Friday, April 3, 2026

The "Sustainable" Slave Economy

“Progress has different meanings for different people… what was progress for white people was enslavement and further degradation for African Americans.”—Prof. Margaret Washington, Cornell University

I am horrified at how many people are lauding the Chinese achievements in photovoltaic and electric vehicles without any commentary on the slave system they are built on. The sustainable energy transition is driving the expansion of the slave system in China, much as the invention of the cotton gin drove the expansion of the slave system in the antebellum United States, and if we don't act now, we are going to end up with a global economy built in part on slavery.