The internet is flooded with advice on how to live more sustainably. We all can (and must) make small adjustments within our daily habits and be conscious of our impact on the environment. Every action is important, regardless of how trivial it may seem, and we, at Earth Preservation Project, have been sharing our very own guidelines on how we can all do our part for the planet.

Given the severity of the current environmental crisis however, we must also grasp the magnitude of the changes required of us. Critical questions must be asked about the global system we live in. It is essential to comprehend how this system operates, as it has become increasingly clear that prevailing structures must be fundamentally and rapidly transformed. Otherwise, we are at risk of failing to address the underlying factors causing the crisis.

The System Thrives on Subjugation

The system that defines today’s global economy, framed by its proponents as the ideal system for progress and prosperity, is in fact rooted in centuries of colonial conquests, genocide, plunder and slavery. Starting in the 15^th and on through the 20^th century, colonizers built their empires through violence and predatory tools: territorial domination, land dispossession, excessive extraction and labor exploitation.

Since the invasion of the New World by European settlers, humanity’s relationship with the natural world has been profoundly altered, to the extent that some scientists even trace the origin of the Anthropocene back to that period¹. The discovery of vast new lands full of unlimited resources to be extracted gave rise to a new project of appropriating nature, marking the beginning of an era of unimaginable environmental disruption.

The 2010 People’s Agreement of Cochabamba held in Bolivia defined today’s system as “an imperialist system of colonization of the planet”². It is a system that pursues infinite economic growth, alienates people from nature and converts every aspect of life into a commodity. Characterized by relentless extraction, over-production and over-consumption, this system is incapable of recognizing or respecting Earth’s boundaries.

This urge to grow indefinitely is irreconcilable with the idea of living in harmony with nature. Instead, an attitude of arrogance and aggression towards the environment was adopted. The environment was no longer regarded as something with intrinsic value, but a mere supply of raw materials; machinery to ensure profitability. Mining, fracking, drilling, logging, plantations and other ecologically disruptive industries took over, resource exhaustion and pollution became widespread, entire landscapes were wiped out, natural habitats were destroyed, and species were systematically slaughtered.

Along the lines of this supremacist logic imposed upon nature, hierarchical structures that perpetuate injustice were forged, creating unequal dynamics of interaction between those at the very center of the system, and those at the periphery. Relations of exploitation allowed the privileged core to flourish and benefit from the system at the expense of marginalized, peripheral areas³ .

This phenomenon stretches across the resource-rich regions of the world. Extraction of natural resources and slave labor from the colonies financed the industrial rise of the Global North⁴. Instead of mobilizing resources and labor to fulfill local human needs, they were sacrificed for the sake of Western expansionism. The South was drained of its natural wealth and forced into devastating cycles of under-development and mass-impoverishment. Fossil fuels, metals, minerals, and numerous other resources were looted from Asia, Africa, and Latin America, while people of color were exploited in tandem.

When natives weren’t exterminated, they were taxed, forced to work, deprived of their rights, freedoms, identities and ways of life. Indigenous Americans had their lands seized and culture erased by white European settlers. The bison, an animal which not only symbolized their spiritual values but was also integral to their survival, was slaughtered by the millions in an attempt to starve and repress the natives. To the colonialist, nature is crude, and must be subdued and dominated. The same applied to native communities that were inscribed with the idea that they were primitive and uncivilized. They had to be tamed and put to work to serve the colonizer.

In most cases, the very populations who were dehumanized and depicted as ‘backward’ were the sole caretakers of the environment until the colonizers took over. Now, they must carry the burden of a crisis they did not create. Studies have shown that the people of the Global South have contributed the least to the environmental crisis. The responsibility of burning fossil fuels and polluting the atmosphere falls mainly on the industrialized nations of the North⁵, but it is the South that disproportionally suffers the impacts. Of the 2 million deaths caused by extreme weather events over the past half a century, 90% occurred in developing countries, confirmed a UN report⁶ .

The Way Forward is Emancipation

These wrongs are not a thing of the distant past. This model is alive and well and continues to thrive. The legacies of these practices continue to shape today’s world, and this is exactly where the fight for a better planet starts: by understanding how the global environmental crisis originated, and acknowledging its connection to the broader structural injustices and inequalities that continue to coerce us into subordination.

We, the people of the Global South, are not responsible for the crisis, but we do have an obligation to liberate ourselves from that which oppresses us. Success in saving Earth and improving our reality is contingent on overthrowing the status-quo we all suffer under. This downward path, which is spiraling towards environmental doom and deprivation, can only be reversed by shattering colonial, capitalist entanglements and rejecting the so-called ‘solutions’ that reinforce them.

The quest for emancipation does not entail catching up with industrialized countries’, chasing the yields generated by this flawed system, or seeking a larger share of the pie so that we can benefit equally from the destruction of our planet. The aim is to achieve a level of freedom that allows us to develop an equitable system that protects us from exploitation and fulfills our needs without jeopardizing the ecosystems that sustain us. In other words, it’s choosing how we want to live and not having decisions taken on our behalf by a ‘superior’. It means reclaiming our power and living free, dignified lives by protecting our land, forests, waters and wildlife.

So, as we aspire to make better living choices to save Earth, we should also strive to harness the political will to defy the current order. This demands the hard work of reorienting our societies away from the capitalist model through anti-colonial education and advocacy, grass-root organizing and lobbying, as well as building solidarities and forging alliances with like-minded movements across the world.

Clearly, dismantling such deeply entrenched complex systems and taking charge of our future will not be easy. Shaking off foreign control is going to upset those at the top of the hierarchy, and this will usher in an extraordinary, inevitable struggle. The challenges ahead are enormous, but there is no room for defeatist mindsets. A key part of this battle is the belief in one’s ability to reverse this trajectory. This is a long-term fight that could take decades, and requires patience and endurance.

Imagining a new way of organizing our lives is not utopic – our future depends on turning such radical ideas into feasible goals.