Climate Fiction, or Cli-Fi, is a genre
It has emerged as a powerful took for addressing and understanding profound implications of climate change. Through storytelling, authors in this genre raise awareness, humanize environmental issues, and advocate for a sustainable future.
As our world grapples with the ongoing climate crisis, Ci-Fi stands as a testament to literature’s ability to engage with, reflect upon, and inspire action on the most pressing issues of our time. It is a genre that invites us to consider the future we are shaping and challenges us to take responsibility for the planet we call home.
Margaret Atwood said: “There is no inevitable The Future, just as there is no inevitable Right Side of History …but there are consequences of actions.”
For decades authors have been speculating about what life might be like on a warming planet. There is currently an explosion of great new cli-fi novels. Many are dystopian, set in harsh violent landscapes. Some Cli-fi is utopian, imagining how the crash of old systems might allow better ones to flourish. Cli-fi might seem like a downer to read, given how close to reality it might feel. It can be a compelling way to engage with issues that are fundamental to life on earth – now and in the future.
What is certain is that this genre is growing as more authors, from literary fiction and science fiction, are choosing to express themselves through the lens of a world dramatically altered by changes to the earth’s climate.
Compelling Climate Fiction To Read Before It’s Nonfiction
GOLD FAME CITRUS
by Claire Vaye Watkins: Set in a future close enough to see if we shade our eyes and squint, Gold Fame Citrus presents a California annihilated by drought. Two idealistic holdouts fall in love. They scavenge for needs, then took charge of a mysterious child. Together they embark on a perilous journey in search of water.
THE DELUGE
by Stephen Markley: tracks a cadre of radicalized scientists and activists from the gathering storm of the Obama years to the super-typhoons of the 2040s. The dystopia is realistic and nuanced with a grim but playful setting.
THE DISASTER TOURIST
by Yun Ko-Eun: On the verge of losing her job, Yona, a top representative at a cutting-edge travel agency, takes an assignment. It is her job to assess a struggling desert island getaway, where she uncovers a plot to fabricate a catastrophe.
BLACKFISH CITY
by Sam J. Miller: Aclimate-wars project involving the construction of a sophisticated floating city in the Arctic Circle begins to succumb to corruption and crime. The arrival of a woman riding an orca at the side of a polar-bear companion subtly brings together four marginalized people to stage strategic acts of resistance.
A COMPLEX ISSUE
As extreme weather swirls around the globe, melting glaciers, burning forests, flooding districts and annihilating species, the climate emergency has brought the unimaginable into our daily lives and literature.
“Somehow while we had all been busy,
doing those small things which added up to living,
the future has slipped into the present.”
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