Calle 13 is a Puerto Rican rap duo known for the song Atrévete-te-te! (“Dare yourself!”). The band consists of René Pérez Joglar and his half-brother Eduardo José Cabra Martínez. Their songs are often political and critique US policy towards Latin American countries, amongst other things.

Calle 13 (2010): Latinoamérica. In: Entren Los Que Quieran. Sony Music Latin.

Many social and indigenous movements in Latin America have long opposed privatisation and the sale of natural resources. In Bolivia, for example, water rights were sold to the US company Bechtel. Prices rose by 300 percent and people were even banned from collecting rainwater. Resistance against this attempt at water privatisation was successful despite the great repression it was met with.

*Democracy Now (05.10.2006): Bolivian Activist Oscar Olivera on Bechtel’s Privatization of Rainwater and why Evo Morales should Remember the Ongoing Struggle over Water.

Adam Smith (1723-1790) was a Scottish moral philosopher and Enlightenment figure and is considered the founder of classical economics.

Adam Smith, Adam (1776): The Wealth of Nations. Book I, p.11.

The logic of European economic thinking evident in this quote was used to devalue social and economic systems on other continents and dismiss them as irrational. This argument was also used to legitimate the idea that they should be integrated into capitalism, apparently for their own benefit. The fact that non-capitalist societies found other values, such as equality or solidarity more important than the generation of income and profit (see the Southern African concept of Ubuntu) was not recognised. Nor was the fact that these values underlay a much more ecologically sustainable way of life.

*Abeba Birhane (2017): Descartes was wrong: ‘a person is a person through other persons’.
* Piet J. Naudé (2010): “Fair Global Trade: A Perspective from Africa.” In: Geoff Moore, Fairness in International Trade. Durham: Springer‘s.

Max Horkheimer (1895-1973) was a German social philosopher and a leading figure in the Frankfurt School.

Max Horkheimer (1986): Zur Kritik der instrumentellen Vernunft. Frankfurt a.M.: S. Fischer, p. 94.

For Enlightenment thinkers, domination over nature was the self-evident objective of science. The history of man’s efforts to subjugate nature is at the same time the history of man’s subjugation by man. This is where the problem of purely instrumental reason comes into play.

*Silvia Federici (2014): Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation. New York: Automedia.

Pliny the Elder was a Roman historian.

Plinius, Historia naturalis 33,1. 33,33. 33,73

During the Roman Empire, the Mediterranean region was extensively deforested for the construction of ports and cities. The soil was destroyed by mining, metal and precious metal extraction. The Roman historian Pliny the Elder critiqued this in his work Natural History (Historia naturalis), in which an examination of social relations with nature and the appropriation of nature were already hinted at. In this quote, he was describing the devastating consequences of gold mining (Müller 2017).

*Franziska Müller (2020) “Can the subaltern protect forests? REDD+ compliance, depoliticization and Indigenous subjectivities”, Journal of Political
Ecology 27(1), p.419-435.

This quote is from Genesis, the creation story of the Bible’s Old Testament. The Bible’s texts can be dated back to about 1200 BC was canonised until 135 CE. Christianity took all the books of the Tanakh, rearranged them, and set them out as the Old Testament (OT) which came before the New Testament (NT).

Genesis, The Bible. URL: BBC

It was only from the late 18th century onwards that the extensive and evident long-term effects of industrialisation and urbanisation became apparent in Central Europe. Colonial conquest and “discovery” were shaped by an understanding of nature informed by domination. Hence this quote’s biblical command guided these kinds of actions which were, at the same time, inspired by an interest in scientific and Enlightenment knowledge and in securing economic advantage. The well-known Enlightenment figure René Descartes also described humans as ‘rulers and owners of nature’ (Descartes, 1637, Discours de la méthode, VI, 2). In colonial history, dominion over nature was linked with dominion over people who lived close to nature and who were, in the eyes of colonisers, “primitive” (Müller 2017).

*Franziska Müller (2017): Von grüner Hölle und grünem Gold. (Post)Koloniale gesellschaftliche Naturverhältnisse. In glokal: Connecting the dots. Lernen aus Geschichte(n) von Unterdrückung und Widerstand. Berlin.
*Franziska Müller (2020) “Can the Subaltern Protect Forests? REDD+ Compliance, Depoliticisation and Indigenous Subjectivities“ Journal of Political Ecology 27(1), p.419-435.

