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Dark Laboratory: On Columbus, the Caribbean, and the Origins of the Climate Crisis

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A groundbreaking investigation of the Caribbean as both an idyll in the American imagination and a dark laboratory of Western experimentation, revealing secrets to racial and environmental progress that impact how we live today.

In 1492, Christopher Columbus arrived on the Caribbean Island of Guanahaní to find an Edenic scene that was soon mythologized. But behind the myth of paradise, the Caribbean and its people would come to pay the price of relentless Western exploitation and abuse. In Dark Laboratory, Dr. Tao Leigh Goffe embarks on a historical journey to chart the forces that have shaped these islands: the legacy of slavery, indentured labor, and the forced toil of Chinese and enslaved Black people who mined the islands’ bounty—including guano, which, at the time, was more valuable than gold—for the benefit of European powers and at the expense of the islands’ sacred ecologies.

Braiding together family history, cultural reportage, and social studies, Goffe radically transforms how we conceive of Blackness, the natural world, colonialism, and the climate crisis; and, in doing so, she deftly dismantles the many layers of entrenched imperialist thinking that shroud our established understanding of the human and environmental conditions to reveal the cause and effect of a global catastrophe. Dark Laboratory forces a reckoning with the received forms of knowledge that have led us astray.

Through the lens of the Caribbean, both guide and warning of the man-made disasters that continue to plague our world, Goffe closely situates the origins of racism and climate catastrophe within a colonial context. And in redressing these twin apocalypses, Dark Laboratory becomes a record of the violence that continues to shape the Caribbean today. But it is also a declaration of hope, offering solutions toward a better future based on knowledge gleaned from island ecosystems, and an impassioned, urgent testament to the human capacity for change and renewal.

12 hrs. 44 min.

13 pages, Audible Audio

First published January 21, 2025

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Tao Leigh Goffe

4 books14 followers

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Displaying 1 - 30 of 57 reviews
Profile Image for BookOfCinz Reading Retreat Host.
1,678 reviews4,012 followers
February 25, 2025
Well researched, deeply affecting, and timely

I took my time reading Dark Laboratory because I am sure the author took her time writing this book. She seeks to examine the impact of the climate crisis in the Caribbean going as far back as Columbus and I think this was achieved. I loved reading about the differently islands, their culture and how climate change is affecting them specifically. It is hard to write a book about the Caribbean on a topic like climate change and keep it interesting and deeply nusansed but the author was able to achieve that.

An important read.
Profile Image for Ms. Woc Reader.
825 reviews929 followers
May 4, 2025
In Dark Laboratory Dr. Tao Leigh Goffe asks the question, "Is colonization the root of the current climate crisis?" Using examples from the days of Columbus to present day all inclusive resorts and private islands for the wealthy she seeks to make the connection between how the exploitation of the Caribbean has had negative effects throughout history.

This book needed to be more organized and streamlined. I understood the argument it was making but it didn't always do a great job making the argument. It jumped around to different countries and time periods, sometimes reiterating facts we received earlier. Even though chapters were labelled by different topics discussed in said chapter there's a lot of jumping around. Maybe it would've been better to break it up into chapters highlighting different island or chapters highlighting different time periods. We also have sections that highlight places outside of the Caribbean looking to make connections to the similar way colonization has affected those countries. That could've all been on chapter. There were some interesting stats shared here about environmental waste in various countries in the Caribbean the work that needs to be done when it comes to recycling but we didn't get a lot on that. She introduces personal anecdotes about her family history and how colonization has affected them but I couldn't really see how that tied into the climate crisis.
117 reviews
March 5, 2025
I DNF (yet) so this review is for part 1 and the first chapter of part 2.

This book is more manifesto than academic. I was really hoping it would be a well explained / argued book detailing how and why the current climate crisis has roots in colonialism and the slave trade. However, despite the clear brilliance of the author - this book falls well short of arguing her thesis simply because it is so poorly edited and disorganized. There are routinely two to four main thoughts rattling around any given paragraph often times seemingly unrelated. She’d often present these great introductions to ideas and I’d be fired up like “great tell me how this works, or why it works” and she’d pivot and say: “this should be further interrogated”. And I began to get really frustrated at that. I came to this book looking for answers but there aren’t any, just lots of fascinating thoughts that lead nowhere.

