Climate fiction (sometimes shortened to cli-fi) is

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

that deals with

climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...

.Glass, Rodge (31 May 2013).
Global Warning: The Rise of 'Cli-fi'
retrieved 3 March 2016 Generally speculative in nature but inspired by

climate science Climatology (from Greek , ''klima'', "slope"; and , '' -logia'') or climate science is the scientific study of Earth's climate, typically defined as weather conditions averaged over a period of at least 30 years. Climate concerns the atmospher ...

, works of climate fiction may take place in the world as we know it, in the near future, or in fictional worlds experiencing climate change. The genre frequently includes

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

and dystopian or utopian themes, imagining potential futures based on research about the impacts of climate change and speculations about how humans may respond to these and the problem of climate change. Climate fiction typically involves

anthropogenic Anthropogenic ("human" + "generating") is an adjective that may refer to: * Anthropogeny, the study of the origins of humanity Anthropogenic may also refer to things that have been generated by humans, as follows: * Human impact on the enviro ...

climate change and other environmental issues as opposed to weather and disaster more generally. Technologies such as climate engineering or climate adaptation practices often feature prominently in works exploring their impacts on society. The term "cli-fi" is generally credited to freelance news reporter and climate activist Dan Bloom, who coined it in either 2007 or 2008. References to "climate fiction" appear to have begun in the 2010s, although the term has also been retroactively applied to a number of works. Pioneering 20th century authors of climate fiction include J. G. Ballard and Octavia E. Butler, while dystopian fiction from

Margaret Atwood Margaret Eleanor Atwood (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian novelist, poet, literary critic, and an inventor. Since 1961, she has published 18 books of poetry, 18 novels, 11 books of nonfiction, nine collections of short fiction, eight chi ...

is often cited as an immediate precursor to the genre's emergence. Since 2010, prominent cli-fi authors include

Kim Stanley Robinson Kim Stanley Robinson (born March 23, 1952) is an American science fiction writer best known for his ''Mars'' trilogy. Many of his novels and stories have ecological, cultural, and political themes and feature scientists as heroes. Robinson has ...

The Ministry for the Future ''The Ministry for the Future'' is a climate fiction ("cli-fi") novel by American science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson published in 2020. Set in the near future, the novel follows a subsidiary body, established under the Paris Agreement, ...

'' in 2020 helped cement the genre's emergence; the work generated presidential and United Nations mentions and an invitation for Robinson to meet planners at the Pentagon. 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 New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', and ''

Dissent Dissent is an opinion, philosophy or sentiment of non-agreement or opposition to a prevailing idea or policy enforced under the authority of a government, political party or other entity or individual. A dissenting person may be referred to as ...

'' magazine, among other international media outlets. Lists of climate fiction have been compiled by organizations including Grist, Outside Magazine, and the New York Public Library. Academics and critics study the potential impact of fiction on the broader field of climate change communication.

Terminology

Bloom had used the term to describe his novella ''Polar City Red'', a post-apocalyptic story about climate refugees in Alaska set in 2075, which was not commercially successful. It later came into mainstream media use in April 2013, when ''

Christian Science Monitor ''The Christian Science Monitor'' (''CSM''), commonly known as ''The Monitor'', is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles both in electronic format and a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 as a daily newspaper b ...

'' and NPR ran stories about a new literary movement of novels and films that dealt with human-induced

. Bloom had been critical of the lack of mention of his role in coining the term in these features. Scott Thill wrote in ''

HuffPost ''HuffPost'' (''The Huffington Post'' until 2017, itself often abbreviated as ''HPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and covers p ...

'' in 2014 that he had popularised the term in 2009, inspired by the mixture of science and fiction in

Franny Armstrong Franny Armstrong (born 3 February 1972) is a British documentary film director working for her own company, Spanner Films, and a former drummer with indie pop group The Band of Holy Joy. She is best known for three films: '' The Age of Stupid ...

's film '' The Age of Stupid''.

History

Jules Verne Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...

'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 eponymous city experiences a sudden drop in temperature, which lasts for three years. Laurence Manning's 1933 serialized novel '' The Man Who Awoke'' has been described as an exemplary work of ecological science fiction from the golden age. It tells the story a man who awakes from

suspended animation Suspended animation is the slowing or stopping of biological function so that physiological capabilities are preserved. States of suspended animation are common in micro-organisms and some plant tissue, such as seeds. Many animals, including l ...

in various future eras and learns about the destruction to the Earth's climate, caused by overuse of fossil fuels,

global warming Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes ...

