Climate change a manifestation of colonisation, researcher says
Climate change is a manifestation of colonisation due to dominant capitalism values, the International Indigenous Research Conference has heard. Dr Rhys Jones, a public health practitioner and associate professor for the University of Aucklands Te Kupenga Hauora Maori, led the 10th annual conference as the keynote speaker , presenting his discourse of indigenous climate justice to 150 indigenous researchers from across the globe. From his Auckland-based office, Jones (Ngati Kahungungu) offered another perspective to explain why the battle against climate change had limited success. READ MORE: * Majority of NowNext survey respondents believe Maori culture and history is an important part of our national identity * Outrage over racist booklets appearing in Auckland letterboxes * Western science isn't keeping you safe from the poo in Porirua He said the Western view was that the greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere were responsible for climate change but Jones said they were merely a symptom of the underlying systemic issue of colonisation. Climate change is really just one manifestation of colonialism or an intensification of the environmental impacts of colonisation. The ecocidal logics that now govern our world are not inevitable or human nature but are the result of a series of decisions that have their origins and reverberation in the process of colonisation. The accepted values and norms of the dominant global political forces that are really driving the ecological destruction that we see are not natural or inevitable but are a particular cultural phenomenon. He argued decisions on the worlds health continued to be made through a colonial lens at the expense of other cultures, species and the planet. Modern colonial societies have really been built on the process of genocide and ecocide, and can only continue through ongoing genocide and ecocide. No problem could be solved within the conscience that created it, Jones told the conference, citing COP27 . World leaders have gathered in Egypt for the 27th annual United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to talk again about how to combat climate change . You would expect that after all that time we would be well on the way to zero emissions right? Or at least would be reducing greenhouse gas emissions and starting to turn around the rise in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. However, climate pollution had risen year after year, Jones said. In spite of the Copenhagen Accord, the Paris Agreement, the Glasgow Climate Pact, we are going in completely the wrong direction. At what point do we stop and say whatever we are doing, whatever paradigm we are operating in, whatever world views, values, knowledge systems are underpinning this international climate action it is just not working out well. Send your tips, story ideas and comments to poutiaki@stuff.co.nz Jones said values that stemmed from the foundations of indigenous culture were needed to help heal the planet and keep its population, both humans and other species, healthy. The explicit recognition of the rights of nature and restoring indigenous connection to the environment was critical to turning the climate crisis around, Jones said. We have got to think not just decarbonisation but decolonisation in all this work and what that really means is committing to upholding indigenous rights and restoring indigenous sovereignty.