Capitalist greed for fossil fuels causes wars, and the destruction of our natural resources becomes a weapon in itself. In the second part of her column, MITZI JONELLE TAN explores how petromasculinity fuels war and the climate crisis.
We live in a world where it has become normalized to watch livestreams of bombs falling from the sky in Palestine, Sudan, Congo, and beyond. The world scrolls past images of homes turned to rubble and children pulled from debris, as if these lives were acceptable losses. This violence is not separate from the climate crisis. It exposes the deep roots of a system that values domination over care, profit over people, and power over peace.
In Palestine, families struggle to find clean water and food, not just because humanitarian aid is being blocked, but because farmlands and fisheries have been destroyed, soil has been poisoned, and crops burned; fishing is forbidden. This ecocide, the severe and deliberate destruction of ecosystems, is being used as a tool of genocide. The very conditions for living on that land are being destroyed and forcing displacement. Environmental destruction becomes a weapon in itself.
Tagged as terrorists
The same pattern unfolds elsewhere: fossil fuel extraction and “green” mining projects devastate ecosystems and repress those who resist. In the Philippines, where I’m from, Indigenous and rural communities defending their homes are tagged as terrorists and face harassment, displacement, arrests, and even death.
Women and gender-diverse people are often the first to feel the impacts of this destruction – losing livelihoods, homes, and access to clean water. Yet we are also often the ones leading the fight, carrying generations of knowledge about care, cooperation, and resilience. This leadership comes at a cost: increased exposure to sexual violence, harassment, and political persecution. But it also reveals something powerful – that those most connected to life are those most willing to defend it.
Petromasculinity and the Culture of Domination
At the heart of this destruction lies fossil capitalism — an economy that thrives on conquest, control, and endless extraction. Fossil fuels power militaries, empires, and a worldview that equates strength with domination. Cara Daggett calls this “petromasculinity”: the fusion of fossil fuel dependency with patriarchal, militarized ideals of power. From a young age, boys are taught that strength means domination. Governments and corporations glorify control, aggression, and consumption. Together, they form a system that prizes profit and “security” over compassion and justice – the same logic that drives war and climate collapse.
The dark side of energy transition
Now, even the so-called “energy transition” risks repeating this pattern. The rush to mine lithium, cobalt, nickel, and copper for renewable technologies has unleashed a new wave of land grabs and human rights abuses. Hundreds of allegations of violations have been linked to transition-mineral mining in Africa alone, many involving Indigenous territories and biodiversity-rich ecosystems. Many of these minerals also feed the surveillance and military industries.
If the renewable transition follows the same exploitative model as fossil fuels, it will not save us. True transformation means centering justice, Indigenous sovereignty, gender equity, and community care. Otherwise, we’re just repainting the same colonial machinery green.
Finding True Power in the Collective
When people tell me they feel small in the face of all this, I understand. We’ve been made to feel powerless by the very structures we resist. But real power doesn’t flow from the top. It grows wherever communities come together to protect one another. Grief and care are not weaknesses; they are radical acts of resistance in a world that numbs us to suffering.
“Feminine” traits like nurturing, softness, community, interdependence, and love are devalued because when people rely on one another, they become less dependent on systems of exploitation, and these systems lose their power.
We must reject the false divide between “productive” and “reproductive” work, and return to the truth: all work should sustain life, not profit. Those who feed, nurture, and heal – farmers, fisherfolk, caregivers – are not marginal. They are essential.
Choosing Life Over Fossil Capital
Ultimately, our task is to choose life. As Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro said, “We are confronted with a struggle between fossil capital and human life – including the life of our planet. And we must choose a side. The only stance to take is in favor of life.”
When Petro endorsed the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, it signaled a new way forward – one rooted in peace and justice. The treaty calls for an end to new fossil fuel projects, a phase-out of existing production, and a just transition for workers and communities. Colombia’s plan to host the First International Conference for the Phase-Out of Fossil Fuels could become a historic turning point – shifting not just our economies and geopolitics, but also our gender relations and our understanding of peace itself.
It’s a feminist project for peace – one that cuts off the lifeblood of extractive, patriarchal, and imperial power.
Every bomb that falls, every forest that is cut, every community displaced is all connected, and so must our resistance be. The fight for climate justice is the fight for peace. The fight for gender justice is the fight for life.
We are being called to choose – not between hope and despair, but between death and life, between domination and care, between fossil capital and a future that can finally breathe.
Mitzi Jonelle Tan is a writer, climate justice activist, and organizer from Metro Manila, Philippines. She is Global Coordinator with the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, the Project Lead of the Climate Justice Squad Fellowship, and a member of Gabriela Germany – the German chapter of Gabriela, an anti-imperialist gender justice alliance in the Philippines.
