Two of the main characteristics of capitalism are continuous growth and the commodification of everything: everything in nature is potentially appropriated by the capitalist and exchanged for profit. “Capitalism is not simply a world economy, but also a world ecology that transforms human activity into commodified labor power, land into private property, and nature into an external object to be harnessed for the accumulation of capital” (Moore 2016). To sustain and maximize profit for the capitalist, production and exchange of commodities must continuously grow, while at the same time, the cost of production is reduced. To this end, capitalism was built and developed through the exploitation of not only local labor and natural resources, but globally through the subjugation of indigenous peoples, enslavement of Africans, and plunder of nature (Gonzalez 2021). Thus, the “exploitation of the planet and of people is not an unfortunate consequence, it is the very foundation of the world as we know it has been built” (Loach 2024). The result is environmental devastation and a climate crisis, the burden of which is primarily borne by indigenous and marginalized communities, and the poor working class in the USA and globally.

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Green Washing and Indigenous Communities

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A cursory look at the history of capitalism is enough to indicate that the likelihood of governments and industry coming up with solutions to climate change is practically nil (Saito 2020). Instead of real effective solutions, the tendency has always been to shift responsibility, cost, and burden to the peripheries and to the consumers. Nothing illustrates this point as much as the car industry. To combat the rising emissions from cars, we are told that the solution is to shift to electric or hybrid vehicles. Instead of developing and promoting efficient public transportation networks, governments and industry have shifted responsibility to individual drivers. Electric and hybrid cars’ source of energy is rechargeable batteries. One of the main components used in the production of those batteries is lithium.

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The “lithium triangle”, a region in Argentina, Chile, and Bolivia is home to native indigenous communities. It sits on vast reserves of the mineral: about 52 percent of known world lithium reserves. As the demand for lithium surged between 2021-2023, the extraction of lithium in this region increased dramatically threatening the very existence of those indigenous communities.

A common and cost-effective method of lithium extraction is the evaporative lithium brine process, which uses vast amounts of water. In Chile, the large lithium deposits are in the Atacama plateau, a dry arid desert where indigenous communities live and depend on subsistence farming. The diversion of water resources to lithium mining has forced the migration of those communities, as they can no longer survive and maintain their traditional way of life with what little water is left, let alone the contamination of the soil and destruction of vast areas of land resulting from those mining operations.

 

In the USA, large deposits of lithium were recently discovered in the Thacker Pass area in Nevada (Figure 1). This project is “tied to violent US settler colonialism and a new era of resource exploitation. The project sprawls over nearly 18,000-acres on Numu/Nuwu and Newe ancestral lands the US government stole from them” (HRW and ACLU 2025).  The project was approved by the US government without any real or “meaningful consultation with indigenous peoples and without their free, prior, and informed consent” (HRW and ACLU 2025). The extent of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) contact with the Tribes was three rounds of mailings. No in-person meeting or discussion about the mining operation and its potential impact on the indigenous Tribes’ rights. US courts have rebuffed the Tribes’ effort to challenge the project which prevents the Tribes from accessing their ancestral lands and from practicing their traditions and practice their religion (HRW and ACLU 2025).

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Cobalt is another component used in the manufacture of lithium-ion batteries used to power electric vehicles. 60 percent of the cobalt produced in the world originates from mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Cobalt and other metals mining is fueling the armed conflict between rival warlords and the government. In southern Congo, child and slave labor are prevalent. Forty thousand children as young as 6-7 years old are employed in those mines to extract cobalt and other minerals with their bare hands and using primitive tools: chisels and hammers (Saito 2020).

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Those are some examples of the true cost of what is touted as a green alternative to fossil fuels. Greenwashing is nothing more than the displacement of capitalism’s contradictions elsewhere, rendering them invisible as Marx has pointed out.

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Environmental Racism: Marginalized Communities

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Environmental racism refers to the disproportionate exposure of marginalized communities to environmental hazards. Marginalized communities are groups that face and experience significant disadvantages and discrimination related to factors such as ethnicity, skin color, and immigration status. Being disadvantaged limits those communities’ access to resources, political power, and opportunities, thus making them more likely to be exposed to higher risks, including environmental risks. It is very important, however, to note that socioeconomic status, disability, gender, and sexual orientation often compound discrimination and the impact of environmental racism.

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Environmental racism manifests in various ways, which include:

1. The placement of polluting industries and landfills in communities of color.

2. Inadequate access to clean water and sanitation in indigenous poor rural areas.

3. Higher exposure to air pollution and climate change for marginalized urban populations (Adekunte et al. 2025

In the 1930s, the federal government designated minority and low-income neighborhoods as risky investment zones for mortgage insurance and were marked as red. This became known as redlining. To enforce the separation of the redlined areas from the “safe” ones, the government recommended and placed highways close to and through the redlined areas. Those redlined zones also became the sites for polluting industries such as oil refineries, chemical facilities, and plastics plants. Toxic waste dumpsites were also located close to or within those communities, which became known as sacrifice zones. A report by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published in 2021 concluded:

•  Black and African American individuals are projected to face higher effects of climate change for all six impacts analyzed in this report, compared to all other demographic groups. For example, with 2°C (3.6°F) of global warming, Black and African American individuals are:

• 34 percent more likely to live currently in areas with the highest projected increases in childhood asthma diagnoses. This rises to 41percent under 4°C (7.2° F) of global warming. 

• 40 percent more likely to live currently in areas with the highest projected increases in extreme temperature-related deaths.