There many things left unexplained, vague references to cultural events or historical events that I wasn’t familiar with. This book asks a lot of the reader and I read with frequent trips to Wikipedia to get educated on various things referenced. I feel like that’s ok to a point. I appreciate that she expects a lot out of the reader. But after a certain point I think it also hurts the book and her arguments. It just kinda makes the argument feel weak as it wasn’t fully supported. Or at least adding another one sentence to explain what she means by a particular reference would be great. She often reaches into modern and recent culture with references like this to support seemingly unrelated things and they just feel like random injections until I read up and figured out what she might have meant. It wasn’t always clear to me.
Profile Image for Eduardo Santiago.
877 reviews43 followers
Did Not Finish
January 24, 2025
I was soooo looking forward to this.... but it's a big nope. The introduction is a long, tedious tirade and then it just gets weird: magical thinking (plants with their own "distinct wavelength", animism, mysticism, overuse of "sacred", everything natural is benevolent); meaningless word salad ("Still, we manage to create a poetics out of that which wishes to destroy us and the planet") indistinguishable from the wonderful Bullshit Generator [ https://sebpearce.com/bullshit/ ] only much much longer. The kind of book where I expect "hegemony" to appear any moment. The content is not helped by the writing, which is choppy and staccato.

There are nuggets of actual information, on Jamaican geography, extractive mining, flora and fauna, but not enough to make it worth the slog. Not enough to be useful. Abandoned, p.41 (two pages into chapter two).
226 reviews4 followers
October 1, 2025
tao leigh goffe is an intellectual's intellectual istg! beautiful and lush writing on the caribbean and pacific worlds, environmental storytelling, and anticolonialism. I loved how she contended with the "environment bros" and the long legacies of science as the means for racial domination, while weaving in Black, Indigenous, and Asian methodologies and ecologies. never wanted it to end!!
Profile Image for John Dannehl.
109 reviews1 follower
May 5, 2026
An ambitious book whose central thesis is that the current climate crisis is inextricably linked to colonial actions dating back to Columbus' arrival in the Caribbean. A blend of personal writings, scientific inquiry, and a call to action for new approaches to solving climate change. This book was meandering and wide-ranging, but ultimately I found it compelling. It's dense reading though.
Profile Image for Violet.
1,086 reviews67 followers
June 24, 2026
Excellent and well researched and well written. Somewhat dense as it covers many topics, from botany to bird watching to slavery to climate collapse, but I found Goffe's premise of dating the start of the climate crisis to Columbus' arrival on Caribbean shores interesting and well defended.
Profile Image for Brian Shevory.
455 reviews19 followers
December 24, 2024
“Freedom for everyone requires a confrontation with the capitalist greed upon which Western society was founded.”

“May we live to unlearn the American kind of love, which is a dangerous kind of love. It is a possessive love. It is a colonizing love, greedy love.”

