Maeve Higgins: Colonialism continues to impact climate change

Hunting buffalo by spear, bow, and pistol, around 1880. 'The actual saying from the US army was kill the buffalo, kill the Indian. Buffalo were a vital species to the ecological balance.' Picture: Hulton Archive/Getty

The IPCC, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, released its latest report this month. Inside this document — basically, a bang-up-to-date global report of climate change mitigation progress and pledges, one that also examines sources of global emissions — the word “colonialism” pops up for the very first time.

That is the first time the IPCC has been releasing reports researched and written by the world’s best scientists in 30 years. Colonialism was cited as a catalyst for healing our planet and causing climate chaos in the first place. The report also names colonialism as a force that makes segments of the population vulnerable to the impact of climate chaos today and into the future. In its summary for policymakers, the IPCC states, “Present development challenges causing high vulnerability are influenced by historical and ongoing patterns of inequity such as colonialism, especially for many indigenous peoples and local communities.”

Many climate scientists and activists, including indigenous people from colonised lands, have known this for a long time. The forum is what’s new, and this is huge, according to climate director of Atmos magazine, Yessenia Funes, who wrote: “The addition of one word may not seem like a big deal — but don’t be fooled. This is major. The IPCC publishes a summary for policymakers alongside every report. This is the document world leaders look to when they’re in the thick of negotiations at COP, the annual UN climate meeting.

“The summary’s final language is meticulously scrutinized and discussed line by line — and not just by the world’s top scientists, but also by officials representing 195 governments.”

It’s difficult, if not impossible, to deal with a problem if you can’t name it first. 

Now, armed with this new legitimacy lent by the world’s most authoritative global climate change report, perhaps decolonisation can move solidly into view.

Colonialism means one power, a group of people or a nation, controlling another; dominating the latter and exploiting them, by some combination of forcing them off their land and banning their language and religious practices, really all manner of violent subjugation. As to how colonialism impacted and continues to impact the climate and the environment, I am still learning. I spoke to Jade Begay, climate justice director at NDN Collective, an indigenous-led organisation dedicated to building indigenous power to better understand these impacts.

Ms Begay is Diné and Tesuque Pueblo of New Mexico. From her home in Sante Fe, she explained the massive effect of colonialism on our climate and environment, both historically and right up to today. I asked her to explain it to me as simply as she could, no small feat considering how complex colonialism was and is.

“You can think about the Plains region here in the US, where you know, the actual saying from the US army was kill the buffalo, kill the Indian,” Ms Begay continued, as an example of how colonisation impacted the environment in the past.

"Buffalo were a vital species to the ecological balance; when they run and when they roll in the dirt, they spread seeds.” Buffalo hooves churned up the earth, and their dung fertilised and spread vegetation. The indigenous people living on the Plains controlled the land and the movement of the buffalo with fires that also helped balance the ecosystem. The historian David D Smits notes that at the Medicine Lodge Treaty Council of 1867, the Kiowa chief Satanta complained bitterly about the army’s shooting of his buffalo.

“A long time ago, this land belonged to our fathers,” Satanta said, “but when I go up to the river I see a camp of soldiers, and they are cutting my wood down, or killing my buffalo. I don’t like that, and when I see it, my heart feels like bursting with sorrow.”

Destroying the buffalo was a way to eliminate a food source for the indigenous people living there. 

The US army and other settlers killed the buffalo, tens of millions of them, and to a tragically large degree, they succeeded in killing the people too. Even beyond the human cost, the vanishing of the buffalo had enormous repercussions for the environment’s future.

Ms Begay continued: “This was used as a tactic, and I think it did drive people away from the homelands to search for food, and it was just one piece of a greater puzzle to remove us from our homeland. You could also look at how indigenous peoples have been moved into reservations where they were put into lands that weren’t as bountiful. And again, we lost a lot of connection to place and to land that we could have been the protectors of, stewards of.”

Now that colonisation has been named and shamed by the IPCC report and signed off by government officials worldwide, how best to stop and clean up the colossal damage? Ms Begay has a possible solution. "The strongest examples of decolonisation when it comes to climate justice are the idea and the concept of land back.”

The land back movement has been rumbling for decades, with organisers pushing for indigenous land; its cornerstone battle is the closure of Mount Rushmore and the return of that land and all public lands in the Black Hills, South Dakota. Ms Begay told me that as the movement grows, so does the understanding of what getting their land back could mean for the environment.

“This is something that we’re seeing become popular across the globe and definitely here in North America. And related to the conversation about biodiversity and being able to manage lands and protect, protect lands, waters. With the idea in many communities and tribes and places across North America, we’re seeing a very strong movement to demand land back. 

"It’s not just about getting what was stolen from us. For many indigenous peoples across the globe, when we say ‘land,’ this is not just physical, you know, soil and dirt and flora; it’s so much more. Our languages are connected to the land, our philosophies, our creation stories, our mythologies, and our identity is really connected to the land and the water.

“So when we say land back, we’re talking about getting all of that back, including our inherent right to manage those lands, co-manage those lands, potentially with other tribes, and the people we used to be in relationship with.”

Acknowledging and dealing with colonisation as an ongoing cause of climate chaos needs to happen comprehensively. 

Considering that indigenous people are still the stewards of 80% of the planet’s land biodiversity, the upside of decolonisation is massive. Solutions proposed by and already being enacted by indigenous people are where potentially, finally, the future brightens.

Ms Begay is clear on this: “That points to one thing, one message that we’ve been saying for a long time which is that indigenous rights, indigenous sovereignty, and self-determination, equal climate justice. Because when you have determination and sovereignty over land and water, and we can exercise our right to protect land and water, then we will see less extraction. And we see less pollution. And of course, that is going to benefit the climate.”

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