BOOK TALK: DISMANTLING GREEN COLONIALISM

There is an assumption in much of the media and even among many political activists today that winning a Green New Deal (GND) is the leading edge of contemporary environmental politics. But what does GND mean for Global South nations? And what if the transition to renewable energy that is at the core of GND programs in the Global North leads to a new round of extraction in poor nations? How are we to fight what could be called green colonialism?
This discussion between Hamza Hamouchene, co-editor of Dismantling Green Colonialism, and Ashley Dawson, author of Environmentalism from Below, discusses the ways in which the imperative to transition off fossil fuels is leading to neo-colonial forms of energy and resource extraction in the countries of North Africa and beyond. The conversation will illuminate how popular movements in Global South nations are fighting a new bout of resource-grabbing, and how such movements are pushing for just, locally controlled forms of energy democracy.