Girolamo Benzoni (1519 – ca. 1572) was an Italian conquistador and trader. He joined the Spanish colonisation of the Americas in 1542. His History of the New World, from which the quote is taken, contains many autobiographical features. He is regarded as the narrator of the famous story about Columbus’ Egg.

Silvia Federici (2014): Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation. New York: Automedia.p. 219.

From 1492 to 1550, an estimated 90-95% of the 80-100 million inhabitants of Latin America died because of colonisation by Spain and Portugal (with the participation of other European powers including the Germans). The silver shipped from Latin America to Spain between 1500 and 1650 represented three times the total European reserves. Amongst other things, this capital allowed for the establishment of manufacturing and industries in Europe. Gold and silver mining involved massive environmental destruction and was based on forced labour that claimed many lives.

*Silvia Federici (2014): Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation. New York: Automedia. p. 219ff.

Balthazar Sprenger (before 1500-1509 or 1511) was a travelling salesman from Tyrol who travelled to Africa and India on behalf of the Welser bankers. In 1505, he took part in a Portuguese expedition as a representative of the Augsburg Welser trading house to explore new markets. The journey took him around the African continent to India. The quote is from his travel diary.

*Original Source: Balthazar Sprenger (1509). Quoted by: Beate Borowka-Clausberg (1999): Balthasar Sprenger und der frühneuzeitliche Reisebericht. München: ludicium, S. 198. In: Elisabeth Dulko et al: Afrikabilder. Dokumentation einer Tagungsreihe zum Afrikadiskurs in den Medien und zum Alltagsrassismus in Deutschland, p. 10.

The annihilation of indigenous societies worldwide was legitimised in moral terms by the fact that they were not real people, but instead, belonged to nature. Being animal-like, colonised people were not granted any human rights. Thus the land they lived on and their resources, which were defined as being ownerless, could comfortably be stolen. The equation of indigenous people with animals still happens today, as current examples from all over the world show (The Guardian, 14.10.2017: “Chinese Museum Accused of Racism over Photos Pairing Africans with Animals”).

*Vandana Shiva (2020): “Ecofeminism and the Decolonisation of Women, Nature and the Future.”

Grassroots initiative from South America.

Imperial College London (2014). Event ‘Leave the Oil in the Soil, Leave the Coal in the Hole, Leave the Gas under the Grass‘

At the climate summit in Copenhagen in December 2009, grassroots initiatives from South America presented their campaign Keep the oil in the soil! Keep the coal in the hole! The exploitation of fossil fuels destroys living spaces (often those belonging to poor and racialised groups) and is responsible for climate change. In 2007, under pressure from social movements, the Ecuadorian government proposed to not exploit the oil wells in the Yasuní biosphere reserve. The German government was involved in letting this initiative come to nothing.

*EJOLT Press release (2013): Unburnable fuels. How to keep the oil in the soil.

Paul Schneevogel (1460 – ca. 1517, also known as Paulus Niavis) was a philologist and school teacher.

Ulrich Grober (2010): Wem gehört die Erde.

The story Iudicium Iovis – The Judgment of Jupiter, Held in the Valley of Beauty… constitutes an early and radical green manifesto. It is about a court hearing by the ancient gods against the miner for raping and desecrating mother earth. This quote is from the speech made by Mother Earth’s advocate. Here, Schneevogel condemns the fact that people do not recognise that they are destroying their own livelihoods by destroying nature. The context in which he wrote was the exploitation of silver deposits in the German Ore Mountains in the 15th century, which produced great damage to the environment. The picture shows silver mine workers in the Freiburg Minster. The Inca in Peru left silver in the mountains, and there is a convention that the mountain itself prohibited them from exploiting it. At the beginning of the 16th century, however, Spanish colonisers began to establish silver mines and forced workers to work underground through the “mita” system (Latin Amerika Institute FU-Berlin, 2011). To this day, social movements around the world continue to fight against the exploitation of mineral resources, e.g. in Colombia against gold mining (Democracy Now, May 18, 2018).

