In May, representatives for waste pickers across the Global South assembled at United Nations plastic treaty negotiations in Paris to call attention to the environmental impact of their labor — as people who remove toxic plastics from landfills — and underscore their importance in the global economy. They argued for legal authorization as waste pickers, which would allow them more dignity in their positions and recognition of their key role in ending plastic waste. While their labor is crucial, it is often invisible. It also reveals a glaring truth of the contemporary climate: waste flows to the Global South while capital flows to the Global North.

In his new book, Carbon Colonialism: How Rich Countries Export Climate Breakdown, scholar Laurie Parsons investigates the colonial dynamics of wealth and resource extraction that render many aspects of climate change — including vulnerability to drastic flooding — nearly invisible. Carbon Colonialism uncovers the hidden corporate processes through which the Global North outsources its environmental impact to the Global South.

Cal Turner and Sara Van Horn spoke with Parsons for Jacobin about how greenwashing campaigns sidestep meaningful climate mitigation, the effects of wealth on vulnerability to climate change, and what changes to global production could move us closer to a climate-just future.