As the world sees more and more extreme weather patterns, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the effects of climate change. It is now a common topic of discussion and it has even found its way into the books we read. Because of this, a genre called climate fiction. or cli-fi, has found new life.
As the name suggests, climate fiction refers to stories with a central theme of climate change or global warming. These kinds of books can help us imagine what the world might be like in the future because of major climate change events. Adeline Johns-Putra is a professor of literature at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University in Suzhou and has edited many books on climate fiction. “It’s part of a pattern,” Johns-Putra told Smithsonian Magazine. “It’s a feedback loop, as these books feed into our awareness and that feeds into our demand to read these books.”
The genre is also gaining popularity with high school and college students because it looks at topics that are relevant to what’s really happening today. Also, many cli-fi novels tend to have dystopian themes, which are very popular in young adult novels. In 2015, cli-fi author Sarah Holding wrote for The Guardian that cli-fi “reconnects young readers with their environment”, which helps them appreciate it more, “especially when today, a large amount of their time is spent in the virtual world”.
Cli-fi has also helped to inspire students to pursue science majors, with some universities even offering courses specifically focusing on climate fiction. “These books aren’t going to save the world in any straight form or way,” Johns-Putra commented. “But they’re certainly going to help us think about how the world gets saved.” As Atwood wrote in her dystopian cli-fi novel MaddAddam, “People need such stories, because however dark, a darkness with voices in it is better than a silent void.”
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