his is a crime
that we alread" know will ha##en, and not just to the Maldives ( rising sea levels will be
accom#anied b" increased drought and desertification inland. 3et, not onl" have no measures been
taken internationall" to sto# runawa" climate change, the refugees that it is creating do not even
have legal #rotection under international law. A terrif"ing #ros#ect, #articularl" as anti4immigrant
and refugee racism continues to gain strength in )uro#e, Australia, and 5orth America.
,ut we do not need to look to the future to see the effects of climate change. 6ast "ear, the strongest
t"#hoon ever to hit land in recorded histor" devastated the 7hili##ines. More than 8!!! #eo#le were
killed. 6iterall" millions were dis#lace, homes were destro"ed, livelihoods lost. %he "ear before
that, a su#er4t"#hoon killed /,*!! #eo#le in the southern 7hili##ines, a "ear before that another
t"#hoon killed roughl" the same number of #eo#le.
%he entire ( and let me em#hasise ( continuing histor" of colonialism and im#erialism has meant
that the countries least res#onsible for global warming are also the countries who will be least
ca#able of dealing with its affects.
,ut even without global warming, im#erialism has alwa"s had an ecological as#ect. %he s#read of
ca#italism has also been the s#read of a #articular kind of human ecolog" ( a #articular wa" of
relating to each other and the earth. 1e can think of this s#read as a kind of 9biological e'#ansion of
)uro#e92 and much like )uro#e itself, this e'#ansion has been uneven. :ontrar" to the well worn
boosterism around globalisation bringing ever"one u# to the same socio4economic level ( global
ca#italism has alwa"s been, and alwa"s will be clum#"2 divided and subdivided into core and
#eri#her".
1hen ca#italism first began to s#read, it treated the #eri#her" as a source of raw materials2 of
lumber, #roduce, rubber, fertili;er, and slave labour. %he second world war changed that
relationshi#. Although the" continued to be de#endent u#on the #eri#her" for sources of oil, the
develo#ed #owers grew more and more able to #rovide their own food, and re#laced much of their
im#orts with s"nthetics #roduced locall". In the #lace of colonisation, the #eri#her" was organised
along informal em#ires that functioned as s#heres of influence and buffers between the great
#owers. ,ut the" were generall" left out of the booming develo#ment that followed 1orld 1ar II (
what some theorists have called ostracising im#erialism has meant the effective e'clusion of the
third world from global trade and investment. It has condemned them to debt #eonage and
/
underdevelo#ment. A state which the reign of austerit" and neoliberalism has not hel#ed in the least.
:ountries like :hina and India have #ursued a strateg" of industrialisation, with some success, b"
turning out some of the most to'ic goods to #roduce under unimaginabl" horrific conditions. Some
factories in :hina have had to install nets outside their windows to #revent suicide. In that sense
the" are imitating the #rocess of industrialisation taken b" the 1est, although at a greater #ace and
scale. ,ut the" are doing this in combination with conditions im#osed b" an alread" develo#ed
ca#italism largel" controlled b" the west.
%he bulk of global #roduction continues to be in the core, their immediate #eri#her", and :hina.
%he rest of the world has become a dum#ing ground for the develo#ed world9s industrial waste.
According to an article in times of India2 shi##ing munici#al waste to India is about four times
chea#er than rec"cling it locall". According to one re#ort in the <=, the" have found literall"
mountains of mi'ed waste, >from )ngland? including #lastics, dum#ed in Indian farmland wells.
@armland wellsA
S#ent batteries that Americans turn in to be rec"cled are ... being sent to Me'ico, where the lead
inside them is e'tracted b" crude methods that are illegal in the <nited States. %his increased e'#ort
flow is a result of strict new >)7A? standards on lead #ollution, which make domestic rec"cling
more difficult and e'#ensive in the <nited States, but do not #rohibit com#anies from e'#orting the
work ... to countries where environmental standards are low and enforcement is la'. B According
to the 5ew 3ork %imes, !C of s#ent American vehicle and industrial batteries are now e'#orted to
Me'ico, u# from 8C in !!D, meaning that a##ro'imatel" ! million batteries will cross the border
this "ear. -1iki#edia.
most com#anies that call themselves rec"clers of com#uters and )4waste often do more waste
trading than actual waste rec"cling, either directl" or indirectl". Informed industr" insiders have
indicated that around E!C of what comes through their doors will be e'#orted to Asia, and F!C of
that has been destined for :hina. -Exporting Harm //4/.