Many thanks to Doubleday Publishers and NetGalley for the advanced copy of Tau Leigh Goffe’s important and timely book Dark Laboratory: On Columbus, the Caribbean, and the Origins of the Climate Crisis. This was a monumental work, building on Dr. Goffe’s work of her Dark Laboratory. I wasn’t familiar with the lab, but it is an important research lab, using an interdisciplinary approach to interrogate history and literature while examining the role colonialism, discrimination, and inequality have had on the environment and climate. This is a book I am going to need to revisit over time because there were so many ideas and important points throughout the book. As Dr. Goffe explains in the introduction “My lab is a space for research on climate, race, and technology, and more importantly, it is a philosophy. We at the lab understand that climate crisis cannot be solved without solving racial crisis. The two are inseparable.” I loved this approach to examining climate and race, and showing how the two are inseparable. This kind of approach to environmental justice is what Dr. King was advocating prior to his death, but Dr. Goffe’s analysis and critical inquiry (as well as her advocacy and fight) extends beyond America’s continental shores and looks at the colonialization of the Caribbean, as well as other islands (Hawaii in particular) to show how economic exploitation and forced implementation of American/European methods and naming conventions have threatened the natural order as well as the lives of many. Goffe’s questioning of colonialism’s impact reminded me of some other books I’ve recently read, including The Seven Circles by Chelsea Luger and Thosh Collins, that advocates for returning to indigenous ways of eating, health, and care to bring about more balance, and Reclaiming the Black Body by Alishia McCullough, who also advocates for a return to balance by nourishing more traditional and culturally relevant ways of diet and exercise. While Dr. Goffe’s examination of history, literature, and the climate crisis is vaster and more expansive, there’s a shared focus on the recognition that certain ideas, approaches and cultures have been forced upon us, limiting our perspectives and our voices. Dr. Goffe’s approach seeks to resurrect many of these voices, in a manner that reminded me of Toni Morrison’s “re-memory”—using stories and generational knowledge, shared experiences, to keep culture and the self alive. It was not a surprise, then, to learn that Dr. Goffe was one of Morrison’s last students at Princeton and has adapted Morrison’s pedagogy and methods of inquiry for her lab. I recognize many similarities between the themes and concerns of both thinkers.

Beyond being an important book that challenges our assumptions about the nature of the climate crisis, Dr. Goffe incorporates her own experiences and family into the narrative, since she was born in England, descended from Chinese Jamaicans. Tracing her family history and sharing her experiences of visiting family across the globe, from Hong Kong to Surinam and Jamaica, Dr. Goffe’s own story helps to explore how colonization has both created new cultures and also eliminated others, forcing a kind of assimilation towards the dominant culture. I knew a little about the Chinese in Jamaica (and other islands like Hawaii), but I didn’t realize there was also a move to return Jamaicans of Chinese descent to Hong Kong and other areas in China, despite not being initially from China. Dr. Goffe explained how her family members probably were not easily assimilated into either Jamaica or China, being somewhat outcasts in both societies. Her analysis helps to show how this colonial mentality ends up being more exclusionary and problematic, causing confusion and identity issues. I really appreciated how Dr. Goffe challenges many assumptions about the current climate crisis by re-evaluating its origins at Columbus’s landing in the Caribbean. It makes sense since his initial landing in the Caribbean completely shifted the culture and landscape from one of living in harmony with nature to one that exploited the people, environment and resources for profit making. While Dr. Goffe does note how many people from other lands (African, Chinese, Indian), brought their own culture, ways, and knowledge with them, it is also sad to think about how much was lost along the way.

One of the most amazing aspects of Dr. Goffe’s book is the different subjects she examines throughout the chapters. The beginning of the book looks at islands as colonial laboratories, but also examining the resistance to colonialism, specifically by looking at the Maroons of Jamaica, as well as the origins of the climate crisis with Europeans arrival in the Caribbean, bringing her argument about the exploitation of these lands for profit to the forefront. Her other chapters look at some of the results of colonialism—I’m not sure what else to call them—but many of them touch our lives, and I didn’t always think about the colonial implications of these. One of the most powerful and relevant chapters was on museums and how they often remove the life from the native lands to preserve a kind of death of animals, plants, and sometimes people for study and entertainment. Dr. Goffe explored the University of Pennsylvania’s acquisition of the remains of the children of MOVE, who died from a police bombing of their home in 1985. I’ve been to that museum many times, and I was shocked to learn about this. However, in the larger context of the collection, it makes sense. This museum and others like it routinely house the remains and sacred artifacts from other cultures in the name of science and entertainment. Understanding the process of acquisition and the purpose of exhibiting artifacts like these is really important, and something I will think more about when visiting museums. Dr. Goffe also explores coral and sea life, connecting it to her own experiences of learning to swim (and nearly drowning) as a young Black girl. I loved learning more about coral, and how it is an animal of the sea, and not a plant. I also didn’t know that coral makes noise and am more interested in the kinds of sounds that coral produces. Another chapter delves into the shit—literally looking at the exploitation of guano, bat waste, to examine how colonialism has impacted the well-being of bats, as well as examining how Chinese and African workers and lands around Haiti and other areas of the Caribbean were exploited and appropriated for the power of guano. Other chapters look at animals—including birding and the mongoose, exploring how naming conventions moved away from indigenous practices of naming based on the sound or color to name them after people, oftentimes with questionable backgrounds. The introduction of the mongoose to Jamaica was another interesting chapter that shows how imposing European thinking in Caribbean culture often leads to destructive and exploitative outcomes. Dr. Goffe also explores how the introduction of marijuana to Jamaica from India serves as a model for other methods of botany, and often altered the landscape and environments of other countries and cultures, oftentimes causing an imbalance from invasive species. While ganja helped to create more cultures of resistance in Jamaica and recognize the medicinal qualities of plants, it also led to more carceral practices in relation to plants, frequently causing arrests and imprisonment for the use of plants.

