M. Liboiron, 2021, Durham and London: Duke University Press.
So, I ask of you, Reader, how do we write and read together with humility, keeping the specificity of relations in mind? How do we recognize that our writing and reading come out of different places, connections, obligations, and even different worldviews, and still write and read together? (p. 31)
Max Liboiron (Métis/Michif) poses the above question in the recent book Pollution Is Colonialism (2021), and I find it crucial for the overall argument of the book. You might have noticed that Liboiron got a “mark” in parentheses after the author’s own name; that is one way of addressing the above question. Liboiron explains that it is customary to mark “indigenous authors with their nation/affiliation, while settlers and white scholars almost always remain unmarked” (p. 3). In this book, Liboiron has opted to reproduce the mark of those who introduce themselves that way and to note those who do not by writing “unmarked” in parentheses behind their names. I found this utterly intriguing, as I agree with Liboiron that the context one comes from has implications on who we are, what relations matter to us, and not least, what structures of power we can use/or/and are subject to. To follow suit, let me introduce myself as Rasmus Rodineliussen (Swedish), although I would also like to add (white, male) in order to acknowledge further the privileged position I do come from – like it or not. Being explicit about our origins might be a first step to writing and reading together with the specificity of relations close in mind.
Pollution Is Colonialism is an intriguing read, written in clear and sometimes joking language (which, at least for this reader, really allowed points to go through with a laugh), on a very important and timely topic: plastics pollution, science, and colonial relations. Liboiron defines the book as a methodological text meant to assist and inspire ways of doing science differently, to do Anticolonial Science. The book has an introduction setting the stage, followed by three chapters. Chapter One, Land, Nature, Resource, Property, and Chapter Two, Scale, Harm, Violence, Land, are meant to prepare the reader to understand and engage with the more methodologically oriented Chapter Three, An Anticolonial Pollution Science. Throughout the book, make sure not to miss out on the footnotes – they are something special, a place of intriguing discussions, sarcastic comments, jokes, important suggestions for reading, and more. Foot/endnotes, as important as they often are, are seldom as captivating as these – enjoy, I sure did.1
The Introduction sets the scene of the book, which is mainly in a Civic Laboratory for Environmental Action Research (CLEAR) in Labrador, Newfoundland, Canada. The research focuses on plastics pollution and how scientists map its impact on wildlife. One of the driving arguments of the book is that pollution is not simply a symptom of colonialism, but rather a medium of and for colonialism, colonial relations, and appropriation of L/land (the capitalized L does here indicate that the understanding of Land is context-specific, rather than land as a universal word).2 Liboiron places colonialism in relation to both environmentalism and capitalism, showing that although capitalism and colonialism often enjoy one another’s company, this is not always the case. And in the same way, environmentalism can also enact colonial relations even when research or activism is done with good intentions. Finally, Liboiron explains that the work at CLEAR is not decolonial but anticolonial in practice. This with the argument that decolonial science can be a colonial practice in that ideas and relations continue to be appropriated (p.26). The last point of the Introduction is to stress further the importance of specificity when discussing plastics (as there are numerous variants), the We, and otherwise. Without specificity, it is not possible to clearly state what one wants to say, to whom, and from what position one seeks to make this claim.
Chapter One shows how pollution and colonialism are tied together, or rather, that pollution is a means for colonialism. “Under what conditions does managing, rather than eliminating environmental pollution make sense? That would be colonialism” (p. 42). Here Liboiron distinguishes between environmental pollution and modern environmental pollution, arguing that it is the latter that is inherently colonial in how it poses claims on L/land. The chapter ties together Land, Nature, Resource, and Property in a discussion on approaches toward pollution.