In the News: Climate Change and the Slave Trade

“What climate change and slave trade in Africa have in common,” by Kofi Adu Domfeh in Luv News, looks at similarities between climate change and the slave trade in Africa. In the past, Africans had to endure the ignominy of the slave trade. Now, Africa has to contend with the problems of climate change, which is on the rise because polluter countries, mostly in the global North, do not comply with obligations of climate treaties. The Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism “allows developed countries to pay for emissions-cutting projects in developing countries in lieu of reducing their emissions” (Council on Foreign Relations). With scientific reports indicating that Africa is the continent most affected by climate change and yet contributes the least to greenhouse gases that cause climate change, this article argues that history is repeating an injustice by putting Africans at the losing end of the rope that leads to industrialization in the global North.