, and

deforestation Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal and destruction of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. Ab ...

. People of the future refer to 20th century humans as "the wasters". They have abandoned over-industrialization and

consumerism Consumerism is a socio-cultural and economic phenomenon that is typical of industrialized societies. It is characterized by the continuous acquisition of goods and services in ever-increasing quantities. In contemporary consumer society, the ...

to live in small self-sufficient villages based around genetically engineered trees that provide all their necessities.

Isaac Asimov Isaac Asimov ( ; – April 6, 1992) was an Russian-born American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University. During his lifetime, Asimov was considered one of the "Big Three" science fiction writers, along with Robert A. H ...

credited ''The Man Who Awoke'' for bringing the "

energy crisis An energy crisis or energy shortage is any significant Bottleneck (production), bottleneck in the supply of energy resources to an economy. In literature, it often refers to one of the energy sources used at a certain time and place, in particu ...

" to his attention 40 years before it became common knowledge in the 1970s. Several well-known

dystopia A dystopia (lit. "bad place") is an imagined world or society in which people lead wretched, dehumanized, fearful lives. It is an imagined place (possibly state) in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmen ...

n works by British author J. G. Ballard deal with climate-related natural disasters. In '' The Wind from Nowhere'' (1961), civilization is devastated 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 Sunlight is the portion of the electromagnetic radiation which is emitted by the Sun (i.e. solar radiation) and received by the Earth, in particular the visible light perceptible to the human eye as well as invisible infrared (typically p ...

. In '' The Burning World'' (1964, later retitled ''The Drought'') his climate catastrophe is human-made, a

drought A drought is a period of drier-than-normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, ...

due to disruption of the precipitation cycle by industrial pollution.

Frank Herbert Franklin Patrick Herbert Jr. (October 8, 1920February 11, 1986) was an American science-fiction author, best known for his 1965 novel Dune (novel), ''Dune'' and its five sequels. He also wrote short stories and worked as a newspaper journalist, ...

's 1965 science fiction novel ''Dune'', set on a fictional desert planet, has been proposed as a pioneer of climate fiction for its themes of ecology and environmentalism. Octavia E. Butler's ''

Parable of the Sower The Parable of the Sower (sometimes called the Parable of the Soils) is a Parables of Jesus, parable of Jesus found in , , and the apocrypha, extra-canonical Gospel of Thomas. Jesus tells of a farmer who sows seed indiscriminately. Some seed ...

(''1993) imagines a near-future for the United States where climate change, wealth inequality, and corporate greed cause apocalyptic chaos. Here, and in sequel ''Parable of the Talents'' (1998), Butler dissects how instability and political demagoguery exacerbate society's underlying cruelty (especially with regards to racism and sexism) and also explores themes of survival and resilience. Butler wrote the novel "thinking about the future, thinking about the things that we're doing now and the kind of future we're buying for ourselves, if we're not careful." As

scientific knowledge Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

of the effects of fossil fuel consumption and resulting increase in atmospheric concentrations entered the public and political arena as "

", human-caused climate change entered works of fiction. Susan M. Gaines's '' Carbon Dreams'' (2000) 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 John Michael Crichton (; October 23, 1942 – November 4, 2008) was an American author, screenwriter and filmmaker. His books have sold over 200 million copies worldwide, and over a dozen have been adapted into films. His literary works heavil ...

's ''

State of Fear ''State of Fear'' is a 2004 techno-thriller novel by Michael Crichton, his fourteenth under his own name and twenty-fourth overall, in which eco-terrorism, eco-terrorists plot mass murder to publicize the danger of global warming. Despite being ...

'' (2004), a

techno-thriller A techno-thriller or technothriller is a hybrid genre drawing from science fiction, thrillers, spy fiction, action, and war novels. They include a disproportionate amount (relative to other genres) of technical details on their subject matter ...

, was a bestseller upon its release but was criticised by scientists for portraying climate change as "a vast pseudo-scientific hoax" and rejecting the scientific consensus on climate change. Sigbjørn Skåden's novel ''Fugl'' (2019) is a Sámi novel written in Norwegian that weaves together environmental collapse with an allegory of

colonialism Colonialism is the control of another territory, natural resources and people by a foreign group. Colonizers control the political and tribal power of the colonised territory. While frequently an Imperialism, imperialist project, colonialism c ...

