Dune - Frank Herbert - We live on a water planet, all life is based on H20. This is the story about a planet that has a water crisis and water becomes the most valuable commodity.
Octavia Butler - Parable of the Sower
Margaret Atwood - The Maddaddam Trilogy
Margaret Atwood - The Maddaddam Trilogy
How about this for a plot?
Simultaneous unprecedented droughts in a few of the world's most important agricultural regions, plus other crises, lead to a situation where victims of shortages and unrest are just walking out of NYC by the tens of thousands- the Walkers.
Suburban NJ is afflicted by people traveling out of NYC, Newark, Philadelphia, Atlantic City, Camden, and other cities. This is following the US stupidly trying to take on many more very tough Middle Eastern, Indian, South American, Mexican and African migrants than we have now.
Simultaneous unprecedented droughts in a few of the world's most important agricultural regions, plus other crises, lead to a situation where victims of shortages and unrest are just walking out of NYC by the tens of thousands- the Walkers.
Suburban NJ is afflicted by people traveling out of NYC, Newark, Philadelphia, Atlantic City, Camden, and other cities. This is following the US stupidly trying to take on many more very tough Middle Eastern, Indian, South American, Mexican and African migrants than we have now.
For an all-too plausible near future during the later phases of climate change, try "Parable of the Sower" by sci-fi great Octavia Butler. Not an apocolypse or total breakdown of society -- rather just enough climate-driven reversion to savagery to feel very real, and very scary.
1
I recommend a related novel about the potential for multiple environmental effects: The Sheep Look Up by John Brunner. Published in 1972 and even closer to becoming true now....
1
This was a fun, interactive piece by Aussie reporter Livia Albeck-Ripka, who is now a James Reston Reporting Fellow at the New York Times, and she did a wonderul job reporting this piece. The rise of cli-fi novels and the cli-fi genre over the past 15 years or so is putting these novels on the map now and getting 7 climate experts to review the cli-fi books that Livia listed for her listicle was a great idea. Who better to review the books and offer their reax? Cli-fi is not your grandfather's sci-fi and it's a whole new literary genre that needs to be explored more and more, without falling back on the old default genre of science fiction. Climate fiction is not science fiction. See the Wikipedia entry for cli-fi and see ''The Cli-Fi Report'' online under that title which I edit and curate. Btw, I coined the cli-fi term just for this purpose: so that the the TImes would start reporting and reviewing cli-fi novels and call them cli-fi novels and I was glad to Livia's report today. Bravo!
1
VERY surprised that nothing by Stephen Baxter here, particularly, Flood (2008); Ark (2009). Baxter is a British scientist and Engineer and he WILL help a reader reimagine the present world. The place of science fiction, from Shelley forward, has been to work out in fiction where we are going philosophically.
1
The experts consulted in this article are batting away different concerns of the authors. But it's just one kind of climate change effect at a time. What I think is very dangerous for possibly the near future is dealing with several different but all very powerful disastrous effects of climate change at the same time or more or less the same time.
Right now, the USA is dealing with Harvey, Irma, Maria, refugees, and wildfires. Shortly before, we were dealing with California's drought. Maybe other big droughts in the US were also related.
Problems like these may return or worsen, may become more frequent, and others may be added to them, like oceans being pretty much fished-out. The science says we should expect things to get worse.
Even if it just gets a little more frequent, we've got disturbingly quite a lot to deal with.
Harvey, Irma, and Maria are a lot for the US to deal with. And a situation like our failing to quickly solve the problem with North Korea shows there are limits to the US' clout and power. We just can't expect that nothing will ever get pretty bad, or that there's actually a solution available to us.
The disastrous effects of climate change are such a massive and complex problem that I think we should avoid being dismissively optimistic. Climate change is an emergency that needs to be acted on right away.
Right now, the USA is dealing with Harvey, Irma, Maria, refugees, and wildfires. Shortly before, we were dealing with California's drought. Maybe other big droughts in the US were also related.
Problems like these may return or worsen, may become more frequent, and others may be added to them, like oceans being pretty much fished-out. The science says we should expect things to get worse.
Even if it just gets a little more frequent, we've got disturbingly quite a lot to deal with.
Harvey, Irma, and Maria are a lot for the US to deal with. And a situation like our failing to quickly solve the problem with North Korea shows there are limits to the US' clout and power. We just can't expect that nothing will ever get pretty bad, or that there's actually a solution available to us.
