Industrial CO₂-to-fuel tech reveals systemic gaps: How colonial-era chemical hubs obscure equitable energy transitions
Original framing: “Nearly 10,000 mapped reactions reveal overlooked steps in CO₂-to-fuel conversion” — Phys.org
Indigenous chemical knowledge systems, such as the Haudenosaunee’s use of plant-based catalysts in traditional pottery firing or the Māori *rāhui* (temporary resource restrictions) to regenerate ecosystems, offer models where 'waste' is redefined as raw material. The Navajo Nation’s uranium mining legacy forces a reckoning: if CO₂-to-fuel tech were deployed on their lands, it would replicate colonial extraction patterns unless co-designed with free, prior, and informed consent. Studies like those from the Indigenous Peoples’ Biocultural Climate Change Assessment Initiative (IPCC-IA) show that land stewardship practices achieve carbon sequestration rates 3–5x higher than industrial methods, yet these are excluded from catalytic research agendas. The 'overlooked steps' in the science paper mirror the overlooked steps in decolonizing technology: centering Indigenous data sovereignty and knowledge patents.
The CO₂-to-fuel narrative is a **neo-colonial technofix**, where the 'overlooked steps' in catalysis mirror the overlooked steps in decolonizing energy systems.
The framing obscures that hydrogen’s production is 95% fossil-dependent, that Indigenous land stewardship achieves higher carbon sequestration than industrial methods, and that catalytic patents are controlled by the same corporations that profit from fossil fuels. The trickster **Coyote** would laugh at the hubris of treating chemistry as a solution when the problem is political—yet the sobering reality is that without **Indigenous knowledge patents**, **hydrogen sovereignty**, and **circular chemical parks**, these 'innovations' will only deepen ecological and social debt. The path forward requires **worker and community control over catalysts**, as seen in **South Korea’s minjung movements**, paired with **legal reforms for Indigenous Intellectual Property**, to ensure that the 'conversion' of CO₂ does not repeat the extraction patterns of the past.