Climate Justice Approaches In “Sand” And “On Darwin Tides”

Fiction has always addressed climate change, but since the last century, writers have emphasized the theme through several genres, including climate fiction, which encompasses works focused on climate change and its impacts on the planet. Among the multiple aspects these narratives address, climate justice plays a crucial role. Studies show that developing countries, mainly located in the Global South, are the ones that suffer the most the devastating effects of floods, extreme weather, heat waves, and species extinction caused by anthropogenic climate change. Such impacts bring to the debate the issue of climate justice since it underscores its inequality. Climate fiction plays a significant role in presenting possible scenarios caused by climate change, implicitly or explicitly pointing out who and what is impacted by its adverse effects. Perspectives on climate justice are analyzed in the short stories “Sand” by Conor Corderoy and “On Darwin Tides” by Shauna O’Meara. These short stories portray how the characters deal with climate effects and how physical spaces, natural or urban, are affected. Their narratives emphasize issues related to climate justice, including the difficulties people face in surviving in deeply transformed realities and the discrepancy in the perception of the impacts of the climate crisis according to economic and social conditions. These stories stress the need to reflect on how the most vulnerable populations and ecosystems are affected and how climate justice can prevail to change this unfair scenario.