The link between colonialism and climate change examined

Top scientists point to connection for first time in new IPCC study

Demonstrators hold sign reading ‘the climate crisis is colonialism’ at Fridays for Future protest in Mexico City
Demonstrators hold sign reading ‘the climate crisis is colonialism’ at a Fridays for Future protest in Mexico City
(Image credit: Pedro Pardo/AFP via Getty Images)

University of Cambridge research associate Harriet Mercer on how colonialism has fuelled global warming and made many communities more vulnerable to its effects

The International Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) sixth and latest report on the impact of global warming on our planet, published earlier this month, reiterates many of its predecessors’ warnings: chiefly that climate change threatens global disaster if we do not act to avert it. Yet it contains one key difference. For the first time in the institution’s history, the IPCC has included the term “colonialism” in its report’s summary.

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