From Nature to Crisis: The Role of Narrative in Shaping Ecological Consciousness

Abstract

Climate change is not only an environmental or scientific challenge but also a cultural and humanitarian crisis that demands new ways of understanding. Beyond rising temperatures and melting glaciers, vulnerable communities experience the climate crisis as stories of grief, resilience, and memory. Pakistan’s disasters show climate injustice, with the Global South suffering from a crisis driven by the Global North. This study uses ecocriticism, trauma, and climate justice to show how literature turns ecological catastrophe into testimony. Narratives ensure that experiences of displacement, inequality, and endurance are not erased but preserved in memory and meaning. Works such as Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s revolutionary poetry, Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai’s river metaphors, and Uzma Aslam Khan’s Thinner Than Skin, read alongside Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West and global texts by Amitav Ghosh, Margaret Atwood, and Barbara Kingsolver, position Pakistan’s ecological fragility within both local and transnational frameworks. As Schwenkenbecher argues, responses to climate change must extend beyond technical solutions to integrate science with justice, memory, and cultural meaning. Pakistan’s floods thus serve not only as evidence of ecological breakdown but also as narratives that humanize catastrophe and call for global solidarity in building a more just and sustainable future.