THIS COLUMN WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN WRITER’S BLOCK IN THE AUGUST 8, 2018 EDITION OF THE CHRONOTYPE, RICE LAKE, WISCONSIN.
Looking at pictures from the largest California wildfire in its history this week feels like looking into another world. As cataclysmic disaster after another destroys thousands of acres in California, I can’t help but think that these disasters feel more and more pronounced and significant.
I’ve recently gotten into a new genre of fiction called climate fiction or cli-fi for short. It’s a term being used to describe books in which an altered climate is part of the plot—a significant part of the plot. Some say though that the primary theme of books that are being recognized under the rubric of “climate fiction” are essentially dystopian visions of a world decimated by climate change.
Dystopian fiction is nothing new. It is essentially a work describing an imaginary place where life is extremely bad because of deprivation or oppression or terror. In climate fiction, climate change complete with cataclysmic natural disasters is that horror.
The science fiction novelist Kim Stanley Robinson focused on the climate change 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 for us to pull our heads from the sand and confront the threat of climate change.”
The novels “Not A Drop To Drink” (2013) and its sequel, “In A Handful Of Dust” (2014), by Mindy McGinnis 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.
Barbara Kingsolver’s novel, “Flight Behavior” (2012), employs environmental themes and highlights the potential effects of global warming on the monarch butterfly.
“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.
Natural disasters feel like that sometimes, like the Earth is fighting back, proving its age and strength and longevity, despite human occupation.
In January 2017, several scientific agencies around the world, including NASA and the NOAA in the United States and the Met Office in the United Kingdom, named 2016 the warmest year recorded. This marked the third consecutive year reaching a new record temperature, the first time since the current warming trend began in the 1970s that 3 years in a row were record highs. When 2017 was declared the third hottest year on record, that meant that 17 of the last 18 warmest years have occurred since 2000.
Climate fiction is intriguing and particularly terrible because now, when I emerge from a fictional world full of climate disasters, I am living in a world where these disasters are a reality. What’s important to pay attention to in these fictional plots, is how the remainder of society gathers and reorganizes to sustain humanity amid the destruction.
Unfortunately, I don’t see climate fiction or even the increase in devastating natural disasters as game changers in the climate change debate. It’d be great if we as a collective could band together to create a more sustainable world for future generations. Fearmongering just isn’t going to be the catalyst to do it. It’s when someone we know and love has lost access to water or their home or life to fire and flood, that the reality will cease being fictional.
Gently Rise, Softly Call 