@or historical reasons, racism is structurall" built into the ecolog" of ca#italism at the global scale.
,ut it also e'ists at the national scale and the urban scale ( these different interacting scales re#eat
the core4#erifer" at ever" level.
&n the national scale, the relationshi# between race, ecolog", and ca#italism could not be more
evident. In :anada, as in most develo#ed nations, the core4#eri#her" relationshi# can be thought of
in terms of cit" and countr". %he countr" is the major site of resource e'traction ( in terms of
agriculture, wood, and most es#eciall" fossil fuels ( that service the #rofits of ca#italists who in turn
find most of their final sales in the cities -both :anadian and <S.. ,ut there are alwa"s contending
ideas about how to relate to the land, that under ca#italism becomes the #eri#her". :anada is a
settler colon", and the most im#ortant rivals to the ecological organisation im#osed b" the ruling
class is that of the @irst 5ations. %he struggle for 5ative sovereignt" is also a struggle between a
sustainable relation to the land, water and air and a relation which sees the countr" as so much
s#ace to build #i#elines through or dum# chemical waste >nova scotiaG?. %his struggle has alwa"s
re$uired the ruling classes to tr" to destro" the indigenous communities who live on the land the"
want to claim.
As the great revolutionar", +osa 6u'emburg wrote2 Since the associations of the natives are the
strongest #rotection for their social organisations and for their material bases of e'istence, ca#ital
must begin b" #lanning for the s"stematic destruction and annihilation of all non4ca#italist social

units which obstruct its develo#ment. )ach new colonial e'#ansion is accom#anied, as a matter of
course, b" a relentless battle of ca#ital against the social and economic ties of the natives...
5eedless to sa", this battle has not ended ( I will sa" though, that in the battle against the #i#elines
and fracking ca#ital ma" be about to suffer a #owerful defeat. A good measure of the balance of
forces on this is that the Har#er government has not been able to successfull" vilif" first nations
#eo#le in the national consciousness.
&n a more #essimistic note, even when land has relativel" little to offer, ca#italism can find wa"s to
shaft "ou. In an almost e'act mirror image of the treatment of the global #eri#her", the <S ruling
class #ushed 5ative Americans to the least desired lands, then later also found that these would be
an e'cellent #lace to dum# nuclear waste.
&n the urban scale, we see much the same thing.
%he <nited :hurch of :hrist #re#ared what is widel" regarded as the most com#rehensive re#ort on
the correlation of race and #ollution in the <S. According to them in the "ear !!!, neighbourhoods
with commercial ha;ardous waste are *8C #eo#le of colour. In com#arison, communities without
such facilities are onl" 0!C #eo#le of colour. In other words, #ercentages of #eo#le of color as a
whole are /.F times greater in neighbourhoods with waste management facilities.
<nsur#risingl", 7overt" rates in the host neighborhoods are /.* times greater than those in non4
host areas -/EC vs. /C., and mean annual household incomes in host neighborhoods are /*C
lower -IJE,0J vs. I*8,F/.. 5evertheless, it is clear that race is #la"ing a major role here, not
onl" because race correlates to #overt", but because #oor but largel" white neighbourhoods are not
as likel" to have these kinds of facilities.
%he effects of all this are clear2 adult rates of hos#itali;ation for asthma, acute res#irator" infection,
and chronic obstructive #ulmonar" disease significantl" increases in communities with ha;ardous
waste facilities andKor fuel4fired #ower #lants, es#eciall" when both are #resent. 5ot coincidentall",
incidences of these diseases are considerabl" higher among #eo#le of colour in the <S.
%his kind of ine$ualit" is not an accident, nor an aberration of the <SA ( it e'ists to a lesser or
greater degree in ever" cit". 7oor communities do not even need waste treatment facilities to be
unhealth". &ften the" are sim#l" allowed to accumulate filth out of sheer neglect. I do not know
what the geogra#h" of %oronto is like, but in Lancouver, )ast Hastings is an object lesson in the
ecological and racial segregation of the cit".
