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cli-fi
UK /ˈklʌɪfʌɪ/
noun (mass noun)
a genre of fiction that deals with the impacts of climate change and global warming
Climate change fiction is now a recognisable literary phenomenon replete with its own nickname: “cli-fi.” The term was coined in 2007 by Taiwan-based blogger Dan Bloom. Since then, its use has spread: it was even tweeted by Margaret Atwood in 2012.
The cli-fi genre spans everything from post-apocalyptic nightmare scenarios (Cormac McCarthy’s uber-bleak The Road is said to be cli-fi, but it’s pretty hard to imagine an event that totally wipes out all life on Earth except humans) to novels set in a very real-feeling near future where the characters are dealing with everyday issues of a changing climate as well as issues of their own (T.C. Boyle’s Blue Skies). Kim Stanley Robinson’s New York 2140 lies somewhere in the middle: things for sure aren’t great in a half-submerged Gotham, but people are getting on with it. (All books are available on Amazon).
Digging deep into an imagined climate-changed future may be stressful for some readers, but others may find it comforting or empowering to peer into one or more of the many possible worlds we could inherit.
There are lists of cli-fi books all over the interwebs, but a few of the usual suspects on best-of lists include The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton, Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich, The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi, American War by Omar El Akkad, The Ministry For the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson, Bewilderment by Richard Powers, The High House by Jessie Greengrass, and Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson. (All are available on Amazon.)