*Lateinamerika-Institut FU Berlin (2011): Die Silberminen in Potosi (Peggy Goede).
*Democracy Now (2018): Afro-Colombian Activist Francia Márquez, 2018 Goldman Prize Winner, on Stopping Illegal Gold Mining.

Paul Ettighoffer (1896 – 1976) was a German writer. Amongst other things, he wrote two travel books in 1938 and 1943 that are part of German colonial literature where he describes his travels.

Paul Ettighoffer (1938): So sah ich Afrika. Mit Auto und Kamera durch unsere Kolonien. Gütersloh: C. Bertelsmann.

Ettighoffer’s books were distributed as factual reports in Nazi Germany (Lampert 2004). ‘As the Nazi system worked towards another war, Ettighoffer’s books became radicalised in terms of militancy, racism, belief in authorities and colonial ideas’ (ibid.). Nature was constructed by Ettighoffer as an absolute threat, especially for white life. This idea lent legitimacy to the idea of the need for its total domination, including ecocide and genocide. To this day, the destruction of nature and humans are linked.

*Andreas Lampert (2004): Ettighoffer, Paul Coelestin.
*United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: Nazi Imperialism. An Overview.

Chanting at a demonstration in Sri Lanka, which was devastated by the 2004 tsunami that destroyed many fishermen’s huts which were never rebuilt because hotels were constructed in their place.

Naomi Klein (2007: 389)

The 2004 tsunami took the lives of around 35,000 people in Sri Lanka, with the majority of victims being small-scale fishermen. The government subsequently banned construction near the coast. However, it exempted the tourism industry from this requirement, and encouraged hoteliers to build where the fishermen had previously lived. Tourism was to be financed with money that came from the relief fund for tsunami victims (see Klein 2007: 385ff.). In general, one can say that those presumably responsible for the spread of so-called natural disasters (e.g. through lifestyle, work in the industrial sector, etc.) are often not affected by their consequences (e.g. the tsunami), and sometimes even benefit from them.

*Naomi Klein (2007): The Shock Doctrine. The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. Toronto: Knopf Canada.

Veronika Bennholdt-Thomsen (born 1944) is an Austrian ethnologist and sociologist.

Veronika Bennholdt-Thomsen (2010): Geld oder Leben. Was uns wirklich reich macht. München: oekom. S. 26

The consequences of the ongoing destruction of the conditions necessary for life worldwide by the prevailing industrial system and lifestyles in rich countries and classes can no longer be overlooked. Nevertheless, such lifestyles are considered to be desirable goals for people across the world. From an ecofeminist perspective, underlying this exploitation are the devaluation of women, nature, and non-Western societies. A different perspective would involve seeing people as part of nature and treating nature, fellow human beings and other societies with care and respect.

Maria Mies & Vandana Shiva (2014). Ecofeminism. London: Zed Books.

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) was an English philosopher who engaged primarily with political theory. He is considered one of the most important liberal thinkers in Europe.

Thomas Hobbes (1650): Leviathan. Introduction.

One of the preconditions of capitalist development was the disciplining of bodies so that they could be made into pure labour power. According to this logic, a new kind of individual needed to be produced who would be useful to the rising middle class. As in this quote, the body was also understood as a useful machine. In the thinking of the time, attempts were made to rationally explain nature (including the human body) in order to render it controllable.

*Silvia Federici (2014): Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation. New York: Automedia.

Chief Luther Standing Bear (1868-1939) was a chief of the Oglala Lakota (or Oglala Sioux), author and philosopher. He contributed to our understanding of indigenous cultures as holistic and respectful of nature.

First People: Chief Luther Standing Bear

It was not only in relation to the Americas, from where this quote comes, that Europeans developed the idea of nature as an unknown, and of people and ways of life as wild. This quote suggests that this was by no means the case for the Lakota Sioux, to which Standing Bear belonged. Standing Bear continued: ‘He knew that a man’s heart, away from nature, becomes hard; he knew that lack of respect for growing, living things soon led to lack of respect for humans, too. So he kept his children close to nature’s softening influence’ (ibid.). As Paula Gunn Allen (1979, quoted in Booth 2003) put it: ‘The land [nature] is a part of ourselves.’

