Speculative fiction on climate change
Speculative fiction on climate change explores alternate realities that often serve as critical commentaries on contemporary environmental issues. This genre has been engaged with climate change since the late 19th century, beginning with works like H. G. Wells' *The War of the Worlds*, where Martians invade Earth due to their planet's declining conditions. Dystopian themes are prevalent, reflecting a world suffering from the impacts of climate change, as seen in Philip K. Dick's *The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch*.
While early speculative fiction often depicted natural climate change phenomena, more recent works have increasingly highlighted human-induced factors. Authors like Kim Stanley Robinson in his *Science in the Capital* trilogy depict dire future scenarios resulting from anthropogenic climate change, illustrating societal collapse and resource scarcity. Conversely, some narratives, like Michael Crichton's *State of Fear*, challenge the premise of climate change itself, suggesting it could be a fabricated crisis.
Overall, speculative fiction serves as a cautionary tale, urging readers to contemplate the consequences of environmental neglect through thought-provoking narratives. This genre encompasses a range of perspectives, from hopeful visions of recovery to stark warnings about potential futures, making it a rich field for examining the complexities of climate change.
Speculative fiction on climate change
Speculative fiction portrays alternate realities, often in order to comment on present-day reality. Either through analogy or through literal use of contemporary science, speculative-fiction authors have commented upon issues involving climate change and have introduced some readers to the central concepts used in its scientific study and policy discussion.
Background
Climate change has been used by the science-fiction branch of speculative fiction since the late nineteenth century. In The War of the Worlds (1898) by H. G. Wells, Mars has undergone climate change to the point where it is dying. The Martians then invade the Earth so that they can live here instead. Science fiction involving climate change is usually dystopian. In Philip K. Dick’s The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch (1965), global warming is one of several background details that inform the reader that the setting is a future much worse than the present.
Natural Climate Change
Traditionally, science-fiction novels have assumed that climate change happens naturally. One example is J. G. Ballard’s 1962 novel The Drowned World, whose premise is that solar flares destroy the ionosphere. This raises global temperatures, causing the polar ice caps to melt. Even at the time, the premise was considered dubious. Subsequent research has shown that the relationship between the Sun’s output and the Earth’s climate is more complicated than Ballard assumed. Critics generally approach this and Ballard’s other ecological disaster novels as metaphorical rather than as possible futures.
In Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle’s Lucifer’s Hammer (1977), a comet strikes the Earth, initially causing an outbreak of volcanoes, tsunamis, and earthquakes, then widespread flooding, and eventually a new ice age. This premise has become more plausible in the twenty-first century than at the time the book was written, because the theory that a similar event caused the demise of the dinosaurs has gained widespread acceptance.
Anthropogenic Climate Change
Beginning in the late twentieth century, speculative fiction that used climate change as a premise usually also assumed that the change had human origins. One challenge of writing fiction involving climate change is that the science behind the stories can become obsolete after only a few years. Examples are David Brin’s Earth (1990) and Bruce Sterling’s Heavy Weather (1994), which were current with climate science at the time they were written but are now somewhat dated.
One example, Kim Stanley Robinson’s Science in the Capital trilogy (Forty Signs of Rain, 2004; Fifty Degrees Below, 2005; and Sixty Days and Counting, 2007), received critical acclaim both for the quality of the writing and for the author’s knowledge of climate science. The action takes place mostly in Washington, D.C., and most of the main characters are scientists. A rise in the average global temperature caused by human emission of generates an unfortunate chain of events. The Arctic melts, and the infusion of freshwater into the North Atlantic causes the to stall, in turn causing winters in North America and Europe to become much colder, longer, and drier. The characters undergo food scarcity, housing shortages, power outages, and reduced medical services.
