Upcoming event: “Climate Change and Colonialism: Lessons from the Puerto Rican Environmental Movement.” Hosted by PEAC in East Pyne 010. Come for a 10am panel with environmental activists Ruth Santiago and Arturo Massol Deyá and legal scholar Rafael Cox-Alomar. At 1pm, Ms. Santiago and Dr. Massol Deyá will lead a practical workshop on climate organizing strategies for on-campus activists and organizers.
To fight climate change, we must address colonialism.
In an open letter published in the Daily Princetonian, members of Divest Princeton recently summarized the movement’s recommendations to the Council of the Princeton University Community. The letter closes as follows:
We are all compelled to fight climate change to the extent that our power allows, and with $26 billion under its control, the University has more power than most. If universities like Princeton who pride themselves on reason and evidence-based leadership fail to take the necessary steps in the fight against climate change, who will?
The meaning of the rhetorical question “who will?” is clear: as an institution of immense wealth and intellectual prestige, Princeton University has a moral imperative to use its considerable resources to combat climate change, including through its investments.
There is another side of the question that bears consideration, too. The question “who will?” looks to the future, for in Princeton, climate change still figures largely as a future threat. A rapidly approaching apocalyptic threat, but one whose impact we are only beginning to feel.
That is not true everywhere. Too often, conversations about climate change focus solely on the future, but, as the open letter from Divest Princeton notes, “The climate crisis is with us now, from the floods in Indonesia to the fires in Australia that have been burning out of control since June 2019.”
In addition to “who will,” let’s ask “who are?” And one answer is that it is people who have no choice but to fight climate change now. People who are not insulated from the climate crisis by socioeconomic privilege and the luck of geography. People for whom climate change is not a future danger but a present disaster.
The letter asserts that “as an institution of historical privilege, the University owes a debt of reparation to marginalized communities, even more so now as black and brown people around the world have been, and will continue to be, the worst affected by climate change.” What is also important to remember is that these “marginalized communities” are not only the most affected by climate change but are also on the leading edge of the fight against it.
On Saturday, February 29, the Princeton Environmental Activism Coalition (PEAC) is holding a conference entitled “Climate Change and Colonialism: Lessons from the Puerto Rican Environmental Movement.” In conversation with guest speakers coming from Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., we aim to learn about the links between colonial government and the climate crisis in Puerto Rico today: how are activists in Puerto Rico—which faces extreme weather, unpayable debt, and exploitation by the government in Washington—responding to climate change? How can climate activists in the U.S. support Puerto Rican movements, and what can they learn from them?
Starting at 10:00 AM in 010 East Pyne Hall, there will be a two-hour panel on climate justice and decolonization featuring presentations from two prominent environmental activists Ruth Santiago and Arturo Massol Deyá and legal scholar Rafael Cox-Alomar. After lunch, this will be followed at 1:00 PM by a practical workshop on climate organizing strategies with Ms. Santiago and Dr. Massol Deyá for on-campus activists and organizers.
As the divestment movement grows, we must recognize that the fossil fuel industry’s environmental impact is not limited to carbon emissions, and this impact is deeply tied to histories of colonialism. In Puerto Rico, toxic coal ash produced by a power plant in the southeastern municipality of Guayama is contaminating the aquifer that is the primary source of water for the south of the island. While Virginia-based multinational Applied Energy Systems (AES) profits from a contract worth $300 million a year, communities in Puerto Rico’s southeast must live with the water and air pollution it produces. The plant continues to operate despite decades of community opposition.
Academic institutions in the U.S. are implicated in ongoing histories of environmental colonialism. In March, 2019, a watchdog organization called the Public Accountability Initiative revealed that SUNY Chancellor Kristina Johnson sat on the board of AES Corp and owned over $2.5 million worth of AES stock. Amid public pressure over the corporation’s highly polluting power plant in Puerto Rico, she resigned from her position with AES Corp.
Princeton not only has financial ties to a fossil fuel industry that has devastated and exploited communities in places including Puerto Rico; its illustrious former President Woodrow Wilson was the U.S. President who signed the infamous Jones Act of 1917, a colonial law that unilaterally imposed U.S. citizenship on Puerto Ricans and deepened Washington’s control over the islands. As students continue to study at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and live in Wilson College, we inherit a legacy of racism and colonialism with which we must grapple as members of the Princeton community.
To understand climate change as a matter of environmental justice, we must know these histories of colonialism and our own places within them. PEAC invites you to join us on February 29, as we seek to learn about climate change and colonialism together.
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