Repairing Historical Injustice Through Climate Action

Sor Juana lived within Mexican colonial structures, observing how conquest dispossessed Indigenous peoples of lands, knowledge, and futures. Contemporary climate justice requires understanding colonialism's continuing legacy: wealthy nations enriched through colonial extraction and slavery now produce disproportionate emissions while less responsible nations face worse climate impacts. Climate action divorced from historical justice perpetuates harm. True responsibility means wealthy nations acknowledging unpaid ecological and human debts to Global South communities whose lands were stolen, resources extracted, and development paths constrained. Reparative climate justice includes technology transfer enabling clean development, climate finance supporting adaptation in vulnerable nations, and land return to Indigenous peoples proven stewards of biodiverse regions. Sor Juana's lifetime demonstrated how systemic injustice compounds across generations; climate responses must therefore address historical wrongs structurally, not superficially. This means carbon debt accounting, recognition of Indigenous intellectual property in biodiversity, and redistributive climate finance. Repairing historical injustice isn't separate from climate action—it's central to building sustainable, equitable systems preventing future devastation.