The disastrous effects of climate change are such a massive and complex problem that I think we should avoid being dismissively optimistic. Climate change is an emergency that needs to be acted on right away.
1
Kim Stanley Robinson's trilogy: Forty Signs of Rain, Fifty Degrees Below, and Sixty Days and Counting mostly around Washington DC, "Science in the Capital". Torrential rains, temperature swings, a stalled gulf stream... and most concerning, no snow pack in the Sierras. Three out of four way too close to home. And feeling way too real.
2
Also, human-caused global warming IS causing mosquitoes that carry diseases to spread north and south from the Equator.
So what if government agents can't distinguish between diseases released by a rogue government agent from the diseases carried in on cargo ships from China, which may also be infecting us with North Korean diseases?
So what if government agents can't distinguish between diseases released by a rogue government agent from the diseases carried in on cargo ships from China, which may also be infecting us with North Korean diseases?
you left out a great old one, the Drowned World by J G Ballard
1
‘New York: 2140’ is very good - about 1/3 through as is Mr Robinson's Mars Trilogy
Or one could read State of Fear by Michael Crichton.
1
Like Noam Chomsky, too horrifying to read. I'd like to continue to get at least 4 hours of sleep each night. I'll try to catch experts' synopses.
1
The question I would ask is who is likely to read any of these books?
What these fiction writers are dealing with is what theologians call natural evils as opposed to human evils: earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis, floods, droughts.
But even these natural evils have human causes: cities, like Mexico City, that are more crowded than ever, house construction in low-lying areas or near oceans, the burning of fossil fuels, the pollution of the oceans, the use of nuclear reactors to provide energy.
The main cause of these unintentional human causes is over-population. I would hope novelists would focus on that.
But even these natural evils have human causes: cities, like Mexico City, that are more crowded than ever, house construction in low-lying areas or near oceans, the burning of fossil fuels, the pollution of the oceans, the use of nuclear reactors to provide energy.
The main cause of these unintentional human causes is over-population. I would hope novelists would focus on that.
2
Another book you should add to this list: Kim Stanley Robinson's "Forty Signs of Rain," where the climate change includes a Harvey-style storm that floods D.C. I was fascinated to see what Robinson got right (no more available housing) and what he missed (everyone's cars flooded).
To this list, I would add Felicity Harley's recent book, "The Burning Years," which takes place in the year 2060 (and beyond). Harley's book will scare the daylights out of you with it's steady, non-hysterical drumbeat of what the future looks like, including vividly rich scenes (in outer space) where living quarters "adapt," and interact with inhabitants, and, more relatable, the machinations of a plutocracy which governs a dwindling US population which drops from 318 million to just 10 million desperate souls.
He, She, and It by Marge Piercy. she wrote it in 1991, but in so many ways it looks more and more like the present.
My own ancestral homeland has already vanished beneath the sea. Rising seas transformed our land over centuries from inland lakes surrounded by forests to reedy marshes, to fjords, and eventually a few islands that were once uplands. Finally, a seafloor landslide triggered a “mega-tsunami” that swept all before it.. Today, our vanished homeland is referred to a “Doggerland”—the lost world that now lies at the bottom of the North Sea
1
Thank yoy for this. I did read several of these. Your readers should have attended at Theater for the New City presentation last spring of a play about Standing Rock/ It was calle "horizon hiccups/hemisphere hemorrhage" & I believe the dramatist was Larry Myers. I know Dr. Myers was part of Standing Rock II at an Amish farm in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. More plays like this need to be done.
I admire thought-provoking science or societal fiction as an excellent tool that rubs against the grain the politically correct Pharisees and awakens the spineless lotus-eaters from slumber and helps them reenter the real world.
Besides that, I think that science fiction will stay what it is -- just fiction.
Besides that, I think that science fiction will stay what it is -- just fiction.
Sea level rise due to melting of ice caps and expansion of water due to increased water temperature is already leading to increased damage from storm surge.
However, if Americans don't care about real damage in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, and most don't, why would they watch shows about fake people?
Wait!
How about "Friday Night Hurricane Lights", a show about Texas high football played during hurricanes as tornadoes circle the stadium?
And then there's "Hurricane Bloodline", a Netflix series about a Florida Keys family that is falling apart...due to the crimes committed by its members as hurricanes and the Zika virus infect their charming little hotel?