*Annie L. Booth (2003): We are the Land: Native American Views of Nature. In: Selin H. (eds) Nature Across Cultures. Science Across Cultures: The History of Non-Western Science, vol 4. Springer, Dordrecht.

Thomas Sankara (1949-1987) was a revolutionary, pan-Africanist and internationalist. He became President of Burkina Faso in 1983 in a coup, and was assassinated in 1987 in a Western (CIA) backed plot. His successor, Blaise Compaoré, was likely involved in the murder, and was ousted in 2014 after 27 years in office. In 2021, Compaoré was tried in his absence before a military court on suspicion of involvement in the assassination of Sankara.

The Militant (14.02.2022): Thomas Sankara spoke for the oppressed all over the world.

Sankara brought together issues such as gender, the environment and democracy with criticism of colonial domination. Sankara’s government contained more women than that of any other African country, and his bodyguards were women on motorcycles. He forbade circumcision and polygamy and promoted contraception. During his rule, state luxury cars were sold and cheap vehicles purchased in their place, education and health care were improved, land reform was carried out, reforestation was promoted and international development aid rejected.

The Guardian (11.10.2021): Trial Opens in Burkina Faso over Killing of Revolutionary Hero Thomas Sankara.

Spanish priest in Oaxaca, Mexico.

Paul F. Ramirez (2018): Enlightened Immunity: Mexico’s Experiments with Disease Prevention in the Age of Reason. Standford: Stanford University Press, p. 12

According to Ramirez (2018: 12), many speeches condemned indigenous people who opposed the epidemic measures taken by the Spaniards as “superstitious”. However, their fear was not unfounded, as the first Europeans brought smallpox, measles, flu and typhus with them, against which the indigenous population had no defences. Thus most indigenous people fell victim not to the Europeans’ superior weapons, but to their epidemics. According to scientific estimates, up to 95 percent of the population in large parts of the double continent was killed within just 100 years (Wagner 2020). Today, argues the epidemiologist Rob Wallace, new pathogens in the form of diseases for humans, other fauna and flora are constantly being created, thanks in part to the destruction of nature and habitats, factory farming‚ and the capitalist economy’s promotion of profit over nature, people and health (Wallace 2020).

*Der Freitag (Thomas Wagner, 28.09.2020): Der Viren-WirtPandemie Hinter Covid-19 stehen Massentierhaltung und Raubbau, also der Neoliberalismus, erklärt Rob Wallace. Der Freitag 38/2020.
*Rob Wallace (2020): Competing with Nature: COVID-19 as a Capitalist Virus (Interview by Ashley Smith). Spectre Journal 16.10.2020.

Jair Bolsonaro (born 1955) has been President of Brazil since 2019. He has been heavily criticised for his authoritarian and neoliberal politics, as well as for his misogynistic, homophobic and racist statements.

Telesur, 23.09.2020: Bolsonaro Blames Indigenous Peoples, NGOs, Press for Disasters.

From 2000 to 2018, an area of rainforest the size of Spain, some 513,016 km², was cut down (Amazonia Socioambiental 2020). Bolsonaro in particular, whose political career is supported by large landowners (Süddeutsche, 17.05.2020), is promoting the destruction and exploitation of the rainforest and, as a consequence, climate change. New areas for cattle breeding and agriculture are to be deforested. The extraction of natural resources such as minerals or oil in the Amazon region will also be permitted by new laws. In addition, Bolsonaro’s plans will soon make it easier for companies to obtain legal titles to indigenous lands. The German federal government signed a supply chain agreement with Brazil in December 2019, according to which imports of meat, soy and wood were to be produced both in deforestation-free land and without slave-like working conditions (Nachdenkseiten 2021). However, one year later, while imports from Brazil had increased overall, only 22% of soy imports were certified (Deutsche Umwelthilfe 2020). In the second largest rainforest in the world, in western Papua New Guinea, which has been occupied by Indonesia since 1963, deforestation is being promoted in indigenous areas (Raki Ap 2021) and the local population suppressed (UN Human Rights Office, 30.11.2020). At the same time, Western corporations such as BP continue to go about their business undisturbed there are active and do not ‚ want to interfere in political matters (Financial Times, 16.09.2019).

*Humans Rights Watch (2021): “Attempt to Greenwash Bolsonaro’s Environmental Record Backfires at OECD.”