The end of the book examines plate tectonics, looking at volcanic activity in Montserrat to further analyze the kind of inequality that colonialism produces. I was actually reading this book while visiting Hawaii for the first time. Although we didn’t get to the Big Island of Hawaii, there was a volcanic eruption there. People were able to visit, but Dr. Goffe’s examination of the cases of Montserrat showed how oftentimes indigenous people are at the mercy of the volcano, while others like tourists or those who have more prestige or power are often able to escape. It was an important reminder for me about my own privilege and an important history lesson that showed how some people are not as lucky to escape the destructive forces of nature, further highlighting the kind of climate justice and environmental inequality that often occurs, but that we don’t always hear about. I’m so glad that this book will be available. Although it is not an easy read, I can see this as being an important book to use in the classroom. Any of the chapters would work well to challenge students’ assumptions about the nature of culture, the environment, language, music, or literature. Furthermore, it can also help to highlight or provide context and validation for the experiences of other students whose voices are not always celebrated or elevated in the classroom or curriculum. I’m also really excited for the work of Dr. Goffe and the Dark Laboratory. I’m sure there will be more to learn from them, and I look forward to further publications, studies, and advocacy from this great organization.
Profile Image for Adrienne Adrimano.
491 reviews5 followers
July 25, 2025
A truly interesting and unique premise-- that globalization and the climate crisis originated in the Caribbean. However, this book felt like the stream of consciousness of a very educated person as opposed to the resulting manuscript of years of academic work at "elite" institutions. The author states in the book that her background is English/literature, history, and journalism, so I expected Malcolm Gladwell levels of interweaving of the three.

I think the title was an upsell. Though each named topic was discussed with anecdotes and defined in general, I expected more academic depth on each. This really could have been a wonderful treatise if the author rethought organization and didn't shy away from what seemed like "low hanging fruit", mostly race (as a mixed-race person she said she didn't really care to have the conversation about herself but ended up giving an abbreviated autobiography anyway) and geography.

I'm no professional editor, but I think that even without doing more research, the author could have made this book more cohesive by any of the following:
- Arranging by plant and animal species that were native to or introduced across time (since she discusses species and the naming of them historically)
- organizing the book around each continent's links/contributions to the Caribbean (the author speaks about peoples, plants and animals from each, and it would have saved a lot of repetition)
- the above idea could be combined with using a birding motif to steer the book, as the author is a birder and included anecdotes
- organizing around natural history alongside textbook history, as we know that the two are not always congruent

- my favourite idea, though, would be her organizing the book around each of the academic/professional talks she mentioned. As she straddles multiple disciplines, she is a part of seemingly disparate communities that cover each of the main topics of the book. It would have been a cool way to organize it that was unique to her, didn't discuss her racial makeup, and touched on every historical and climate point that got her to the key presentation points of each invited talk

Some of these approaches may have felt too obvious, but there was enough repetition of some content to warrant rethinking how it (e.g. the guano, the Maroons, etc.) was introduced and where.