However, if Americans don't care about real damage in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, and most don't, why would they watch shows about fake people?
Wait!
How about "Friday Night Hurricane Lights", a show about Texas high football played during hurricanes as tornadoes circle the stadium?
And then there's "Hurricane Bloodline", a Netflix series about a Florida Keys family that is falling apart...due to the crimes committed by its members as hurricanes and the Zika virus infect their charming little hotel?
Well, one of the most powerful books depicting ruinous heat and species extinction for me was A FRIEND OF THE EARTH, by T.C. Boyle, published in 2000. It is set in 2025, which may be a little too soon, but the handwriting is definitely on the wall.
1
Man's "War on the Environment."
The most important war we are fighting.
The only war we are fighting that really matters.
The only war that most people refuse to acknowledge as real.
The most important war we are fighting.
The only war we are fighting that really matters.
The only war that most people refuse to acknowledge as real.
1
eco-fiction.com's database lists a ton of novels like these, over 500, believe it or not--with interviews and author spotlights focusing on what's hot, pardon the pun. I've tried to also include a world view of this literature. This is not a western problem. It's a world problem. And it is being imagined in fiction heartily, in many diverse approaches and genres. I would argue too that plausibility calculated from our current path is only one way of trying to visualize "everything change," that reflection is another (like in the fantasy film Ojka). Sometimes we are so blind that we don't see what's in front of us until it's artistically imagined in such ways that we are blown away, as with storytelling and art.
2
I love the quote where Benjamin Horton says that NYC will protect itself with sea walls and infrastructure. NYC hasn't been able to figure out how to replace bridges and wiring from the early 1900's.
2
Yeah, people write and say these optimistic things, and then the reality is largely much different. For instance, Katrina being chalked up as a FEMA fiasco. New Orleans supposedly having known it needed new sea walls, but not acting. Or what about America's and the world's waiting years and years for renewable power and electric vehicles to be required by governments?
Reading optimistic stuff about climate change could almost make you ask yourself what the heck the person is talking about. It's not true that governments always mess up, but fixing climate change definitely doesn't seem to be a priority of leaders.
Reading optimistic stuff about climate change could almost make you ask yourself what the heck the person is talking about. It's not true that governments always mess up, but fixing climate change definitely doesn't seem to be a priority of leaders.
You left out what Goodreads rates as one of the top ClFi novels -- A Being Darkly Wise.
1
Yes, an important cli-fi novel written by John Atcheson. Read it!
Look, I'm an AGW alarmist. I would like to see a CO2 tax of a dollar a POUND (that's right, not the timid carbon taxes the left and the right generally propose, if any) to give efficient transport like the PHEV, the EV, and even the standard efficient hybrid like the Prius a HUGE boost, via simple economics. (The distortions could be mitigated with a ramping up period, a tax credit for the truly poor for limited transportation FF's, and less income taxes for the middle class, or similar measures).
However, I think that all the claims that a bad several weeks or even year of storms are weak evidence for AGW. They are similar to the weather claim tactics (snowballs, cool spots, etc) of the AGW deniers, and thus shouldn't be used.
Overall global temperature rise for the last several decades, glacier and polar ice decline for decades, accelerating sea level rise for decades, the upward march of GHG concentrations for centuries, etc. are all ample solid proof of AGW, without resorting to speculation. (The credible articles I keep seeing are saying that in the coming decades, overall storm activity is likely to get more violent and frequent. That's a FAR different thing than claiming a bad year or a bad several weeks now is "proof" of AGW.) Meanwhile, the denialists cite the many calm storm years.
When the debate goes from science to cheer leading, please stay off my
"side". AGW is too serious to feed denialists credible arguments against rapid mitigation.
However, I think that all the claims that a bad several weeks or even year of storms are weak evidence for AGW. They are similar to the weather claim tactics (snowballs, cool spots, etc) of the AGW deniers, and thus shouldn't be used.
Overall global temperature rise for the last several decades, glacier and polar ice decline for decades, accelerating sea level rise for decades, the upward march of GHG concentrations for centuries, etc. are all ample solid proof of AGW, without resorting to speculation. (The credible articles I keep seeing are saying that in the coming decades, overall storm activity is likely to get more violent and frequent. That's a FAR different thing than claiming a bad year or a bad several weeks now is "proof" of AGW.) Meanwhile, the denialists cite the many calm storm years.
