The Commons as Intellectual Property

Sor Juana argued that wisdom and knowledge belong to humanity, not institutional gatekeepers. Applied to climate justice, this principle challenges the commodification of nature itself—forests reduced to timber futures, carbon treated as tradeable credits, seeds patented by corporations. Climate justice demands recognizing air, water, biodiversity, and indigenous ecological knowledge as collective commons requiring stewardship rather than ownership. This framework rejects the logic that permits wealthy nations and corporations to extract resources from the Global South while externalizing environmental costs onto vulnerable populations. Sor Juana's intellectual generosity—her belief that knowledge should circulate freely—offers a corrective to enclosure systems that privatize gains while socializing losses. True climate responsibility means protecting commons from exploitation and ensuring equitable access to both resources and the knowledge needed to sustain them.