Postcolonialism and Ecology

Postcolonial reading of Ecology

One of the most persistent and controversial topics of contemporary politics is the issue of the environment. Global warming has demonstrated the devastating effects of the industrial revolution and the unfettered pursuit of capital expansion. The environment, and attendant topics such as ecofeminism, ecological imperialism, environmentalism,speciesism have all taken an increasingly prominent place in post-colonial thought because it has become clear that there is a direct connection between colonialist treatment of indigenous flora and fauna and treatment of colonized and otherwise dominated subjects and societies.The devastation of colonized place (and potentially of the planet) paved the way for the devastation of societies.Until now the destruction of the physical and human environments have become the same thing. (Introduction to the Second Edition: POST-COLONIAL STUDIES: The Key Concepts by Bill Ashcroft,Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin. Routledge. 2007.)

This animation by Steve Cutts explains in nutshell the encroachment and thus colonization of Ecology by Human Beings. The deconstructive hermeneutics of  helps us in developing the perspective necessary for both, the ecocriticism as well as postcolonial reading of relation between human and environment.