Outer Space Immigration, Colonialization and Imperialism: Critical Examination from Perspective of Astro-Green Criminology

• In Event: GREEN Panel 4, Climate Colonialism and Environmental Injustice: Displacement, Exploitation, and Resistance

Abstract

In this research, outer space immigration, colonialization and imperialism are critically examined from a perspective of astro-green criminology and what we should do in the future is suggested.
The coloniality, rather than curiosity, lies at the heart of space exploration. Space advocates envision the future which simply reproduces the norms, systems, and myths of oppression and violence of the colonial order. This cosmic order separates nature from humanity, enforces a hierarchy of humans, and renders nature, and those denied personhood, fully exploitable. The bordering processes, the encircling of parks, and the use of wilderness thinking are colonial tools of earthly governance that have been exported into outer space. Questions about the possibility are raised that colonial tropes and modes of environmental management can initiate a more just relationship with space.
Investigating perspectives of space environmentalism, many scholars point to how space colonization is entwined within an ‘extractive gaze’ where evangelical human dreams of becoming an interplanetary species depend on moons, planets, asteroids, and any other celestial bodies to become just another territory of extraction under some form of capitalism. The human engagement with outer space is a problem of ‘environmental justice’, where the environmental geopolitics of Earth and outer space are inextricably linked by the spatial politics of privilege and the imposition of sacrifice among people, places, and institutions.
Critically interrogating settler colonial logics of space exploration, we must work against both the ‘inevitability’ of ecological collapse and the accompanying impetus to look to the stars for humanity’s salvation, and challenge society to reflect on why we go to space, and how we might be able to do so in ethical manner. The prioritization and improvement of ethics, planetary protection, and safety standards is the most critical to be anti-colonialism and anti-imperialism both within government agencies and the private sector.

Author

• Noriyoshi Takemura, Toin University of Yokohama, Japan