Critics have called Canadian author Margaret Atwood a climate change writer, although she also writes about dystopian worlds. Her MaddAddam trilogy (Oryx and Crake, 2003; The Year of the Flood, 2009; and MaddAddam, 2019) takes place in a future where climate change has already wreaked havoc on the world. Radiation is high, sea levels have risen, the oceans are replete with dead zones, and the Great Barrier Reef has died. The Year of the Flood, the second in her trilogy, centers on the civil unrest that has ensued because of climate change. The very wealthy live in gated communities while the rest of humanity struggles to survive in slums. Fairhaven: A Novel of Climate Optimism (2024), by Steve Willis and Jan Lee, protagonist Grace Chan is about to take office as president of the new organization Ocean Independent State in 2036. While Grace must combat devastation, she holds onto hope that some of the damage can be undone.
Other examples include Global Warming Aftermaths (2008), edited by Eric Reynolds, an original short story anthology in which all the stories are set in a future after global warming has occurred; Hotter than Hell (2005) by Canadian environmental scientist Mark Tushingham, in which war breaks out between the United States and Canada over freshwater; Tushingham’s sequel Hell on Earth (2008); and The End of Eden: Wild Nature in the Age of Climate Breakdown, by Adam Welz, which explores the effects of climate change from wild species' point of view.
Denial of Climate Change
There are also works of speculative fiction that assume that climate change is not taking place. The premise of Michael Crichton’s novel State of Fear (2004), for instance, is that the theory of global warming caused by the human emission of GHGs is not only false, but a deliberate hoax. Most global warming advocates are mistaken, according to the book, but some intentionally misrepresent the data in their quest for power. Crichton inserts graphs, charts, and footnotes into the text and provides twenty pages of references at the end of the book. At the time the book was published, Crichton was criticized in scientific circles for citing only the books and papers that supported his premise and for misrepresenting the ones he did cite.
Context
In literature, there is a type of story known as the cautionary tale. This kind of story has a message along the lines of “if you do x (or fail to do x), then y will happen.” “Y” is always an avoidable negative consequence. (Robert Heinlein used the prototypical title “If This Goes On—” for a 1940 science-fiction cautionary tale, although it was about religious fundamentalism rather than climate change.) The very best cautionary tales are the ones for which the readers do not realize there is a message until after they have finished reading and think about what they have just read. The ones that are too overt in their message either alienate or bore the reader. If they are published at all, they usually do not stay in print for long. Speculative fiction is full of such stories, good, bad, and indifferent, and many of the recent ones concern climate change.
Key Concepts
- dystopia: a fictional world in which living conditions are extremely bad; the opposite of a utopia
- science fiction: the branch of speculative fiction that attempts to be scientifically plausible
- speculative fiction: the branch of fiction that deals with unproven entities and occurrences, including science fiction, fantasy, alternative history, and supernatural horror
Bibliography
Grazier, Kevin R., ed. Michael Crichton: An Unauthorized Exploration into the Real Science Behind the Fiction Worlds of Michael Crichton. Dallas, Tex.: BenBella Books, 2008.
Herreid, Clyde Freeman. “Using Novels as Bases for Case Studies: Michael Crichton’s State of Fear and Global Warming.” Journal of College Science Teaching 35, no. 7 (July/August, 2005).
"How Can We Channel the Urgency and Fear of the Climate Crisis Into Speculative Fiction?" The British Fantasy Society, 9 Oct. 2024, britishfantasysociety.org/how-can-we-channel-the-urgency-and-fear-of-the-climate-crisis-into-speculative-fiction/. Accessed 19 Dec. 2024.
Hultman, Nathan E. “Novel Takes on Climate Change.” Geotimes 50, no. 6 (June, 2005). Review comparing Robinson’s Forty Signs of Rain and Crichton’s State of Fear.
Luckhurst, Roger. The Angle Between Two Walls: The Fiction of J. G. Ballard. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1997.
Robinson, Kim Stanley. Interview by Cassandra Willyard. Earth 53, no. 9 (September, 2008): 65.
Rothman, Joshua. "Can Science Fiction Wake Us Up to Our Climate Reality?" The New Yorker, 24 Jan. 2022, www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/01/31/can-science-fiction-wake-us-up-to-our-climate-reality-kim-stanley-robinson. Accessed 19 Dec. 2024.