What’s Going On Here?
Climate Fiction (CliFi for short) is becoming an increasing popular creative medium to help us (the public) to understand climate change, and how it could impact our lives in the future.
What Does This Mean?
CliFi includes books, films, art and radio programmes that explore how changes in our environment (due to climate change) could impact human society and individuals now and in the future. Yes, even Hollywood films like The Day After Tomorrow.
It’s sort of a mix of futuristic fiction, real-world storytelling and scientific fact, exploring how climate change could change the things that matter the most to us (our relationships, jobs, family etc).
It offers a new medium to engage audiences from a wide range of backgrounds and interests who may not have considered how climate change, and its effects, could impact the lives they currently lead (as well as being a useful Call To Action!).
Why Should We Care?
It has been shown that a major psychological barrier to climate action is that climate change can often feel like a large, unrelatable term that is removed from our current life both in space and in time. This distancing effect often leads to inaction, and a tendency to ignore the problem – not helpful!
Engaging multiple people in what the effects of climate change could personally mean to them in an informative and fun way can help to overcome this barrier as well as widening awareness of the science and issues of climate change!
Be Curious!
- Have a read of ‘New York 2140’ or ‘Parable of the Sower’ – two renowned novels that examine the impacts of climate change from very different perspectives.
- The BBC have recently released a high-profile radio drama ‘Forest404’ that explores what could happen if we don’t act on climate change via a dystopian drama – and its making headlines! Download and have a listen, then have a go of the experiment running alongside to explore how nature impacts you.
- Use this medium as an opportunity to engage others in conversation about the topic – by discussing what future world we would like to inhabit, we can start to think about what needs to be done in order to bring about our desired outcome!
