'An exhilarating, urgent work . . . [Dark Laboratory] threads together ecological and human crises in an original, glittering web’ Afua Hirsch

From award-winning writer and theorist Tao Leigh Goffe, an urgent investigation into the intertwined history of colonialism and the climate crisis – and the lessons we can learn to fight for a better world.

Our planet is on the precipice of ecological breakdown and climate despair is at an all-time high. But there are many communities who have survived beyond the environmental destruction wrought on them by colonialism – and they hold the solutions for climate repair.

Using the Caribbean as a case study, Tao Leigh Goffe traces the history of the islands back to the arrival of Christopher Columbus, when the Caribbean became the subject of Western exploitation. Charting the ecological forces that have shaped the islands – from guano to coral reefs, sugarcane to mongooses – and learning from Black, Indigenous and Asian island histories, Goffe makes the argument that the extractivist capitalism that is the origin of the climate crisis is borne from colonial thinking – and that to fight one effectively is to fight both.

Treating the Caribbean as both a warning and a guide, Dark Laboratory is a lyrical, vibrant and urgent investigation into the greatest threat facing humanity.

‘Noble and necessary’ New York Times

'A work of searching curiosity and intelligence' Ekow Eshun

'Necessary, compelling and utterly unique' Monique Roffey

'Relentlessly engaging . . . shows us new ways to live' The Atlantic

"Groundbreaking . . . In a narrative spanning hundreds of years, thousands of miles and successive waves of colonial driven migration, Goffe charts the development of the modern western ideology that has come to dominate the world" - Guardian

"Noble and necessary . . . Goffe’s ear is tuned to songs of resistance, to what it looks like to make life amid (and after) colonial subjugation" - New York Times Book

"Ambitious . . . This is an urgent and frequently grim work, but it is also hopeful . . . Goffe is relentlessly engaging, leaving the academy’s dusty archives, and traveling from Jamaica to Sardinia, Hong Kong to Hawai‘i, to discover better ways to live" - The Atlantic

"Spinning off in unexpected and creative directions . . . new possibilities emerge in the collision of ideas, including the hopeful possibility of healing and restoration . . . the constant divergences and convergences of the text are entirely deliberate – an apt way of showing how racial inequality runs like mycellium through the story of climate. This is a book about interconnections, about allowing different lines of thought to cross-pollinate each other" - The Earthbound Report

"In reframing the Anthropocene as a continuation of colonial practices, Goffe positions climate justice as a form of historical redress. Within this framing, domestic emissions targets and carbon budgets alone cannot account for centuries of ecological debt. Instead, Goffe invites us to see climate action as a decolonial project – one that requires transforming not only economies but also systems of knowledge, memory, and belonging" - London School of Economics Review of Books

"[An] ambitious account . . . [Dark Laboratory] jumps from Jamaica to Hong Kong, Dominica and London to trace the origins of our global environmental collapse while questioning dominant narratives about scientific rationalism, invasive species and more" - New York Times, 'Paperback Row'

"An ambitious book both in scale and depth . . . [Goffe's] skilled judgement with a well-placed turn of phrase and ability to effortlessly hopscotch between historical fact, her personal experiences, and the present crisis we face combine to make a compelling read . . . It takes a strong and confident writer to take something most people never think about like the introduction of the Mongoose to Jamaica and think to herself not only am I going to devote an entire chapter to it, but I’m going to make it fascinating" - The Race Equality Centre

"A comprehensive, evidence-led study of the impact of colonialism . . . Goffe powerfully argues that racism lies at the foundation of the climate crisis and that the Caribbean has been systematically asset stripped for Western ‘trophy hunters’ . . . Goffe urges a new narrative that empowers communities long oppressed, and which can be used as a powerful guide to help adapt to and mitigate the climate and ecological crisis" - Yorkshire Bylines