Product Description
Dark Laboratory
Author(s): Tao Leigh Goffe
Format: Paperback
On Columbus, the Caribbean, and the Origins of the Climate Crisis
'An exhilarating, urgent work . . . [Dark Laboratory] threads together ecological and human crises in an original, glittering web' Afua Hirsch
From award-winning writer and theorist Tao Leigh Goffe, an urgent investigation into the intertwined history of colonialism and the climate crisis - and the lessons we can learn to fight for a better world.
Our planet is on the precipice of ecological breakdown and climate despair is at an all-time high. But there are many communities who have survived beyond the environmental destruction wrought on them by colonialism - and they hold the solutions for climate repair.
Using the Caribbean as a case study, Tao Leigh Goffe traces the history of the islands back to the arrival of Christopher Columbus, when the Caribbean became the subject of Western exploitation. Charting the ecological forces that have shaped the islands - from guano to coral reefs, sugarcane to mongooses - and learning from Black, Indigenous and Asian island histories, Goffe makes the argument that the extractivist capitalism that is the origin of the climate crisis is borne from colonial thinking - and that to fight one effectively is to fight both.
Treating the Caribbean as both a warning and a guide, Dark Laboratory is a lyrical, vibrant and urgent investigation into the greatest threat facing humanity.
'Noble and necessary' New York Times
'A work of searching curiosity and intelligence' Ekow Eshun
'Necessary, compelling and utterly unique' Monique Roffey
'Relentlessly engaging . . . shows us new ways to live' The Atlantic
About the Author
Tao Leigh Goffe is an award-winning writer, theorist, and interdisciplinary artist who grew up between London and New York. She is Associate Professor at the City University of New York and the founder of Dark Laboratory, a climate research organization which focuses on the study of race, technology and ecology. Tao lives and works in Manhattan. Dark Laboratory is her first book.
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