Black Left Feminisms on a Warming Planet

Much of the historical Black (Left) feminist literature has not specifically and explicitly foregrounded issues of climate change and environment. And yet, key themes of Black Left feminist thought such as intersectionality, liberation, care, and connection to land, can be understood as key problematics within climate and environmental debates too. Black Left feminist writers have laid foundations on which more contemporary work which explicitly unites Black (Left) feminisms and the environment as an issue has started to be developed by scholars working across a range of disciplines, such as Lauren Craig (e.g., 2014), Chelsea Mikael Frazier (e.g., 2016, 2019), Kishi Animashaun Ducre (e.g., 2018), Romy Opperman (e.g., 2022), and Jacquita N. Johnson (e.g., 2025). Still, there remains a limited account and overview of the ways in which Black Left feminisms currently and potentially address climate change and ecological degradation as local and global issues. This paper seeks to deepen the connection between Black Left feminist thinking, action, and climate knowledge and solutions. It surveys and builds on what we learn from Black Left feminist thought, and intersectionality in particular, to think about how we might map and build power, contestation, and resistance in social struggles against climate and ecological breakdown. It gives a historical overview of Black Left feminisms as a heterogenous body of thought, tracing actual and potential relationships between Black Left feminist ideas to environmental and climate issues. In other words, this paper asks: How are Black Left feminisms defined wholly and specifically in relation to climate change as an issue? What kinds of theoretical and conceptual tools do Black Left feminist and praxis offer us as potential instruments for building climate solutions? How can we interpret climate change as a historical and current issue through a Black Left feminist lens? And why should Black Left feminisms be called upon in our collective responses to climate change and ecological degradation? In response to these questions, the paper traces and affirms the contributions that Black Left feminist traditions have made and can make to emergent political, cultural, and social visions of more sustainable life on a warming planet.