I get that alliteration is fun to use, but I hate that Columbus is named in the title, even if he had to be discussed in the book. As the author notes, he wasn't even that great and didn't even "discover" what he thought...

This book, based on academic research, has taught me that it is not enough to write in a voice that is friendly to the non-academic reader, but that organization of the content is also critical to its accessibility for the reader.

Small note for the author to be more mindful of deep sighs getting caught (and kept) on the narration/audiobook.
427 reviews11 followers
June 18, 2025
This book really annoyed me. I have no doubt that Goffe is very smart and well-versed in critical theory and literary theory. However, this book was going in way too many directions at once, and it was confusing and lacked any coherent argument.

I was expecting a book about the history of foreign intervention and colonialism in the Caribbean from 1492 to present. This book comes off more as a political screed that is unfocused and provides no real solutions. No doubt, there is a connection between slavery, colonialism, capitalism, and climate change. That is beyond question. However, what exactly those connections are in this book is tenuous. Goffe makes claims based on catchy political slogans but lacks evidence for many of them.

In the introduction, Goffe hints that Zheng He “may have discovered the Americas before Columbus,” a claim which lacks any evidence whatsoever. She devotes a lot of this book to attacking figures like Charles Darwin and Alexander Von Humboldt. No doubt, by today’s standards their views were racist, but they both argued against scientific racism and were progressive by the standards of their time.

While Goffe acknowledges that Charles Darwin did not actually support social Darwinism, she still goes to great lengths to allege his complicity. For Goffe, any attempt to taxonomize nature is a colonial mission akin to downright eugenics or genocide. Again, there is real connection between Enlightenment rationality and the so-called “civilizing mission” but this argument is stretched to absurd proportions. Few scientists today would ignore the racist views and practices of many earlier scientists, but science itself is a powerful tool for understanding the world.

This last argument brings me to my main critique of this book: Goffe on one hand wants to “stop the climate crisis” (as she should) but also dismisses all “western science” while her only solution to reversing climate change is “listen to Indigenous people.” I don’t want to dismiss the practices of various Indigenous people, but Goffe’s view seems to romanticize and essentialist them. While colonialism is violent and irreversible, we need to use all tools at our disposal, including “western science” to deal with the global problem of climate change. It bothers me when people say “eastern” or “western” science. We should acknowledge Caribbean contributions to science obviously, and use any scientific means to combat climate change.

There are many things that Goffe does well. There are a lot of interesting historical facts and personal anecdotes about the history of the Caribbean. Her experiences as a person of Chinese and African descent give a unique perspective on this region. It’s clear that she’s smart and makes a lot of connections very quickly, I just wish that this information was organized in a more coherent and logical way, and that there was more rigorous and concise editing.
Profile Image for Shikha | theliteraryescapade .
65 reviews8 followers
January 26, 2025
I'm grateful to Doubleday for the free ARC of this brilliant book.

Dark Laboratory traces today's climate crisis all the way back to the journey of Christopher Columbus to the Caribbean, and the birth of globalisation. 

She examines the cascading effects of that world altering discovery on the whole of  mankind, and more devastatingly on Mother Earth. 

The author talks about annihilation of enclosed communities, the role of countries, devastating impacts of colonization, and the immense western experimentation, which slowly killed the very spirit of nature flourishing in its aura. 

It deeply dissects the themes of Race, Colonialism, natural disasters and eventual environmental degradation. 

Tao has put her soul in the book, and it's evident. The book is well researched, and the language flows, so it's easy to comprehend, and if you wish to know more about one of the most important and burning contemporary issues on the face of Earth, please read this one! Highly recommended. 

