Explore “Cli-Fi”

The topic of climate isn’t a new element in storytelling; the environment plays heavily in a lot of works of speculative fiction. However, the term “Cli-Fi” (Climate Fiction) is relatively new, having been first coined by journalist and climate activist Dan Bloom back in 2010. This genre, a play on the term Sci-Fi, explores climate change and global warming, playing out these changes in the world to a logical endpoint.

An article written for NPR in 2013 by Angela Evancie explains it best: “ …[O]f course, science fiction with an environmental bent has been around since the 1960s (Think J. G. Ballard’s The Drowned World). But while sci-fi usually takes place in a dystopian future, Cli-fi happens in a dystopian present.”

 The article also shared that people in the scientific community are finding Cli-Fi to be a powerful signal boost for those trying to bring awareness to particular climate-related concerns—a prime example of the power of stories!

 If you’re interested in exploring the Cli-Fi genre, here are some of my favorites to get you started: 

• Loosed Upon the World: The Saga Anthology of Climate Fiction by Margaret Atwood
• Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
• New York 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson
• We Are Unprepared by Meg Little Reilly
• Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver
• Solar by Ian McEwan
• Above the Ether by Eric Barnes
• Austral by Paul J. McAuley
• Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
• The End We Start From by Megan Hunter
• Odds Against Tomorrow by Nathaniel Rich

If you’re interested in movies of this genre, check out this list of Natural Disasters in Film. 

Lisa P.
Information and Readers Services