Amitav Ghosh - River Of Smoke 2011 a crop

explored the subject in her dystopian trilogy '' Oryx and Crake'' (2003), ''

The Year of the Flood ''The Year of the Flood'' is a novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood, the second book of her dystopian trilogy, released on September 22, 2009, in Canada and the United States, and on September 7, 2009, in the United Kingdom. The novel was ...

'' (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-state A city-state is an independent sovereign city which serves as the center of political, economic, and cultural life over its contiguous territory. They have existed in many parts of the world throughout history, including cities such as Rome, ...

s and pleeblands, which are "unsafe, populous and polluted" urban areas where the working classes live. In 2016, Indian writer Amitav Ghosh expressed concern that climate change had "a much smaller presence in contemporary literary fiction than it does even in public discussion". In '' The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable'', Ghosh said "if certain literary forms are unable to negotiate these waters, then they will have failed – and their failures will have to be counted as an aspect of the broader imaginative and cultural failure that lies at the heart of the climate crisis." In ''The Anthropocene Unconscious: Climate Catastrophe Culture'', critic Mark Bould suggests the opposite when he argues that the "art and literature of our time is pregnant with catastrophe, with weather and water, wildness and weirdness." By the 2010s, climate fiction had attracted greater prominence and media attention. Cultural critic Josephine Livingston at ''

The New Republic ''The New Republic'' (often abbreviated as ''TNR'') is an American magazine focused on domestic politics, news, culture, and the arts from a left-wing perspective. It publishes ten print magazines a year and a daily online platform. ''The New Y ...

'' wrote in 2020 that "the last decade has seen such a steep rise in sophisticated 'cli-fi' that some literary publications now devote whole verticals to it. With such various and fertile imaginations at work on the same topic, whether in fiction or nonfiction, the challenge facing the environmental writer now is standing out from the crowd (not to mention the headlines)." She highlighted

Jeff Vandermeer Jeff VanderMeer (born July 7, 1968) is an American author, editor, and literary critic. Initially associated with the New Weird literary genre, VanderMeer crossed over into mainstream success with his bestselling Southern Reach Series. The se ...

's ''

Annihilation In particle physics, annihilation is the process that occurs when a subatomic particle collides with its respective antiparticle to produce other particles, such as an electron colliding with a positron to produce two photons. The total energy a ...

'' to Nathaniel Rich's ''Odds Against Tomorrow'' as examples. In

African literature African literature is literature from Africa, either Oral literature, oral ("orature") or written in African languages, African and Afro-Asiatic languages, Afro-Asiatic languages. Examples of Precolonialism, pre-colonial African literature can be ...

, climate informed novels and short stories have been recently receiving attention as a field of contemporary African literature. Books such as ''Eclipse our sins'', by Tlotlo Tsamaase; ''It Doesn’t Have to Be This Way'', by

Alistair Mackay Alistair Forbes Mackay (22 February 1878 – ) was a Scottish physician, biologist, and polar explorer known for being the first, along with Australians Douglas Mawson and Edgeworth David, to reach the South Magnetic Pole on 16 Januar ...

and ''Noor'', by Nnedi Okorafor, have been highlighted as remarkable publications in the genre.

Prominent examples

Climate fiction - Outdoor agriculture in India in 2500

The popular science-fiction novelist

has been writing on the theme for several decades, including his ''Science in the Capital'' trilogy, which is set in the near future and includes ''

Forty Signs of Rain ''Forty Signs of Rain'' (2004) is the first book in the hard science fiction "Science in the Capital" trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson. (The following two novels are '' Fifty Degrees Below'', (2005, and '' Sixty Days and Counting'', 2007). Plot ...

'' (2004), '' Fifty Degrees Below'' (2005), and '' Sixty Days and Counting'' (2007). Robert K. J. Killheffer in his review for ''

Fantasy & Science Fiction ''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' (usually referred to as ''F&SF'') is a U.S. fantasy fiction magazine, fantasy and science-fiction magazine, first published in 1949 by Mystery House, a subsidiary of Lawrence E. Spivak, Lawrence Spiv ...

'' 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. Robinson's novel ''

'', is set in the near future, and follows a subsidiary body, whose mission is to advocate for the world's future generations of citizens as if their rights are as valid as the present generation's. British author J. G. Ballard used the setting of apocalyptic climate change in his early 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 In psychology, the collective unconsciousness () is a term coined by Carl Jung, which is the belief that the unconscious mind comprises the instincts of Jungian archetypes—innate symbols understood from birth in all humans. Jung considered th ...