• This rises to 59 percent under 4° C of global warming.

• Hispanics and Latinos have high participation in weather-exposed industries, such as construction and agriculture, which are especially vulnerable to the effects of extreme temperatures. With 2° C (3.6° F) of global warming, Hispanic and Latino individuals are 43 percent more likely to live currently in areas with the highest projected reductions in labor hours because of extreme temperatures. Regarding transportation, Hispanic and Latino individuals are about 50 percent more likely to live currently in areas with the highest estimated increases in traffic delays due to increases in coastal flooding (http.www.epa.gov 2021).

 

In Flint, Michigan, the abandonment of the city by capital (GM moving its assembly work abroad), has made the city “increasingly poor and black” as affluent white people left (In 1970, Flint was 70 percent white, in 2016 37 percent of Flint residents were white). Not only was it abandoned by the capital, but it was also abandoned by the state, which is evident by the shrinking services and investment in vital infrastructure. The ensuing poisoning of the water supply for the city and the attempts of cover up and deflect responsibility by state officials left thousands permanently impacted by lead poisoning. Children are especially harmed by the poisoning, and the effects will not be fully known for years.

Flint is just one example of how a community can be considered “disposable by virtue of being predominantly poor and black” (Pulido 2016).

 

Appalachia: Coal Boom and Bust

 

Appalachia extends from southern New York to Mississippi. It sits over large deposits of coal. This region produced two-thirds of the coal used in the USA. In central Appalachia, particularly, whole towns depended on coal mining. In fact, those towns were built by mining companies—a modern form of slavery where the earnings of miners went back to mine owners in the form of housing rent and services provided.

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Mine workers' unions were strong and managed to get some gains for the workers; however, the mining companies, having strong relationships with local politicians managed to get laws passed restricting and seriously weakening the power of the workers' union and organizing. In addition, the local politicians were all too eager to attract mining companies under the pretext that creating jobs would result in developing the local economy and enriching the residents, causing the community that subsidized the coal mining industry to relax or ignore health and safety concerns.

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As the demand for coal decreased, in an effort to cut costs, mining companies developed new techniques for extracting coal: mountaintop removal, where literally mountain tops were blasted away to access the coal seams. This resulted in laying off workers and serious damage to the environment in the form of loss of habitat, deforestation, and water pollution. Acid drainage, a byproduct of coal extraction has resulted in contaminating rivers, making them unable to sustain life as well as serious health risks to the local population (Zipper et al. 2011). The further decline in demand for coal and the challenges of mountaintop removal methods made the cost of mining too high for the industry. As a result, many mining companies closed and relocated, leaving whole communities behind with no jobs and an environment scarred and polluted—unable to sustain life. Appalachia is a sad example of the co-modification of nature and labor, which is the hallmark of capitalism and a corrupt political system.

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The above are but very small examples, illustrating the impact that indigenous peoples, marginalized, and poor communities experience as capitalism continues to exploit human and natural resources that further environmental damage and exacerbate the climate crisis.

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Human life and everything in nature, as far as capitalism is concerned, has no value if it cannot be used to produce objects to generate wealth for the capitalist in the process of exchange. As a result, everything that has no value is disposable. This is the logic that underlies the capitalist system. Fighting environmental destruction and climate change cannot ignore the nature of the capitalist economic system responsible for creating the problem in the first place. Shifting responsibility from the industry and governments to the individual consumer is a smoke screen designed to make everyone believe things are being done when, in fact, further destruction of natural resources and communities under a new name and disguise continues unabated.

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Indigenous, marginalized, and poor communities have been organizing across borders and communities to bring attention to their plight and demand justice. Environmental justice requires a shift of the power structure from corporations to communities, and the transformation of the oppressive structures and systems that inflict violence on people and the planet. Environmental justice means recognizing that capitalism as an economic system itself is the problem.

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Sources

Adekunte, Paul A., Matthew N. O. Sadiku and Janet O. Sadiku. 2025. Environmental Racism. International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development 9(3)1015-1022. www.ijtsrd.com 

Gonzalez, Carmen G. 2021. The Sacrifice Zones of Carbon Capitalism: Race, Expendability, and Loss and Damage. Chapter 3 In: Meinhard Doelle and Sara L. Seck, editors. Research Handbook on Climate Change Law and Loss & Damage.

          DOI: 10.4337/9781788974028.00009.

HRW (Human Rights Watch) and ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union). 2025. The Land of Our People Forever. United States Human Rights Violations against the Numu/Nuwu and Newe in the Rush for Lithium. 

https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-report-shows-disproportionate-impacts-climate-change-socially-vulnerable. 2021

Loach, Mikaela. 2024. It’s not that radical. Haymarket Books, Chicago, IL.

Moore, Jason W. 2016.The rise of cheap nature. Pages 85-87 In: Jason W Moore, editor. 2016. Anthropocene or Capitalocene? Nature, History, and the Crisis of Capitalism. PM Press, Ithaca, NY.

Pulido, Laura. 2016. Flint, Environmental Racism, and Racial Capitalism. Capitalism Nature Socialism 27(3):1-16. DOI: 10.1080/10455752.2016.1213013.

Saito, Kohei. 2020. Slow down the degrowth manifesto. Astra House, New York, NY.

Zipper, C. E., J. G. Skousen and P.N. Angel. 2011. Restoring forests and associated ecosystem services on Appalachian coal surface mines. 47(5):751-65.

DOI: 10.1007/s00267-011-9670-z.