Earth:Climate fiction

Climate fiction (sometimes shortened cli-fi) is literature that deals with climate change and global warming. Not necessarily speculative in nature, works may take place in the world as we know it or in the near future. University courses on literature and environmental issues may include climate change fiction in their syllabi. This body of literature has been discussed by a variety of publications, including The New York Times , The Guardian , and Dissent magazine, among other international media outlets.

History

Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake series is an often cited dystopian novel in ecocriticism.

The term "cli-fi" first came into use on April 20, 2013 when NPR did a five-minute radio segment by Angela Evancie on Weekend Edition Saturday to describe novels and movies that deal with human-induced climate change, and historically, there have been any number of literary works that dealt with climate change in earlier times as well. Dan Bloom has been an influential figure in the development of "cli-fi" as a distinct genre.

Jules Verne's 1889 novel The Purchase of the North Pole imagines climate change due to tilting of Earth's axis. In his posthumous Paris in the Twentieth Century, written in 1883 and set during the 1960s, the titular city experiences a sudden drop in temperature, which lasts for three years. Several well-known dystopian works by British author J. G. Ballard deal with climate-related natural disasters: In The Wind from Nowhere (1961), civilization is reduced by persistent hurricane-force winds, and The Drowned World (1962) describes a future of melted ice-caps and rising sea-levels caused by solar radiation. In The Burning World (1964, later called The Drought) his climate catastrophe is human-made, a drought due to disruption of the precipitation cycle by industrial pollution.

As scientific knowledge of the effects of fossil fuel consumption and resulting increase in atmospheric CO
2 concentrations entered the public and political arena as "global warming", fiction about the problems of human-induced global warming began to appear. Susan M. Gaines's Carbon Dreams was an early example of a literary novel that "tells a story about the devastatingly serious issue of human-induced climate change," set in the 1980s and published before the term "cli-fi" was coined. Michael Crichton's State of Fear (2004), a techno-thriller portrays climate change as "a vast pseudo-scientific hoax" and is critical of scientific opinion on climate change.

Margaret Atwood explored the subject in her dystopian trilogy Oryx and Crake (2003), The Year of the Flood (2009) and MaddAddam (2013). In Oryx and Crake Atwood presents a world where "social inequality, genetic technology and catastrophic climate change, has finally culminated in some apocalyptic event". The novel's protagonist, Jimmy, lives in a "world split between corporate compounds", gated communities that have grown into city-states and pleeblands, which are "unsafe, populous and polluted" urban areas where the working classes live.

Prominent examples

The popular science-fiction novelist Kim Stanley Robinson focused on the theme in his Science in the Capital trilogy, which is set in the near future and includes Forty Signs of Rain (2004), Fifty Degrees Below (2005), and Sixty Days and Counting (2007). Robert K. J. Killheffer in his review for Fantasy & Science Fiction said "Forty Signs of Rain is a fascinating depiction of the workings of science and politics, and an urgent call to readers to confront the threat of climate change." Robinson's climate-themed novel, titled New York 2140, was published in March 2017. It gives a complex portrait of a coastal city that is partly underwater and yet has successfully adapted to climate change in its culture and ecology.

Kim Stanley Robinson's science fiction works frequently include society's response to climate change.

The novels Not A Drop To Drink (2013) and its sequel, In A Handful Of Dust (2014), by Mindy McGinnis [3] feature a small group of survivors living in the aftermath of an extreme shortage of fresh water following a severe, prolonged drought on a national scale.

Ian McEwan's Solar (2010) follows the story of a physicist who discovers a way to fight climate change after managing to derive power from artificial photosynthesis. The Stone Gods (2007) by Jeanette Winterson is set on the fictional planet Orbus, a world very like Earth, running out of resources and suffering from the severe effects of climate change. Inhabitants of Orbus hope to take advantage of possibilities offered by a newly discovered planet, Planet Blue, which appears perfect for human life.

Barbara Kingsolver's novel, Flight Behavior (2012), employs environmental themes and highlights the potential effects of global warming on the monarch butterfly.

JL Morin's Nature's Confession (2015) portrays two teens in a fight to save a warming planet, the universe, and their love, as they try to stop humans from exporting their polluting culture to other habitable planets.

Devolution of a Species by M.E. Ellington focuses on the Gaia hypothesis, and describes the Earth as a single living organism fighting back against humankind.

Other authors who have used this subject matter include Liz Jensen, Tony White, and Sarah Holding.

