There is a palpable sense of pride here, although it does not come across as arrogant or self-serving. Instead of making me wary, it actually makes me trust Liboiron much more and it feels good to read something where the author and actor is so conscientious of the effects that their science has on the entire (human and non-human) communities in which it is situated. And since apparently everyone has something to say about the footnotes, I will mention here that I loved them. I have never read an academic text that is so interactive, and Liboiron’s consciousness of the incredible work being done by the individuals that are cited here has caused me to want to read a lot of these additional texts, much more than I usually consider when reading other academic writing. The footnotes expand the audiences that can be reached by this book, and they feel so deeply personal at times that the book adopts a pleasantly casual tone.

Chapter Two begins with Liboiron stating, “Not all pollution is colonial” (p.81). This statement is based on her understanding of pollution as a set of lived relationships between, say, humans, plastics, and a body of water (Land Relations). The discussion moves toward that of scale, with the explanation that “Scale is not about relative size. Scale is about what relationships matter within a particular context” (p. 84). Scale is then put in relation to Harm/Violence, where violence is the potentiality of causing Harm. This is important. We currently live in an epoch that geologists call the Holocene, which began soon after the last major ice age ended around 11,700 years ago. But for over two decades, some scientists have argued that the label is far too antiquated. In 2000, the term “Anthropocene” — ‘anthropo’ for human and ‘cene’ for new — gained prominence. It highlights how human activities dominate the Earth’s land, atmosphere, and oceans, significantly impacting its climate and natural ecosystems.Pollution Is Colonialism] should be required reading for researchers who are working in any type of laboratory setting.... I also believe that a more general audience will find this work interesting and thought provoking.” — Jacqueline Stagner, International Journal of Environmental Studies MM: And there’s a question of who has jurisdiction. Like, I live on the Great Lakes. This is Anishinaabe Haudenosaunee territory. What are the laws? Who has jurisdiction? Laws aren’t just rules. They’re ethical systems, they’re systems of responsibility. So the way the science is in the settler-state gets us to think about pollution is their physical objects. We kind of regulate them with law. But thinking in our territories and out of our own traditions of thinking, any relation, any physical relations, is also an ethical relation. It’s a responsibility. It’s not just an attachment, it’s not just an ecological connection. It is responsibilities between fish and water, between people and fish, between air and people, between peoples and peoples are both human and non-human. And so that comes out of a whole different jurisdiction, a whole different epistemology. It’s a whole different way of being. And so if we’re not affirming that, then I think we’re not doing anti-colonial work. Este es uno de esos libros a los que uno entra con una expectativa específica y sale con más de lo que uno tenía planificado. Al comienzo quise encontrar un análisis socio-cultural sobre la ciencia dominante sobre polución y me voy de este texto con todo un marco conceptual sobre ciencia anticolonial y decolonial y nuevas formas de investigación científica que no sólo son anticoloniales sino que además se relacionan con responsabilidad y obligación en los entornos en los que están inscritos. VS: Well, let’s talk a little bit about that approach. Like that voice might have been the well-meaning environmentalist. What do you think that well-meaning environmentalist misses when they don’t understand pollution in this way? In my imperfect understanding of the different conversations that fly under the banner of postcolonialism, the term refers to a particular set of colonial relationships where the occupying forces have "technically" left but colonial forms of knowing, governance, value, and development are still dominant, like a horrible haunting that you can never shake off. I understand its roots in places like India and parts of northern and western Africa. Because of the -post, a lot of the discussions around postcolonial science is about the never-ending dominance of non-local ways of thinking in science as well as a fair bit of attention to the historical ways that dominance happened.

Reading this book was an incredible experience. Max Liboiron has written an deeply thoughtful, concise, and accessible text in Pollution is Colonialism, discussing a perspective that should be at the forefront of all academia (so if you’re thinking, “What could I stand to learn from this book? I’m not an environmental scientist/Indigenous person/someone who does any kind of scientific research,” reconsider—there is a lot for you here).There are exceedingly few texts like this that ask from an Indigenous perspective: how might we consider relations between science and land and water and still practice ‘good’ science? Pollution Is Colonialism is at the leading edge of a significant turn in science and technology studies toward thinking with settler colonialism as a structure and terrain, and by bringing Indigenous studies into conversations with pollution, plastics, and lab sciences, this bookmakes a major contribution.” — Candis Callison, author of How Climate Change Comes to Matter: The Communal Life of Facts VS: You’re both working within mainstream academic institutions and you’re both anti-colonial scientists. So I’m wondering how you navigate the colonial academic scientific institutions that you’re dealing with or living with.

One of the most original and compelling books I’ve read in a long time, Pollution Is Colonialism is a truly exciting intellectual achievement. It argues for, and most importantly models, a decolonial scientific practice. A must-read book for anyone concerned about land relations.” — Joseph Masco, author of The Future of Fallout, and Other Episodes in Radioactive World-Making One of the characteristics of dominant systems is that they make some things seem normal and natural to the point that they're taken for granted, like the idea that recycling is good for the environment. But as we now know, recycling is not primarily an environmental good--it produces pollution, allows disposables to continue to be produced, does not conserve or preserve resources. And very little recycling happens at any rate (for more see Samantha MacBride’s Recycling Reconsidered, which I think is one of the best books out there on recycling from a systematic position). Scholars like Assali and Liboiron have pointed out that the entitlement to use land and oceans as dumping grounds, irrespective of which part of the world they are located in, is rooted in colonialism. Even though regulations are enforced to reduce pollution levels, the laws still permit some levels of pollution to occur.Gwich’in Council International, Arctic Athabaskan Council, Climate Action Network Canada – Réseau action climat Canada, Ecology North, Pembina Institute. (2008). “ The Inuvik Declaration on Arctic Climate Change and Global Action .” Present development challenges causing high vulnerability are influenced by historical and ongoing patterns of inequity such as colonialism, especially for many Indigenous peoples and local communities,” the report said. “​​Officials and scientists from around the globe now recognize the significant role colonialism has played in heating our planet and destroying its many gifts.” MM: Because there’s no universal recipe. That’s why you have to start where you are and figure out where are you and what are your responsibilities? And so, you know, when you say Vinita about building relations, like the relations … it’s not about building relationships, it’s about figuring out what your responsibilities are and then beginning to act on them in a good way and then relationships emerge out of that. 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 i n 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.