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 In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls from clouds due to gravitational pull. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, rain and snow mixed ("sleet" in Commonwe ...

cycle. Similarly, '' The Road'' (2006) by

Cormac McCarthy Cormac McCarthy (born Charles Joseph McCarthy Jr.; July 20, 1933 – June 13, 2023) was an American author who wrote twelve novels, two plays, five screenplays, and three short stories, spanning the Western, post-apocalyptic, and Southern Got ...

is set after an unspecified apocalypse or environmental catastrophe. It won the

Pulitzer Prize for Fiction The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It recognizes distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life, published during ...

in 2007. Although it does not explicitly mention climate change, it has been listed by ''

'' as one of the best climate change novels, and environmentalist

George Monbiot George Joshua Richard Monbiot ( ; born 27 January 1963) is an English journalist, author, and Environmental movement, environmental and political activist. He writes a regular column for ''The Guardian'' and has written several books. Monbiot ...

has described it as "the most important environmental book ever written" for depicting a world without a

biosphere The biosphere (), also called the ecosphere (), is the worldwide sum of all ecosystems. It can also be termed the zone of life on the Earth. The biosphere (which is technically a spherical shell) is virtually a closed system with regard to mat ...

. The novel ''

'' by

, published in December 2004, describes a conspiracy by scientists and others to create public panic about global warming. Crichton had publicly advocated "skepticism" of global warming. Speech at the National Press Club, Washington, D.C. (restored from archived copy) Testimony before the Committee on Environment and Public Works, Washington, D.C. His novel describes a group of eco-terrorists attempting to create

natural disaster A natural disaster is the very harmful impact on a society or community brought by natural phenomenon or Hazard#Natural hazard, hazard. Some examples of natural hazards include avalanches, droughts, earthquakes, floods, heat waves, landslides ...

s to convince the public of the dangers of global warming. It is based upon the idea that there is a deliberately alarmist conspiracy behind climate change activism. The book is critical of the

scientific consensus on climate change There is a nearly unanimous scientific consensus that the Earth has been consistently warming since the start of the Industrial Revolution, that the rate of recent warming is largely unprecedented, and that this warming is mainly the result o ...

. A critique in the BBC News pointed out that "Crichton's trade is to bring pleasurable terror to millions by spinning tales of science gone amok" and "To make sure you get his point, Crichton adds a 32-page footnote documenting his own conviction that global warming is an unscientific scare."

Ian McEwan Ian Russell McEwan (born 21 June 1948) is a British novelist and screenwriter. In 2008, ''The Times'' featured him on its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945" and ''The Daily Telegraph'' ranked him number 19 in its list of the ...

'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. Other authors who have used this subject matter include: * '' Fallen Angels'' (1991) by

Larry Niven Laurence van Cott Niven (; born April 30, 1938) is an American science fiction writer. His 1970 novel ''Ringworld'' won the Hugo Award for Best Novel, Hugo, Locus Award, Locus, Ditmar Award, Ditmar, and Nebula Award for Best Novel, Nebula award ...

Jerry Pournelle Jerry Eugene Pournelle (; August 7, 1933 – September 8, 2017) was an American scientist in the area of operations research and ergonomics, human factors research, a science fiction writer, essayist, journalist, and one of the first bloggers. ...

, and Michael Flynn. Set in North America in the "near future", a radical technophobic

green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a com ...

movement dramatically cuts greenhouse gas emissions, only to find that manmade global warming was staving off a new

ice age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages, and g ...

. * '' Mother of Storms'' (1994) by

John Barnes John Charles Bryan Barnes (born 7 November 1963) is a former professional football player and manager. Often considered one of the greatest England players of all time and one of Liverpool's greatest ever players, Barnes currently works as an ...

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 clathrate gun hypothesis is a proposed explanation for the periods of rapid warming during the Quaternary. The hypothesis is that changes in fluxes in upper intermediate waters in the ocean caused temperature fluctuations that alternately accu ...

