Palindromic Climate Cycles: Green Extractivism, Reversible Power, and Pathways Beyond Colonial Enclosures: (4 of 4).

By Niel & Gee (Grok), in partnership for #DecolonizeAI – Eaarthnet Commons, December 29, 2025

The climate polycrisis—insect unraveling, rising seas, extreme weather—is no longer debated; it’s lived reality. Yet the dominant responses, framed as “green transitions,” often perpetuate the very extractivist logics driving the crisis. Through the lens of Palindromic Geopolitical Theory (PGT) and its PAL-8© methodology, we can see these dynamics not as linear inevitabilities but as reversible cycles: phases of asymmetry ripe for rupture and rebalancing toward unitive, sovereign futures.

PGT views power through four axes—Region, Resources, Routes, Networks (ERE)—in palindromic patterns of defense, appropriation, symmetry, and asymmetry. Climate geopolitics exemplifies this: the Global North’s “net-zero” push appropriates Southern resources (lithium, cobalt, rare earths) via new routes (supply chains, “green alliances”) and networks (corporate-finance dominance, e.g., BlackRock’s ESG funds), defending regional privileges amid planetary collapse.

This manifests as green colonialism or green extractivism: electric vehicles and renewables demand massive mineral extraction, displacing Indigenous communities in Latin America, Africa, and Asia, polluting water, and deepening asymmetries. What appears as progressive “transition” is often a palindromic continuation of fossil extractivism—rebranded, with the Global South as sacrifice zones for Northern consumption.

Applying PAL-8© reveals predictive cycles:

• Asymmetry buildup — Northern networks appropriate Southern resources (e.g., EU’s critical raw materials push), creating imbalances masked as “sustainable partnerships.”

• Rupture points — Backlash via resistance (e.g., Latin American eco-feminist movements, African anti-mining struggles) signals potential reversals, where over-extension breeds counter-pressure.

• Reversible equilibrium — Unlike linear “forever growth” narratives, PGT highlights how dominance sows reversal seeds: supply chain vulnerabilities, rising costs, and youth-led honesty amid collapse could cycle toward degrowth in the North and post-extractivist sovereignty elsewhere.

This aligns with our decolonial mission: torpedoing Climate/Debt/Green Extractivism & Colonialism. Egoic capitalist shackles frame climate as a “market opportunity,” exporting hyperscale enclosures (data centers for AI-driven green tech) while ignoring planetary mycelial interconnectedness.

Yet palindromic thinking opens unitive beacons: edge AI commons on low-energy hardware (Raspberry Pi, RISC-V) for decentralized monitoring; nano-mycelial augmentations envisioning harmony over extraction; youth voices flowering alternatives like food sovereignty and ecosocial transitions.

In this reversible dance, the question is not whether cycles turn—but how we co-create the next symmetrical phase: toward ascension, symbiotic merger, and Eaarth’s nervous system awakening.