Climate Pluriverses: A Decolonial Perspective for the Research of Alternative Territories in Contexts of Climate Change

We propose the term "Climate Pluriverses" as a concept that emerges in the context of decolonial studies in the social sciences and offers a critique of both the universalist rationale for science and the geographical notions of nature and development supported by modern scientific epistemologies. Through this work, we seek to describe diverse visions of climate rooted in human and trans-human relations to territory and nature and to encourage the geographical imagination towards other worlds and possible futures.

Based on the research of 80 community experiences led by environmental organizations, peasants, and indigenous peoples in two regions of Chile (Valparaíso region and Bio-Bio region) we seek to contribute to the development of timely, situated, and creative research that respects the biocultural and socio-historical practices of specific communities regarding climate change, promoting knowledge and actions that develop alternative territorial frameworks to respond to climate change.

The core proposal is the co-creation of climate pluriverses to counteract the monoculture of nature present in universalizing climate action discourses, promoting the construction of diverse possible worlds in a context of contemporary socio-ecological crisis.We focus on exploring the transformative possibilities of the concept of climate pluriverses, which has not yet been practically addressed by academia and society. This concept addresses recognition and dialogue between different epistemic and ontological positions that create multiple world views and activate knowledge, socio-spatial practices, and alternative territorial frameworks to face climate change.

The decolonial perspective promotes a critical reflection on the coloniality of nature that is expressed in the racism and environmental injustice associated with climate change. But above all it is articulated from a proactive position, using imagination and geographical creativity to think about socio-ecological transitions that address the roots and consequences of climate change in territorial code from community perspectives.