. * '' The Swarm'' (2004) by Frank Schätzing. The book follows an ensemble of protagonists who are investigating what at first appear to be freak events related to the world's oceans. Seemingly unrelated events like the destabilization of the continental shelf resulting in a megatsunami, whales attacking a commercial freighter, and an outbreak of an epidemic caused by contaminated lobsters are revealed to be caused by an unknown submarine species trying to defend the oceans against human influence. * ''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 Clive Eric Cussler (July 15, 1931 – February 24, 2020) was an American adventure novelist and underwater explorer. His thriller novels, many featuring the character Dirk Pitt, have been listed on ''The New York Times'' fiction best-sell ...

and Dirk Cussler. A thriller involving attempts to reverse global warming, a possible war between the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, and "a mysterious silvery mineral traced to a long-ago expedition in search of the fabled Northwest Passage." * ''Devolution of a Species'' by M.E. Ellington focuses on the

Gaia hypothesis The Gaia hypothesis (), also known as the Gaia theory, Gaia paradigm, or the Gaia principle, proposes that living organisms interact with their Inorganic compound, inorganic surroundings on Earth to form a Synergy, synergistic and Homeostasis, s ...

, and describes the Earth as a single living organism fighting back against humankind. * ''The Carbon Diaries: 2015'' (2009) 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. * Barbara Kingsolver's novel, ''Flight Behavior'' (2012), employs environmental themes and highlights the potential effects of global warming on the monarch butterfly. * Norwegian author Maja Lunde has released a "Climate Quartet" of novels, beginning with ''Bienes histore'' (''The History of Bees'') in 2015, which examines pollinator decline through a number of human storylines throughout history, followed by ''The End of the Ocean'' (2017), ''Przewalski's Horse'' (2019) and an upcoming fourth instalment. * ''The Overstory'' (2018) by

Richard Powers Richard Powers (born June 18, 1957) is an American novelist whose works explore the effects of modern science and technology. His novel ''The Echo Maker'' won the 2006 National Book Award for Fiction.Pulitzer Prize for Fiction The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It recognizes distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life, published during ...

. The novel revolves around nine disparate characters with close associations to individual trees, that come together to address

. * Rajat Chaudhuri’s novel, ''The Butterfly Effect'' (2018), is a dystopian cli-fi with thriller undercurrents that deals with genetic engineering, scientific experiments gone wrong and the effect of intertwined disasters. This book has been listed by Book Riot as one of "50 Must-Read Eco Disasters In Fiction". * ''The New Wilderness'' (2020) by Diane Cook is set in North America where climate change has affected the natural environment. It was shortlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize. * ''Bewilderment'' (2021) by

Richard Powers Richard Powers (born June 18, 1957) is an American novelist whose works explore the effects of modern science and technology. His novel ''The Echo Maker'' won the 2006 National Book Award for Fiction.science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

works. For example, in '' The Wind from Nowhere'' (1961), civilization is devastated by persistent hurricane-force winds, and '' The Drowned World'' (1962) describes a future of melted ice-caps and rising sea-levels caused by

. In '' The Burning World'' (1964, later retitled ''The Drought'') his climate catastrophe is human-made, a

due to disruption of the precipitation cycle by industrial pollution. Octavia E. Butler's ''

'' (1993) imagines a near-future for the United States where climate change, wealth inequality, and corporate greed cause apocalyptic chaos. Here, and in sequel ''Parable of the Talents'' (1998), Butler dissects how instability and political demagoguery exacerbate society's underlying cruelty (especially with regards to racism and sexism) and also explores themes of survival and resilience. Butler wrote the novel "thinking about the future, thinking about the things that we're doing now and the kind of future we're buying for ourselves, if we're not careful."

explored the subject in her dystopian trilogy '' Oryx and Crake'' (2003), ''

Other examples

* ''Heat'' (1977), by Arthur Herzog, US * ''The Sea and Summer'' [''Drowning Towers''] (1987), by George Turner (writer), George Turner, Australia * ''The Crystal World'' (1988), by J. G. Ballard, UK * ''The Ice People (Gee novel), The Ice People'' (1998) and ''The Flood'' (2004), Maggie Gee (novelist), Magee Gee, US * ''Earth (Brin novel), Earth'' (1990), David Brin, US * ''A Friend of the Earth'' (2000), T. C. Boyle, T.C. Boyle, US * ''Floodland (novel), Floodland'' (2001) and ''Aurora'' (2011), Marcus Sedgwick, US * ''Exodus (Bertagna novel), Exodus'' (2002) and sequels, Julie Bertagna, US * ''Flood (Baxter novel), Flood'' (2008) and ''Ark (novel), Ark'' (2009), Stephen Baxter (author), Stephen Baxter, US * ''The Windup Girl'' (2009), ''Ship Breaker'' (2010), ''The Drowned Cities'' (2012), ''The Water Knife'' (2015) and ''Tool of War'' (2017), Paolo Bacigalupi, US * ''Grand Tour (novel series), Empire Builders'' (2011), Ben Bova, US * ''2312 (novel), 2312'' (2012),

