Colonial violence and exploitation significantly contribute to ecological breakdown and ongoing climate crises. The exhibition 'Black Earth Rising' emphasizes the inseparability of racial justice and climate justice, focusing on the Global South's experiences. Developed by Ekow Eshun, it shifts the environmental narrative away from a Eurocentric perspective. Eshun notes that the impoverished nations of the Global South suffer the most from environmental degradation, despite industrialized nations contributing the majority of global emissions. The term "Anthropocene" is criticized for overlooking the historical context of environmental destruction rooted in colonialism.
"Exhibitions or events around ecological crisis and environmental change are often predicated on experiences in the Northern Hemisphere, so we think about polar ice caps and forlorn polar bears when actually the human experience of climate change is experienced predominantly by people in the Global South."
"While the industrialised nations of the Global North are responsible for 92% of all excess global emissions, it is the poorer nations of the Global South who disproportionately bear the brunt of environmental degradation."
"The phrase Anthropocene fails to take into account the fact that, for many peoples, the so-called Anthropocene epoch is simply continuing patterns of environmental destruction that began with 15th century European colonisation."
"Colonial violence and extraction are crucial factors in the ecological breakdown and climate catastrophe that are currently affecting us all."
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