• British author J. G. Ballard used the setting of apocalyptic climate changes in his first science fiction novels. In The Wind from Nowhere (1961) civilisation is reduced by persistent hurricane-force winds. The Drowned World (1962) describes a future of melted ice-caps and rising sea-levels, caused by solar radiation, creating a landscape mirroring the collective unconscious desires of the main characters. In The Burning World (1964) a surrealistic psychological landscape is formed by drought due to industrial pollution disrupting the precipitation cycle.
• Mother of Storms (1994) by John Barnes describes a catastrophic, rapid climate and weather change brought on by a nuclear explosion releasing clathrate compounds from the ocean floor, based on the clathrate gun hypothesis.
• The Carbon Diaries: 2015 by Saci Lloyd is set in a future where power is scarce and the UK has just begun carbon rationing. The story is told in diary form by Laura Brown, a teenager living in London in the aftermath of The Great Storm.
• Far North (2009) by Marcel Theroux, in which the world is largely uninhabitable due to climate change. However, the novel implies that scientists got it wrong and that it was our actions combating global warming that irrevocably altered the climate.
• Arctic Drift (2008) by Clive Cussler and Dirk Cussler. A thriller involving attempts to reverse global warming, a possible war between the United States and Canada , and “a mysterious silvery mineral traced to a long-ago expedition in search of the fabled Northwest Passage.”
• Fallen Angels (1991) by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, and Michael Flynn. Set in North America in the "near future", a radical technophobic green movement dramatically cuts greenhouse gas emissions, only to find that manmade global warming was staving off a new ice age.
• Forty Signs of Rain (2004), Fifty Degrees Below (2005), and Sixty Days and Counting (2007) comprise the Science in the Capital series, a hard science fiction trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson. Set primarily in Washington, D.C., abrupt climate change causes weather disasters in the US capitol and flooding of the fictional island nation of Khembalung. Main characters are American scientists, politicians, and Buddhist monks.
• Solar (2010) by Ian McEwan follows the story of a physicist who discovers a way to fight climate change after managing to derive power from artificial photosynthesis.
• State of Fear (2004) a techno-thriller by Michael Crichton concerning a group of eco-terrorists attempting to create "natural" disasters to convince the public of the dangers of global warming. The book is critical of the Scientific opinion on climate change and accusing its proponents of using fear tactics.
• The Stone Gods (2007) by Jeanette Winterson. This novel opens on the planet Orbus, a world very like Earth, running out of resources and suffering from the severe effects of climate change. Inhabitants of Orbus hope to take advantage of possibilities offered by a newly discovered planet, Planet Blue, which appears perfect for human life.
• Tipping Point (2010) by Simon Rosser. A climate fiction action-thriller.
• After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall (2012) by Nancy Kress. Nebula Award winner.
• The Current (2014) by Yannick Thoraval is a novel about how greed and vanity contribute to global climate change.
• Gajba (2019) by Aleksandar Gubaš is a futuristic novel about life in a multi-million city built to house refugees fleeing from climate change issues in 2053.