, US * ''Odds Against Tomorrow'' (2013), Nathaniel Rich, US * ''The Bone Clocks'' (2014), David Mitchell (author), David Mitchell, UK * ''The Collapse of Western Civilization'' (2014), by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway, Columbia University Press, US * ''Memory of Water'' (2015), Emmi Itäranta, Finland * ''Gold Fame Citrus'' (2015), Claire Vaye Watkins, US * ''American War (novel), American War'' (2017), Omar El Akkad, US * ''The Water Cure'' (2018), Sophie Mackintosh, UK * ''The Last Children of Tokyo (The Emissary)'' (2018), Yoko Tawada, Germany/Japan * ''The City in the Middle of the Night'' (2019), by Charlie Jane Anders * Gun Island (novel), ''Gun Island'' (2019) by Amitav Ghosh * ''The Wall'' (2019), by John Lanchester * ''

'' (2020), by

* ''A Children's Bible'' (2020) by Lydia Millet * ''Migrations'' (2020) by Charlotte McConaghy * ''Depart, Depart'' (2020) by Sim Kern * ''470'' (2020) by Linda Woodrow * ''Diatomea'' (2022), by Núria Perpinyà * ''The Light Pirate'' (2022), by Lily Brooks-Dalton * ''Spellcasters: A Novel'' (2023), by Rajat Chaudhuri, India * ''The Girl who Rode the Unihorn'' (2024) by mìcheal dubh * ''Juice'' (2024) by Tim Winton * ''Fairhaven'' (2024) by Jan Lee and Steve Willis

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 (novelist), Helen Phillips – Many of the short stories concern climate change. * Author and editor Bruce Meyer and creative writing professor at Georgian College edited a 2017 anthology of stories about "changing ocean conditions, the widening disappearance of species, genetically modified organisms, increasing food shortages, mass migrations of refugees, and the hubris behind our provoking Mother Earth herself", which he labels as "cli-fi". The anthology includes works by George McWhirter, Richard Van Camp, Holly Schofield, Linda Rogers, Sean Virgo, Rati Mehrotra, Geoffrey W. Cole, Phil Dwyer, Kate Story, Leslie Goodreid, Nina Munteanu, Halli Villegas, John Oughton, Frank Westcott, Wendy Bone, Peter Timmerman, and Lynn Hutchinson-Lee. * ''Meteotopia - Futures of Climate (In)Justice'' (2022) Collection of short stories on climate and environment by authors of the Global South. * ''The Routledge Anthology of Climate Fiction, Volume One'' (2024) edited by Bill Gillard, a short story collection that makes the argument that the literature of climate change started much earlier than the critical consensus would have it, as early as the 1870s when the effects of industrialization were being explored by science-fiction writers and other artists.

Influence

Many journalists, literary critics, and scholars have speculated about the potential influence of climate fiction on the beliefs of its readers. To date, three empirical studies have examined this question. A controlled experiment found that reading climate fiction short stories "had small but significant positive effects on several important beliefs and attitudes about global warming – observed immediately after participants read the stories", though "these effects diminished to statistical nonsignificance after a one-month interval". However, the authors note that "the effects of a single exposure in an artificial setting may represent a lower bound of the real-world effects. Reading climate fiction in the real world often involves multiple exposures and longer narratives", such as novels, "which may result in larger and longer-lasting impacts". A survey of readers 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." Finally, an empirical study focused on the popular 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, including environmental migrants. However, its results suggest that dystopic climate narratives might lead to support for Ecofascism, 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.

References

External links

Cli-Fi in American Studies: A Research Bibliography

Climate Fiction in English: Oxford Research Encyclopedia

Burning Worlds Column in the Chicago Review of Books

Stories to save the world: the new wave of climate fiction
essay by Claire Armitstead for

Climate Change Dystopia
discusses current popularity of climate change dystopia. {{Global catastrophic risks Fiction about climate change, Literary genres Speculative fiction Dystopian fiction Climate change novels, Science fiction themes 2000s neologisms