Do read the Climate Prelude and Terminology section in the beginning of the book since it'll be like a reading guide and help in understanding the technological terms, and historical/geopolitical aspects associated with or mentioned throughout the book. 
Profile Image for Rachel Drrmrmrr.
292 reviews
March 28, 2025
I had to take my time with this one, a few breaks here and there to pick up some faster reads as the content of this book digests better with some pauses, and the writing style is a bit dense and academic. But while it may not be the most accessible read for people seeking out some political, indigenous-environmentalist non-fiction, with patience and time it’s an entirely worthwhile read. If you’ve read and loved Braiding Sweetgrass I feel this could be a beneficial read to add to your library- but be warned, it lands heavier.

The terms "native" and "endemic are evoked in Western ecological rhetoric but have little to do with how many Native communities approach matters of biodiversity. "Native" attitudes to biology of which there are a heterogenous range across the world-tend not to align with the scientific frame of "invasion" regarding natural life. The orientation of militarism and war against the natural environment seem to be more of a Western approach The term "introduced species" may be a more relevant alternative. But if the treatment and the sentiment against the maligned plants and animals is the same, it makes no difference which name is used. Colonial scientific attitudes are "survival of the fittest": pit one against another, and villainize innocent plants and animals. Nor does it seem practical or effective in most contexts. Population control and animal control follow the logic of annihilation and segregated life. It stands to reason that a colonial solution would be proposed by those who introduced a colonial problem by playing God.


Having recently read Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals by Alexis Pauline Gumbs, and The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert, a lot of this book felt like a perfect supplemental read. Colonialism not only meant violence to indigenous populations and the displacement of multiple cultures, but also the removal and propagation of plant and animal species in foreign environments, completely changing the natural world of the Caribbean. What is celebrated as environmentalist studies directly related to the seeking of increased wealth by those with the means to travel and explore foreign areas of the world to Europe and the US. This book even brings up the nature of bird watching, and the competitive nature of having one’s own life list as fuel for eco-tourism. There’s so much in this book to think on, but I think the thoughts surrounding the evolution of capitalism may have been a favorite part:

“When was the genesis of modern capitalism?

It is so easy to confuse capitalism with commerce, but they are not the same. Still, some Marxists do not fully connect the dots between climate and labor politics, because they do not attend to the rubric of race as relevant. Multiple global systems of commerce existed before modern capitalism, and for a sustainable future, we will need a new, reimagined order of commerce. Race existed before capitalism, and scholars look to the medieval period for its origins, but capitalism became refined as a colonial sorting tool only after 1492. Modern capitalism's origin depended on the trading of humans as chattel. Contrary to the philosophy of trickle-down economics, the global economic system of capitalism impoverishes us all. The true cost has been the natural environment, of which we are a part. Capitalism has impoverished our imaginations by discrediting the traditions of the global majority. It is insistent and seductive and convinces us that there can be no other system of commerce, trade, or exchange beyond itself. Whether new and more stable financial systems will develop using the banking platforms of Webs or whether they will be entirely analog, different organizations of power are a requirement for a sustainable green future.”
Profile Image for Sasha (bahareads).
1,067 reviews94 followers
June 30, 2026
Dark Laboratory traces the story of 'Blackness', colonialism, climate crisis. At its crux: Goffe is arguing that the climate crisis of today can be dating back to arrival of Christopher Columbus and colonialism in the Americas. Goffe tries to cover so much in this book that it was too much. Going to put on my pedantic academic hat here for a second: the argument was not carried well throughout. I got lost on the points Goffe was trying to get at in some of the chapters.

Bouncing between the Caribbean and the Pacific as well as historical timeline made it really difficult. I wonder at how it could have presented better; I do not have a specific answer. Perhaps chronological? or focusing on one geographic location at a time? But I do get that part of the argument that Goffe is making is that islands/colonized places are mixed up jumbles of culture and time, in part because of colonialism.

However I always enjoyed the facts being presented. I learned new things about the Caribbean, and the rest of the world. Goffe intersperses the historical narrative with her personal life and family heritage; and THAT is one of my favorite things to see academics do in their work. The use of family photos was a really nice touch. Dark Laboratory is a dense read. I wholly agree with Goffe's argument - I just wish it had read better.
Profile Image for Brookelyn Lambright.
74 reviews
October 11, 2026
Really interesting exploration of how the climate crisis cannot be understood or solved until we address its inextricable ties to racial capitalism.

