Protection of Life Must Defy Systems of Exploitation

Hyper-capitalist labor exploitation has a powerful place in conservation discourse — from fast-fashion’s sweatshops to the lithium mines of South America. Conservation should not just be about mitigating symptomatic externalities. Honest discourse on conservation must factor in the role of the capitalist machine. It must interrogate the machine’s myriad gears, among which the global north’s consumerist demands and the resulting labor exploitation in the global south are included. 

The global north’s public — the consumer sovereign, as the economists would call them — must reflect on where their luxuries come from. They must reflect on consumerism’s heavy toll on the laborers and environment in the global north and south alike. This writing endeavors to highlight labor exploitation and demonstrate how it isn’t mutually exclusive with environmental degradation. In order for conservation efforts to become truly substantial, we must explore this intersection.

The topic of conservation has led to an array of discussions and decisions that quite often exclude the dynamics of capitalism that are imposed on today’s society. Exploitation affects the worker, other beings, and the environment, and exacerbates climate change. The harmful and hazardous effects associated with exploitation aren’t exclusive. As it imposes threats to the worker, so does it for the environment and all else that exists. Due to this, conservation efforts are inhibited by systems that prioritize financial profits by any harmful means. For conservation efforts to center the protection of all forms of life, the systems that center exploitation must cease.

Capitalist efforts require exploitation to persist to acquire as much financial profit as possible. This includes environmental exploitation and labor exploitation. Through the harmful practices reinforced, there are dire effects on the earth and all that inhabit it. Capitalist efforts center work systems that heighten the risks of pollution, environmental degradation, injury, and even death.

There continues to be a lot of coverage on how exploitative practices cause severe harm. Through Occupational Safety and Health, I’ve observed that workers remain at the forefront of harm. Such practices have led to workers facing musculoskeletal disorders, several injuries, disenfranchisement, workplace stressors, burnout, and death in some instances. Quite often, they don’t have anyone but themselves to speak out against and resist these issues. This is evident in the current state of union-busting efforts that workers are fighting against. Through centering conservation on their terms, corporations are actively working to dissuade their decisions.

If the worker is not protected, how can anything else be? When management enforces practices that lead to high rates of pollution, fossil fuel extraction, and mining to name a few, these actions take a toll on all that exist in these spaces. This is evident amidst climate and environmental conservation efforts globally. Environmentalists, climate advocates, and eco-feminists have recognized the ways that exploitation inhibits their conservation efforts. There is a connection between exploitative work practices and the high emissions of greenhouse gasses that affect sea-level rise and extreme heat temperatures. Corporations continue their extraction at the expense of worker exposure and the environmental effects. 

How can we evoke change? Knowing what we’re up against, how can we collectively work towards safer and equitable systems? 

2023 has shown many great strides in the intersection of labor, environmental, and climate justice, such as developing a Just Transition Work Programme. The sentiment remains that until the current state of exploitation ceases, this cycle will continue and even worsen in years to come. This realization has created immense concern about being a catalyst for change through Occupational Safety and Health initiatives. 

Similarly to global constraints, the Caribbean experiences expansion of corporate greed and destruction. The desire to further generate and hoard wealth has taken an unfathomable toll on vulnerable communities. For a region that remains at risk for drought, ecological destruction from climate disasters, and human rights violations, the prevalence of exploitation precedes conservatory initiatives. 

Amidst this, conservation efforts are more than just the worker. I believe that this is a continuous effort of conservation through understanding all that is at risk, whilst providing risk reduction strategies in the process. In essence, centering workers’ rights must coincide with amplifying the rights of all life and the environment. To further engage in conservatory practices, addressing worker exposure to hazardous labor must take precedence. 

This is where Occupational Safety and Health comes in, by being a guide for legislative obligations by the employer and employee to reduce risk and avoid harmful work practices. This defies exploitation as the concept itself is antithetical to a safe environment. While understanding the urgency to advocate for such initiatives, I’ve noticed that many working environments either do not have such regulations in place or do not have the necessary legislation to reinforce safe practices. 

By acknowledging the gaps in worker safety and the effects, safety legislations, and policies account for how severely these impact one’s life and the spaces they inhabit. Without them, corporations can continue harmful practices. More so, even with such legislations in place, many organizations still disregard them for their own agendas. We need a systemic change that significantly contrasts with the exploitative one that persists. 

As I reflect on what conservation can become, I think about the worker and all forms of life that are negatively impacted by capitalist exploitation. Work is a part of many of our lives and is tied to our survival. As long as we are required to navigate workspaces to sustain our needs, such spaces must be safe. We must engage in work with the account for how our practices affect the environment and climate. It is a holistic approach that requires everyone to look beyond exploitative systems of labor.

Furthermore, at a rudimentary level, the global north’s public must thoroughly reflect on their collective demands and lifestyles. While these problems are systemic and require changes at political and institutional levels, it is the global north’s duty to interrogate where its privilege stands and what form of exploitation it legitimizes.