Climate Coloniality, the Ocean, and the U.S. Empire

• In Event: Postwar Racial Liberalism from Mississippi to Okinawa

Abstract

Climate change’s link to colonial capitalism’s past and present practices has been widely observed. The negative effects of climate change are distributed unevenly and reproduce the social vulnerability of socio-economically marginalized people. It is also widely reported that many programs addressing climate change function to reproduce the colonial dynamics that serve the interests of the Global North.

This paper investigates how the U.S. empire is reproduced through its initiated programs addressing climate change. In particular, the paper examines U.S.-led climate programs focusing on the ocean. Climate change is significantly oceanic. Foremost, the cause of climate change—colonial capitalism—is arguably seaborn. Plus, while the ocean has faced many problems for its ecosystem, which have caused political-economic and geopolitical conflicts, it is also where activities that emit greenhouse gases, such as oil mining and maritime shipping, occur. Although critical scholarship on climate change has marginalized the ocean, this paper seeks to revive the ocean as a critical site of climate coloniality.

When examining how the U.S. perpetuates its dominance through climate programs focusing on the ocean, this paper pays attention to the interactions between the natural force of the ocean and the U.S. colonial capitalist operations. Scholars have revealed that the ocean’s dynamic, fluid, and expansive geophysical characteristics challenge the application of land-based governance practices, compelling colonial capitalism to adapt its strategies. This paper examines how such adaptations are made when the U.S. attempts to maintain its power through climate programs.

Author

• Kei Kato