Putting the science in fiction - Dan Koboldt, Chuck Wendig 2018
Imagining climate change
Earth and other planets. Yes, Pluto counts!
By K.E. Lanning
Science fiction was born asking the question, “What if?” Writers explore parallel universes, cruise subatomic particles, travel in space and time—just name it and science fiction readers are ready to hitch a ride. But climate fiction (cli-fi) is a relatively new subgenre of science fiction, springing out of the growing concern over climate change. After reading a 2006 article from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, activist Dan Bloom penned the term cli-fi to describe a subgenre of speculative fiction that emphasizes the effects of climate change.
The Earth’s climate is not a static beast—the geologic history of the world is rife with sea level changes due to natural cycles of warming and cooling. Dinosaurs roamed near inland seas until a cooling trend caused a series of ice ages, lowering sea levels. Subsequently, humans moved onto the Americas across newly exposed land bridges. Since the end of the last ice age, we have been in a period of melting ice and rising seas.
Global warming is an old idea
Global warming is not a new concept—scientists have studied the greenhouse effect since the 1820s. But in 1896, Svante Arrhenius, a Swedish chemist, concluded that human activity was contributing to this warming trend. In 1938, G.S. Callendar presented evidence that humanity’s use of fossil fuel might cause climate change. Over the span of modern history, a chart juxtaposing the rise of carbon dioxide to human population growth tracks ominously. Scientists warn that intense warming could shift the ocean currents into a different orientation—no one knows what havoc this could bring to the equilibrium of our world.
However, burning fossil fuels is only a part of our influence on the planet. Humans have created a complex puzzle of shifts in the environment to the water, air, and land, some as surprising as methane bubbling up from the rotting vegetation submerged under dammed-up reservoirs. A large mirror indeed is needed to view our impact on the globe.
Imagine drastic climate changes
The current climate of the Earth provides an excellent petri dish for human propagation, but what if the climate shifted back to that of the Cretaceous or Jurassic—would we adapt to the jungle or be eaten by a burgeoning population of, dare I say, a new generation of dinosaurs? Or if the climate shifted to a brutal ice age, would massive crop failures cause famine around the world and decimate the human population?
Eco-fiction has certainly been around—Frank Herbert’s Dune (Chilton Books, 1965) beautifully builds a world of sand and tenuous human existence. But in the 1970s, the recognition of human influence on climate change initiated a call for action. Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Lathe of Heaven (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1971), a beautifully surreal novel, illuminates the effect of human population intersecting the delicate balance of the world. The Lorax, written by the venerable Dr. Seuss (Random House, 1972), though not a specific global warming book, spoke to the children of the 1970s of the plight of the environment and our direct impact on the Earth. The legendary environmentalist Edward Abbey wrote The Monkey Wrench Gang (Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins, 1975), a controversial novel of extreme activism and his most famous work of fiction.
With human populations exploding and industrial capacity fleeing to countries with no environmental controls, the resulting pollution is overwhelming our fragile ecosystem. The climate talks in Paris illustrate the difficulties, but also the urgencies of curtailing pollutants which alter our world. We now have a new globalization of fear.
Cli-Fi as inspiration
That tickle of fear has sparked a new world for science fiction writers to delve into—the cli-fi novel. In this new millennium, Earth’s rising temperatures brought a wave of cli-fi novels to the bookshelves. Renowned author Margaret Atwood wrote the gut-wrenching trilogy MaddAddam [Oryx and Crake (Nan A. Talese, 2003), The Year of the Flood (Nan A. Talese, 2009), and MaddAddam (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2013)], set in a dystopian future when a geneticist decides that the human population needs a bit of culling to save the Earth from the human beast. A major writer in the cli-fi genre is Kim Stanley Robinson, notably his Forty Signs of Rain (Spectra, 2004). British author Jeanette Winterson wrote The Stone Gods (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2008), set on a degenerating planet similar to Earth. Paolo Bacigalupi published his critically acclaimed novel, The Windup Girl (Night Shade Books) in 2009, a near-future novel exploring a post-petroleum world.
The key to effective cli-fi is creating an engaging protagonist lost in a dystopian or post-apocalyptic story without beating the readers over the head with overt political agendas. The writer’s characters take us on the journey, with a human voice carrying the message of devastation, but also the hope of redemption. Climate fiction can fill us with fear or possibly even excitement of a new and altered world to explore.
What if the polar caps melt and sea level rose hundreds of feet? Cities and entire countries might disappear like the fabled Atlantis. Social and political chaos would reign as populations migrate to dry land—humans on the move with strife and despair in their pockets.
Bookshelves drowned in thoughts of ocean’s rising? Or perhaps frozen in an impending ice age? What if?