Other examples

• Rajat Chaudhuri
• George Turner, The Sea and Summer [Drowning Towers] (1987) Australia
• J. G. Ballard, The Crystal World (1988) UK
• David Brin, Earth (1990) US
• Anton-Andreas Guha, Der Planet schlägt zurück [The Planet Strikes Back] (1993) Germany
• Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Sower (1993) US with follow up novel Parable of the Talents (1998)
• Dirk C. Fleck, GO! Die Ökodiktatur [GO! The Eco-Dictatorship] (1993) Germany
• Magee Gee, The Ice People (1998) US
• Norman Spinrad, Greenhouse Summer (1999) US
• Doris Lessing, Mara and Dann (2004) US and the follow up novel The Story of General Dann and Maria's Daughter, Griot, and the Snow Dog (2005)
• T.C. Boyle, A Friend of the Earth (2000) US
• Marcus Sedgwick, Floodland (2001) US
• Marc Durin-Valois, Chamelle [Camel] (2002) France
• Julie Bertagna, Exodus (2002) UK - First of trilogy including Zenith (2007) and Aurora (2011)
• Magee Gee, The Flood (2004) US
• Liane Dirk, Falsche Himmel [False Skies] (2006) Germany
• Christian Kracht, Metan [Methane] (2007) Germany
• Arturo Arnau Tarín, El secreto del agua [The Water Secret] (2007) Spain
• Stephen Baxter, Flood (2008) US with follow up novel Ark (2009)
• Steven Amsterdam, Things We Didn't See Coming (2009) US
• Paolo Bacigalupi, The Windup Girl (2009)
• Liz Jensen, The Rapture (2009) England 
• Paolo Bacigalupi, Ship Breaker (2010) US with follow up novels The Drowned Cities (2012) and Tool of War (2017)
• Ben Bova, Empire Builders (2011) US
• Hanne Richardt Beck, 7 Sydøst (2011) Denmark
• Ilija Trojanow, EisTau [Ice Thaw] (2011) Germany - English Title The Lamentations of Zeno
• Antti Tuomainen, Parantaja [The Healer] (2011) Finland
• Kim Stanley Robinson, 2312 (2012) US
• Nathaniel Rich, Odds Against Tomorrow (2013) US
• Sherri L. Smith, Orleans (2013) US
• Thea Iberall, The Swallow and the Nightingale (2014) US
• David Mitchell, The Bone Clocks (2014) UK
• Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway, The Collapse of Western Civilization: A View from the Future (2014) US
• Emmi Itäranta, Memory of Water (2015) Finland
• Paolo Bacigalupi, The Water Knife (2015) US
• James Bradley, Clade (2015) US
• Claire Vaye Watkins, Gold Fame Citrus (2015) US
• Margret Boysen, Alice, der Klimawandel und die Katze Zeta [Alice, the Zeta Cat and Climate Change] (2016) Germany
• Aaron Thier, Mr. Eternity (2016) US
• Omar El Akkad, American War (2017) US
• Yoko Tawada, The Emissary (2018) Germany/Japan
• Richard Powers, The Overstory (2018) US
• Kell Cowley, Shrinking, Sinking Land (2018) UK
• Sophie Mackintosh, The Water Cure (2018) UK
• Daniela De Francesco, Cosmica (2018) IT
• Rin Chupeco, The Never Tilting World (2019) US
• John Lanchester, The Wall (2019) UK
• Tanushree and Ajoy Podder, Decoding the Feronia Files/ 2019 /India
• Joshua Lobb, The Flight of Birds (2019) Australia
• David Chernushenko, Burning Souls (2019) Canada

Anthologies and collections

• Welcome to the Greenhouse (2011) US edited by Gordon Van Gelder
• Loosed Upon the World: The Saga Anthology of Climate Fiction (2015) US edited by John Joseph Adams
• Drowned Worlds (2016) UK edited by Jonathan Strahan
• Possible Solutions (2017) US by Helen Phillips - Many of the short stories concern climate change.
• Disasters in the First World (2017) US by Olivia Claire - Many of the short stories concern climate change.

Influence

Many journalists, literary critics, and scholars and have speculated about the potential influence of climate fiction on the beliefs of its readers. To date, two empirical studies have examined this question.

One found that readers of climate fiction "are younger, more liberal, and more concerned about climate change than nonreaders," and that climate fiction "reminds concerned readers of the severity of climate change while impelling them to imagine environmental futures and consider the impact of climate change on human and nonhuman life. However, the actions that resulted from readers’ heightened consciousness reveal that awareness is only as valuable as the cultural messages about possible actions to take that are in circulation. Moreover, the responses of some readers suggest that works of climate fiction might lead some people to associate climate change with intensely negative emotions, which could prove counterproductive to efforts at environmental engagement or persuasion."

Another empirical study, focused on the novel The Water Knife, found that cautionary climate fiction set in a dystopic future can be effective at educating readers about climate injustice and leading readers to empathize with the victims of climate change. However, its results suggest that dystopic climate narratives might lead to support for reactionary responses to climate change. Based on this result, it cautioned that “not all climate fiction is progressive,” despite the hopes of many authors, critics, and readers.

See also

• Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction
• Global warming in popular culture
• Media coverage of climate change
• Public opinion on climate change
• Utopian and dystopian fiction

Further reading

• Gerry Canavan and Kim Stanley Robinson. Green Planets: Ecology and Science Fiction. Wesleyan University Press, 2014
• Andrew Milner and J.R. Burgmann. Science Fiction and Climate Change: A Sociological Approach. Liverpool University Press, 2020.
• Antonia Mehnert. Climate Change Fictions: Representations of Global Warming in American Literature. Palgrave MacMillan, 2016.
• Matthew Schneider-Mayerson. "Climate Change Fiction." In American Literature in Transition, 2000-2010, edited by Rachel Greenwald Smith. Cambridge University Press, 2017.
• Adam Trexler. Anthropocene Fictions: The Novel in a Time of Climate Change. University of Virginia Press, 2015.
• Shelley Streeby. Imagining the Future in a Time of Climate Change. University of California Press, 2018.

External links

• Cli-Fi Global Report
• Cli-Fi in American Studies: A Research Bibliography
• Climate Fiction in English: Oxford Research Encyclopedia
• With climate change fiction, novelists aim for 'radical empathy'
• Climate Change Dystopia, discusses current popularity of climate change dystopia.