Intersectional Identity and Environmental Burden

Sor Juana navigated multiple systems of oppression—as a woman, a colonial subject, and an intellectual challenging patriarchal authority. Her lived experience of intersecting injustices provides a lens for understanding climate vulnerability. Environmental degradation and resource scarcity affect the already-vulnerable most severely: indigenous peoples, women, the poor, colonized nations. Climate justice cannot succeed by addressing environmental concerns alone; it must name and dismantle the power structures that determine who bears climate costs. Sor Juana's insistence on claiming intellectual and personal rights despite systemic barriers mirrors the urgent need to center marginalized voices in climate solutions. Her framework shows that climate action without addressing underlying inequalities reproduces colonial patterns of exploitation.