Carbon Colonialism and Culpability (ep 336)

On this week’s round table: colonial carbon culpability. Calling it a “first-of-its-kind analysis,” a recent study by Carbon Brief has crunched the numbers on some 170 years of emissions, seen through the lens of climate justice. Entitled, “How colonial rule radically shifts historical responsibility for climate change,” the report adds a critical dimension to addressing the question of what—and who—has brought us to the brink of depleting our cumulative carbon budget, the maximum CO2 our planet can handle before global temperatures rise to dangerous levels.

Among those carbon culprits with a gigatonne to answer for: the former British Empire, so vast it’s said every week a country somewhere celebrates their independence. So brutal that to factor in its era of extractive violence nearly doubles the UK’s contribution to (and thus responsibility for) climate change.

On this episode, host/producer Rick Harp and MI regular Candis Callison sit with study co-author Simon Evans to discuss this tally of twin legacies many still struggle to navigate and repair.

// CREDITS: Our intro/xtro theme is 'nesting' by birocratic. Episode edited by Cassidy Villebrun-Buracas and Rick Harp.