“Cli-Fi”: A Genre to Save the Planet? by Lisa Scherff

This is another week where I get to host the work of great YA and ALAN community member. As I mention all of the time, I am not an expert in every area of YA literature. The field is vast and full of fantastic literature in every genre or, for that matter, sub genre. Today Lisa Scherff discusses Climate Fiction or "Cli-Fi." I love some of the books she mentions and have been meaning to follow-up. She has certainly peaked my interest again.

Lisa has contributed before. You can find her first post on YA memoirs. She has also written on the Alex Award, how the Amelia Walden Award committee functions, and promoted some books for summer reading.

“Cli-Fi”: A Genre to Save the Planet?

You are failing us. But the young people are starting to understand your betrayal. The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us, I say: We will never forgive you. 
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We will not let you get away with this. Right here, right now is where we draw the line. The world is waking up. And change is coming, whether you like it or not.

The above was spoken by Greta Thunberg in her September 23rd address to the United Nations Climate Action Summit. Thunberg is a part of a vocal and growing movement (already in the millions across the globe) of young people and adults committed to bringing awareness of and driving political action towards the issue of climate change in order to help save the planet. I have been following the movement and the children very carefully not only because the situation is serious but also because of my love of dystopian fiction, especially those novels set after some cataclysmic event caused by nature/climate change. These (sometimes) futuristic novels, called “cli-fi,” are a genre I had not heard of before.

The term “cli-fi”—short for climate fiction—was coined by Dan Bloom, an English teacher, reporter, and environmentalist who was influenced by the 1957 novel On the Beach (a book I remember from high school) and the writings of British environmentalist James Lovelock. As reported on Lithub.com, “it wasn’t until he saw the 2004 disaster film The Day After Tomorrow . . . that Bloom started thinking about the power of storytelling to rally like-minded citizens concerned for the future of life on Earth.” Climate change fiction is rooted in science fiction but adds elements of both realism and/or the supernatural.

​According to one psychologist who has written about climate change denial, people distance themselves from the issue “because the facts of global warming are too often presented in abstract or guilt-inducing ways.” Amy Brady, deputy publisher at Guernica, “a non-profit online magazine dedicated to global art and politics,” argues that is the reason why stories that connect readers emotionally to the destructive and local effects of climate change are needed. Cli-fi explores “what the world might become if climate change continues unabated.”  

While climate change should worry us all, the issue hits close to home. Literally. Immediately below is a current map of the area I live, Lee County, Florida. I live about 9 miles northeast of the coastline (from where the bridge to Sanibel Island joins the mainland). So far, even with the heaviest rains during rainy season, I have not had flooding issues, although some areas (parking lots, streets, neighborhoods, etc.) often have 1-3 inches of standing water for a day or so. Not so bad given how much rain we tend to get from June through September. Even with the past few hurricanes, only those right on the water have suffered from relatively minor storm surge.

However, many of us are scared. Even the most conservative estimates have us being affected from rising sea levels within the next 30 years. The map below shows the potential impact of just a one meter rise in the sea level if both Greenland and the West Antarctic ice sheet melt.

And, this one: three meters. 

​So, it was with all of this on my mind that I read London Shah’s (2019) debut novel The Light at the Bottom of the World (Hyperion), which is set at the end of the twenty-first century in Great Britain. Sixty-five years earlier, the world went underwater when an asteroid hit Earth, causing most living things on the planet to die when everything became submerged. Everyone thought they had time, several years, before the strike; scientists and politicians had assured everyone that they would survive no matter how high the water rose. 

Sixteen-year-old Leyla Fairoza McQueen wins a chance to race her submersible in the 2099 London Subermsible Marathon. Winning this annual race means she can get one wish granted, and she knows what that is: asking for her father’s freedom. He was arrested, accused of encouraging victims of “seasickness” to take their own lives. Without giving too much of the plot away, Leyla does not get her wish and instead goes on a search for her father.
 
Reading this novel rekindled my desire to not only reread some of the “cli-fi” novels on my shelf but also search out some new titles. Below are links to some of my favorite titles.

​Dryamzn.to/2NF52AU (Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman)

Ship Breaker trilogyamzn.to/2pyU08p (Paolo Bacigalupi)

​Ashfall trilogy (Mike Mullin)

​Life as We Knew It series (Susan Beth Pfeffer)

If you and your students are interested in this genre there are many places to go to look for titles. Below are some websites to start your search:
Sierra Club (2019) Hope in the Midst of Ecological Dystopia: Cli-fi books for the young-adult reader
Burning Worlds (a monthly column highlighting new climate fiction)
Read Wild: Cli-fi, How Books Can Start Conversations and Inspire Action
#SJYALit Booklist: Environmental Dystopia, aka Cli-Fi 
A Change on the Winds: Climate Fiction for YA Readers

For up-to-date information on the “cli-fi” term and events (such as a 2021 gathering), Dan Bloom created a website: http://cli-fi.net/index.html. 

Until next week.