Some of the arguments in here were hard to track as the author jumped around quite a lot. I do understand that this is part of Goffe’s methodology as the intimacies of what seem like “distant” colonial memories are brought together, but I just wish this book had been organized differently. The arguments aren’t tough to understand, but the structure makes it difficult to track them.
Profile Image for David Auth.
30 reviews1 follower
June 8, 2025
Truly difficult getting through the mix of first person and historical/ investigative style writing, though there were portions I found compelling when not jumping back and forth.
Profile Image for Melanie Parker.
551 reviews6 followers
July 14, 2025
Quite interesting. A bit dry and I definitely needed to speed up the narration speed on the audiobook.
Profile Image for Shanereads.
345 reviews14 followers
June 16, 2025
Dark Laboratory is exactly what you might expect from an over politicized climate change book.

That being said, I actually really enjoy books on climate change, but I think the market might be getting oversaturated.

This review copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review. Huge thanks to Doubleday for my review copy!
Profile Image for Alexa Santaniello.
104 reviews
May 3, 2025
I had high expectations for this book. However, there were so many personal anecdotes and wordy texts that I found myself getting bored at times. Still good information!
Profile Image for Snoakes.
1,080 reviews35 followers
February 23, 2025
Dark Laboratory is a wide ranging exploration of environmental destruction, colonialism and exploitation.

Tao Leigh Goffe's writing is urgent and impassioned. Her main point is that the current climate crisis began in 1492 when Christopher Columbus first set foot in the Caribbean. That, she posits, was the beginning of globalisation, when western style capitalism began the process of extracting everything possible from the newly discovered territories, from minerals to animals, plants and humans. And in their place they left ecological destruction, planted monocultures, introduced invasive species and displaced peoples and cultures.

It's not an easy read, and not only because the subject matter is difficult and troubling. In part this is because she assumes a certain amount of prior knowledge. Her mind is quick and she darts from idea to idea which can make some of her thinking hard to follow. But there is no denying the impact of colonialism has had on the world. Western capitalism has served none of us well, with its acquisitiveness and rapacious greed bringing us to this point in time where a few have so much at the expense of the many.

If we as a species are to survive, we need to listen to different voices. Tao Leigh Goffe suggests that these should include the indigenous peoples, the poets and the dreamers, but more importantly, the island dwellers who have already survived the environmental impact of colonialism. I couldn't follow all her arguments, and I don't know if I totally agree with everything she says, but she makes a compelling case for change, to forge new ways of thinking to avoid global catastrophe.

Profile Image for Trina.
452 reviews20 followers
August 30, 2025
A really loving 3.5 stars!!

Goffe really knows her stuff, and the history and fragments of stories and connections she builds up in this book are really incredible, and I agree with pretty much all of her points and arguments. I also think what she is attempting with this one is exciting, by combining non-fiction with literary writing, personal narrative, and scattered interconnected stories.

... I just think the writing here ended up being pretty weak. It felt incredibly scattered and difficult for the reader (specifically on audiobook for me) to follow her main argument in certain chapters. I could easily see thematically how each of the chapters/narratives fit together, but argument wise, it just did not feel cohesive to read. Potentially just because I had such high expectations, and because I nominally agreed with everything being argued for in this book, in terms of centering the Caribbean when it comes to environmental justice and post-colonialism, then I was extra disappointed by just feeling like the structure of the book didn't take on the argument as clearly as I would have liked.

Also, I felt like the audiobook narration was very stilted and didn't place emphasis on the right points to keep the reader on the path to reading comprehension.