%he causes of this are not hard to fathom, but just in case an"one was wondering, the ruling class
alread" s#elled out their reasons as earl" as /FEJ when the cit" of 6os Angeles commissioned
consultants to hel# them figure out where the" could build an incinerator. %he" #roduced a
document titled 7olitical Mifficulties @acing 1aste4to4)nerg" :onversion 7lant Siting, better
known as the :errell Memo. %his is a direct $uote from their re#ort2
All socioeconomic grou#ings tend to resent the nearb" siting of major facilities, but the middle
and u##er4socioeconomic strata #ossess better resources to effectuate their o##osition. Middle and
higher4socioeconomic strata neighborhoods should not fall at least within the one4mile and five4
mile radii of the #ro#osed site.
In other words, the" dum# where the" can get awa" with dum#ing. %his is not much of a sur#rise,
but it does highlight something im#ortant. :a#italism is a ridiculousl", obscenel" wasteful and
0
ecologicall" to'ic s"stem. @or the ruling class, the #roblem of what to do with all that filth is not a
scientific $uestion, it is a #olitical one. %he distribution of waste, as with the distribution of wealth
is determined b" the balance of #ower that holds between o##ressor and o##ressed. 1hen the
o##ressed get organised the" can shift the balance of #ower ( the :errell memo was leaked and
became a flash#oint or just such organising. In the end, the incinerator was not built.
Mum#ing on the #eo#le of the #eri#heries2 whether it be the the third world, 5ative American
reserves, or black ghettoes are short term s#atial fi'es for a #roblem that ca#italism is
fundamentall" unable to resolve. ,ut the sheer scale of the #ollution has meant that these s#atial
fi'es are less and less able to defra" the ecological reckoning which the ca#italists have wanted to
#ut off.
%his is #articularl" the case with climate change. It is true of climate change, of course that the #oor
#eo#le of the underdevelo#ed #eri#her" are going to be hardest hit, and I have alread" mentioned
the Maldives, ,angladesh, and the 7hili##ines. ,ut underdevelo#ed #eri#heries also e'ist within the
first world. 1hen Hurricane =atrina hit 5ew &rleans, it didn9t matter all that much that 5ew
&rleans is in 5orth America. 1hat mattered was that the #eo#le of 5ew &rleans were mostl" #oor,
and mostl" black.
Gobal warming is the result of centuries of the ruling class treating the atmos#here like a communal
dum# for green house gasses. %he 1est has not been shielded from the effects of #um#ing that
much waste into the skies, but as with ever"thing else, it will be the #oorest and most o##ressed
communities that suffer the most.
%he globalisation of ecological disaster has also meant that struggles that had #reviousl" been
fighting at relativel" small local scales are more and more creating connections, linking u# growing
networks of resistance within communities, regions, countries, and in fact the globe.
M" own view is that the struggle against the #i#elines is one of the most im#ortant fights in :anada
( if not the world. %he shear scale of the #i#eline #rojects have forced alliances between first
nations #eo#les that are virtuall" un#recedented. %he" e'tend along ever" major #i#eline route and
even link u# Indigenous communities across the whole of 5orth America. %his is alread" a
formidable force. And if the issue were merel" one of s#ills, this might be the e'tent of the forces
arra"ed against the #i#elines. ,ut because the construction of the #i#elines are intimatel" linked
with global warming, the su##ort for the struggle being lead b" first nations #eo#le comes from all
over the world.
@or e'am#le, the 1et9suwet9en blockade received volunteers a##lications from all over the globe.
,ut #erha#s the best and most im#ortant e'am#le of the kind of broad and organised su##ort for
this fight is the Save the @raser Meclaration which has been signed b" more than /0! @irst 5ations
as well <nifor, :anada9s largest labour union. Anti4#i#elines rallies in ,: bring hundreds even
thousands of #eo#le out to demonstrate against com#anies like )nbridge, in solidarit" with
indigenous communities and fre$uentl" organised with them.
Most of m" talk has been doom and gloom, but I just want to em#hasise that this is a battle that we
can win. ,ut onl" if these alliances are strengthened, onl" if a mass movement can be built ( one
that I ho#e will continue to take its cue from the e'traordinar" strength and leadershi# #rovided b"
first nations activists. :anada has a recent histor" of such mass movements and victor"2 the anti4war
movement here was able to kee# :anada out of Ira$. I believe it was the onl" anti4war movement
that won such a victor".
J
%he ruling class don9t alwa"s get their wa". %he" can be defeated. ,ut onl" if we struggle, onl" if
we warrior u#.

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