This reflection is driven by the disturbing and contrasting image of impeccable cleanliness in the global North and that of general dirt and waste in the global South. [1] Is it the case that the global South is generally lazy, ignorant, uneducated, dirty, and careless? Is it the case that the global North does better and cares? What is the dynamic of waste and what does it tell us?
The waste[2] we see and that one we pretend to not see
In the global South, the mounting piles of waste are evident to the eye. Classic examples of hazardous substances are plastic, fashion waste and electronic waste to name a few. The waste includes the locally produced in the global South but also the one dumped by countries of the global North, legally and illegally, at their ports. Several countries of the global South saw it as “being treated as waste” and pushed back.[3] But waste takes another shape as well, that of landscapes as waste: desolated sacrifice zones product of “development” and “economic growth”. As already described in two articles in the Brennpunkt (issues 317 and 319), sacrifice zones are polluted and degraded territories in which living beings and their cycles and ecosystems are literally sacrificed for profit. They are discarded like waste, while the profits sooner than later return to the global North. The exploitation renders the territories inhabitable.[4]
In the global North, waste has a different look. It is displayed in the constant new: new “clean” cement roads, eternal construction works, new trees after new trees after cutting the old trees, new cars, new clothes, and food of choice every single day, no exceptions. The old is discarded out of sight. The aim is to be surrounded by comfort at whatever cost. Everything is expendable and the waste goes unnoticed as every week our trash cans get emptied and cleaned again. It is a fact that the global North wastes the most, by all means.
Waste is the expression of economic growth
It seems intuitive after some pondering. Waste (and consequently that which is pollution) is propelled by economic growth: “the main driver for the trend in waste volumes is considered to be economic growth”[5]. Just to mention one example, let us look at greenhouse gas emissions (causing the climate crisis): it is the countries with high economic growth that produce the highest greenhouse gas emissions.
In all, the capitalist (and also patriarchal, modern and colonial) system demands high production and consumption for its success, and its realization brings high levels of waste (and pollution) which are called externalities. It is so that the expression of success in this capitalist system is waste (and pollution).
Luxembourg has a decently high position of per capita generation of municipal waste (in 2022 the third position among OECD) not to mention the position of Luxembourg regarding the Earth Overshoot Day[6] (a staggering second position in 2022). At the same time, Luxembourg is literally an economic fortress of high economic growth welcoming multinational companies and international investments. Luxembourg is a great example of the implications of high economic growth and the social and ecological costs behind it.
The aim in the global North is to decouple waste from economic growth. According to Naomi Klein, the only times pollution decreased has been during important global recessions and during the last pandemic. Policies in the global North aim to maintain our lifestyles by all means, even despite the increasing scarcity of life and the failing life supporting systems. The dominant logic is that if you do not see the waste nor the destruction, does it even exist? The discarded clothes, electronics, car, food, and construction debris simply disappear from our lives.[7] Not that we care to even know. On the contrary, the least we know, the better. And as much as the global North does not want to know and keeps the waste as far away as possible (the problem in the global North is not the creation of waste nor the horror of the destruction of lives, but to see, smell and touch it), the waste and pollution is coming back home.
Like in a fish bowl
Let us do a mental exercise and imagine that the whole Earth, with its atmosphere included, is contained in a round fish bowl. We are all contained in this closed system just as a golden fish. We swim in the air, water, and earth. By now our fish bowl is collapsing in waste. It is extremely polluted… driven by the consumption and waste of the global North. By now, it is becoming inevitable to drink, eat and breathe the pollution, no matter in which corner of the fish bowl you hide.
Let us look at two examples. First, microplastics are everywhere: microplastics reach the shores of paradisiac isolated islands[8], microplastics falls with the rain[9] and recently microplastics were even found in fresh snow in Antartica.[10] Whether at the highest peak on Earth, Mount Everest,[11] or the deep ocean[12], microplastics are present. With such references, it shouldn’t be surprising that microplastics have been found in human blood as well[13].
The second case is CO2 emissions. In April 2023 the Mauna Loa Observatory on Hawaii’s Big Island broke the monthly record of CO2 concentration with 423.1 ppm for the first time.[14] This is not only the highest level in millions of years, it is the highest in the entire history of humankind and speed of increase is accelerating[15]. Carbon dioxide by now is more than 50% higher than in pre-industrial times.
