It ain't fashion, if it ain't sustainable

Carbon Colonialism

Climate Crisis / Carbon Colonialism

1 June 2023

7 minutes

Thick black smoke is seen coming out from a chimney of a garment factory in the outskirts of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. An investigation by the Unearthed team of Greenpeace and Daily Mail last year unravelled a scandal in Cambodia wherein off-cuts from clothing factories that supply leading western brands were being used to fuel brick-kilns—exposing bonded workers to toxic fumes. The investigation took off from the 'Hot Trends' study of Laurie Parsons.

Joining the Dots: Sustainability Strategy Reflects the Colonial Logic of the Global Economy

Dr Laurie Parsons is Senior Lecturer in Human Geography at Royal Holloway, University of London. His new book Carbon Colonialism explores the murky practices of outsourcing a country's environmental impact, where emissions and waste are exported from rich countries to poorer ones; a world in which corporations and countries are allowed to maintain a clean, green image while landfills in the world's poorest countries continue to expand, and droughts and floods intensify under the auspices of globalisation, deregulation and economic growth. Parsons in conversation with texfash.com.