I still got so so much out of this, and I would honestly recommend it (although probably the physical over the audiobook) but it doesn't quite hold up to the other non-fiction books I've read this year.
Profile Image for Emily St. Amant.
578 reviews35 followers
Did Not Finish
June 12, 2025
DNF. I was disappointed in the execution of this book on an incredibly important topic. I was already bought-in to the author’s premise, that colonization hasn’t ended and capitalist extractive/ exploitative practices are destroying the environment. I also just moved from living in the Caribbean for three years, and how that region has been and is being impacted is near and dear to my heart.

However, this was such a missed opportunity. It was sort of a mix of manifesto and research, which is confusing and is not persuasive to skeptical readers. Not that they don’t have their place, but opinions and personal interpretations are so easy to pick apart.

I would have been more on board with this if it’d been structured with sticking to the facts for the first part, and then maybe the author clearly expresses their interpretation and opinions in a dedicated section. I just couldn’t keep investing my time reading opinions I already agreed with, which makes it something I can’t even recommend to others.
Profile Image for Mel.
462 reviews8 followers
May 14, 2026
This was suggested by a Somali person I know who has relocated to the Caribbean. She is a hospital administrator but is very aware of racism directed towards immigrants. She was born in the upper Midwest but no longer feels safe there so moved at the birth of a daughter. She sent me this book title because it explores a connection between African descendants, Indigenous peoples, descendants of indentured Chinese groups and how these groups have been influences and have influenced on environmental change. It is an academic and dense read. For me its value is to open thoughts on how these groups environment is connected to the use of different peoples. How did sugar plantations and mining destruction of environment happen on the backs of indentured and enslaved peoples? It is thought provoking. Not going to be for everyone but I look forward to discussions about it with her. Consider carefully before tackling this one. You must be open to new alternatives and different perspectives.
Profile Image for Suzanne Wise.
67 reviews1 follower
July 29, 2025
I had such high hopes for this book and expected and wanted to learn so much. There were snippets of brilliance and it did expand my understanding of the history of colonialism and its ongoing implications. Its basic premise that we cannot have climate justice if the global majority do not lead the climate agenda and conversation is a strong one. The point made that if we as environmentalists treat the colonial past as closed history to simply focus on the current crisis, then we will fail, is also a strong point. However the book's thesis, concepts and points being made were wordy, disjointed, hard to follow and at times didn't even make sense. Well not to me anyway. There was much brilliance in the book but it needed some serious editing and organising and needed to be half the length it is. I finished it because I changed to the audio version and that got me to the end.
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Author 2 books5 followers
September 25, 2026
I’ve never spent this much time reading about mongoose. This book is a necessary read (especially Black people and people with Caribbean heritage). The connections that Tap makes in this book are almost otherworldly.

Everything is connected and everything is linked to colonization
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1,751 reviews65 followers
March 31, 2025
Dark Laboratory presents the complex, poetic, beautiful climate work of this generation, and its clarion call is sure to provoke and challenge, while also opening windows into worlds too often unseen.
-Michelle Anya Anjirbag

Read the full review at: https://www.bookbrowse.com/mag/review...
Profile Image for Hawkins.
36 reviews15 followers
May 19, 2025
Very informative book exploring the orgins of climate change. Really opened my perspective to give background and history for a wider persepctive on the many factors that have led to climate change. Also interesting to learn more about the Caribbean and Hawaii was also mentioned. Heavy subject matter but important read.
Profile Image for Belinda.
68 reviews
July 29, 2026
I loved this book. Tao Leigh Goffe brilliantly explores how race, colonialism, slavery, indentured servitude, and the climate crisis are all deeply intertwined and that the environmental challenges we face today can’t be understood without acknowledging the histories of empire and exploitation behind them. I found it really readable, five stars!
Profile Image for Amanda Curry.
129 reviews9 followers
February 6, 2025
Thank you Doubleday for the ARC.

This was so insightful and heartbreaking to see just how far back destroying our world goes back. How colonizing and racism played its part in it.

Tao poured everything in this book and you can feel her passion through the pages.
2,552 reviews1 follower
June 19, 2025
Tao Leigh Goffe has written a phenomenal book. You learn so much within these pages. It has been written so eloquently and is the kind of book that deserves more than one read.
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