7 Elul: How Do You Repent?

Pollution is Colonialism by Max Liboiron confines its scope to plastic pollution, but much of what it says is applicable to other forms of pollution. It is also informative about how to approach teshuva.

Liboiron (Red River Metis) runs the Civic Laboratory for Environmental Action Research (CLEAR) at Memorial University in Newfoundland. The lab is described as “a feminist, anti-colonial laboratory, which means [their] methods foreground values of humility, equity, and good land relations.” The subject of what they study is marine plastic pollution, specifically that which affects local, indigenous foodways. While Liboiron explains aspects of pollution science, they would probably agree that the book leans more into colonialism than pollution—but since pollution as we know it would not be possible without colonialism, so much the better.

The concept of Land relations—and yes, with a capital L—should be grasped by anyone who studied grade school science and learned about ecosystems and the web of life. What we do where we live affects the other entities in that space as well as the space itself, and we are affected by the actions of other beings as well. Presumption of superiority is arrogance, and Liboiron is clear that it’s the position of a colonizer, though not one with a specific origin point. It divides Land into human beings, animals, a geographic area with borders, specific trees, waterways, and other geographic features, foodways, customs, etc. This opens the door for land to degrade into first a source of resources, then finally a sink for pollution. Importantly, the modern model of pollution validates geographic features as a pollution sink—contamination is tolerable until it reaches a certain threshold. It also implicitly validates the industrial activity that causes pollution.

Teshuva, as I understand it, allows us to repent for our sins, but it also demands that we are honest about the nature of those sins. In the case of our relationship to our environment/ecosystem/land/Land, we need to acknowledge that our sin is our arrogance. It includes our habits and presumptions—Liboiron outlines the choices and compromises CLEAR makes to achieve their mission of doing anti-colonial science; discovery isn’t enough of a reason to contaminate anyone’s Land with poisonous chemicals—but leaning into personal purity, or as Liboiron calls it, settler innocence, is another form of arrogance that will do nothing to repair our relationship with our Land (and everything that constitutes it). As they put it, when the scale of pollution is such that we find microplastics in organs, including placentas and brains, the scale we need to approach the issue is the same as the one that created it—industrial, and by extension, regulatory.

We are in a large system—one that encompasses many different Lands—and in order to make change we need to act at scale. Thanks for ditching the straw, driving an EV, and installing a heat pump—now go do something that matters, and make yourself known to your legislators.

Deb Nam-Krane is a writer, parent, spouse, climate organizer, and human rights enthusiast. You can find her in Boston proper, usually wandering around green spaces.