As part of the piling waste, pollution is now ubiquitous in our fish bowl. It should suffice to say that a study last year found in Luxembourg up to 88 pollutants in children’s hair with a median of 61 pollutants.[16] Whether the streets and the buildings are newly constructed or our clothes and gadgets are constantly renewed, that does not devoid us of being exposed to pollutants that are killing life.[17] With the aim of economic growth, even food has become toxic. Our diets include, besides the carbon dioxide we breathe, pesticides, hormones, fertilizers, antibiotics, and so on goes the long list.
Despite the increasing hazardous substances, the global North remains oblivious, careless. Largely pretending that pushing the pollution far away will solve the problem. Some argue that if the impacts of the pollution and waste reach them, then they will simply move away from it: find a hidden clean place within a remote island, a super yacht or a bunker or several of them, or worse[18]. They forget we are in a fish bowl and the smoking gun of the lack of care of the capitalist system imposed by the global North lies in the mounting waste and pollution.
Care as resistance
Care is counterintuitive to the logic of the capitalist (also patriarchal, modern and colonial) system that incentivizes selfish, rational and isolated individuals to pursue profit. Under this dominant logic, care is deemed irrational, but what is irrational is to pursue profit over life. There is no place to continue accumulating all this waste and pollution. This system coerces us to give up care. Care is the resistance. It compels people, environmental and human rights defenders, to stand in the way of the destruction and pollution of their territories and communities. It compels us to look at the implications of our actions upon the life around us and act. The root cause of the ongoing multiple overlapping crises might simply be reduced to the lack of care of the global North.
Let us care. Resist.
Notes:
[1] The definition of global North and global South is that one which is geographically fluid and it is described in decolonized glossary of the hors-série Brennpunkt issue 1, to be found online at : https://www.brennpunkt.lu/en/hs_glossaire/
[2] Waste is defined here as everything that is discarded for being deemed useless and has no worth. Waste can have negative consequences on living beings and ecosystems, but not always. Waste that has negative consequences on living beings and ecosystems is called pollution.
[3]Treated like trash: south-east Asia vows to return mountains of rubbish from west, May 28, 2019. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/may/28/treated-like-trash-south-east-asia-vows-to-return-mountains-of-rubbish-from-west
[4] The documentary « The illusion of abundance » co-directed by Erika Gonzalez Ramirez and Matthieu Lietaert describes the exploitation of the global North on the global South.
[5] Waste generation in Europe (8th EAP) (November 22, 2022) https://www.eea.europa.eu/ims/waste-generation-and-decoupling-in-europe
[6] Earth Overshoot Day marks the date when humanity’s demand for “ecological resources” (fish and forests, for instance) and services in a given year exceeds what Earth can regenerate in that year. https://www.overshootday.org/kids-and-teachers-corner/lesson-what-day-is-earth-overshootday/
[7] Among the ecosystems and lives destroyed, humans are reduced to economic transactions. It is so normalized in the public discourse. Human value is measured in terms of utility. Some humans have no utility, no worth. They are branded as “a burden to society”: immigrants, women, poor, homeless, among others. These people, largely racialized, are treated like waste and criminalized. There is currently the trend to increase “security” forces and expand prisons to discard them.
[8] Over four billion plastic particles found in beach sand of remote paradise island (April 16, 2021) Natural History Museum.
[9] It is raining plastic: 74 tonnes of microplastics fell from the air on Auckland in 2020 (December 14, 2022) https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/environment/it-is-raining-plastic-74-tonnes-of-microplastics-fell-from-the-air-on-auckland-in-2020-86563
[10] Aves, A. R. (June 7, 2022) First evidence of microplastics in Antarctic snow. The Cryosphere. https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/16/2127/2022/
[11] Microplastics found near Everest’s peak, highest ever detected in the world (November 20, 2020)
[12] The Deep Ocean harbors a mountain of microplastic pollution ( June 6, 2019) https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-deep-ocean-harbors-a-mountain-of-microplastic-pollution/
[13] Scientists find microplastics in human blood for the first time (March 31, 2022) https://today.rtl.lu/news/science-and-environment/a/1887556.html
[14] This means that for every million molecules in dry air there were 423 molecules of CO2 during the month of April 2023.
[15] Greenhouse gases continued to increase rapidly in 2022 (April 5, 2023)
https://www.noaa.gov/news-release/greenhouse-gases-continued-to-increase-rapidly-in-2022
[16] Up to 88 different pollutants found in Luxembourg children’s hair (July 19, 2022)
https://www.lih.lu/en/up-to-88-different-pollutants-found-in-luxembourg-childrens-hair/
[17] Many of the comforts of the modern lifestyle are wasteful, superfluous and unhealthy. Plastic and cement are two examples.
[18] The delusion to find another planet to live beyond the diverse and rich Earth that we already have.