When the debate goes from science to cheer leading, please stay off my
"side". AGW is too serious to feed denialists credible arguments against rapid mitigation.
4
I happened to be reading my way through "New York 2140", all 600 plus pages of it, during the recent spate of hurricanes (Irma and Maria). While my library classifies it as sci fi, to me it seems pretty plausible. It was interesting to see how the author envisioned NYC after "the floods". Depicting it as a place that still possessed economic value even after being flooded and that many still wanted to live in might not be a stretch. Quite a good read in any case. And worth it to see Robinson take jabs at our financial system with its incomprehensible funds that attempt to assign monetary value to even the valueless.
7
To this list I would add American War by Omar El Akkad. Set in the not-so-distant future, it contemplates a second Civil War, this time over the outlawing of fossil fuels. It mirrors the first Civil War in several troubling ways, not least of which being politically and geographically. Like many of the books on this list, it takes a dystopian and critical look at the social and economic consequences of climate change. Told, powerfully, from the perspective of a 6-year-old girl who grows up first in a half-submerged Louisiana and later in a displacement camp, El Akkad's novel is a pointed reminder that what we do now will impact generations to come.
5
Is Omar El Akkad related to Mustafa Akkad, the Syrian-born Hollywood movie producer, who was killed by a terrorist bomb in Amman, Jordan in 2005?
"I’d ask: Why didn’t we solve the climate problem first?”
A succinct demonstration of one of our biggest problems; experts - who cannot see outside their own field of study.
Why? Look around you. Manifestly, we already have abundant technology that COULD solve ALL of our climate problems. Also manifestly - we, as a species, DO NOT use them for the benefit of our species, or the planet. We use them for profit only - and that behavior is utterly embedded in our current cultural behaviors. Why? Because we don't. And won't.
A succinct demonstration of one of our biggest problems; experts - who cannot see outside their own field of study.
Why? Look around you. Manifestly, we already have abundant technology that COULD solve ALL of our climate problems. Also manifestly - we, as a species, DO NOT use them for the benefit of our species, or the planet. We use them for profit only - and that behavior is utterly embedded in our current cultural behaviors. Why? Because we don't. And won't.
8
The survey within this article is good but the premise framed by the headline is an infuriating sign of exactly what is wrong with our contemporary society and why we cannot face the realities of climate change.
Climate change mitigation and preparation eludes us because there is a complete failure of the imagination at collective level that would generate the political will to affect meaningful change in our society.
In the modern world, the United States in particular, we treat the imagination as a pleasure organ to be tickled and stroked. It is an appetite that capitalism is happy to rush in to meet. But the imagination is much, much more than a pleasure center. It is one of the key faculty of our potential intelligence, a means by which each of us can creatively model and foresee complex, interwoven impacts that include the physical, spiritual, and social.
The imagination is a gift from the divine. And to turn away from the uncomfortable because it now seems plausible is to thumb one's nose at the true potential of that gift. Bravo to any artists who are trying to help train the public's imaginations to more clearly envision what a deeply climate-change affected future may bring at the human scale.
Climate change mitigation and preparation eludes us because there is a complete failure of the imagination at collective level that would generate the political will to affect meaningful change in our society.
In the modern world, the United States in particular, we treat the imagination as a pleasure organ to be tickled and stroked. It is an appetite that capitalism is happy to rush in to meet. But the imagination is much, much more than a pleasure center. It is one of the key faculty of our potential intelligence, a means by which each of us can creatively model and foresee complex, interwoven impacts that include the physical, spiritual, and social.
The imagination is a gift from the divine. And to turn away from the uncomfortable because it now seems plausible is to thumb one's nose at the true potential of that gift. Bravo to any artists who are trying to help train the public's imaginations to more clearly envision what a deeply climate-change affected future may bring at the human scale.
4
You missed a great one: "Heavy Weather" by Bruce Sterling. I read it soon after it was published in 1994, and thought of it again after the recent string of hurricanes. Wow, what a prescient book, in so many ways.
1
The dates might be a little off.
The fantastical interspecies communication
may add a little fictional cheer.
But the primary reason for writing such books
is not to get it right, not to nail it,
but to try on various fictional futures as our present reality
begins to frighten and forewarn us.
There will be no prize for the book
that, in retrospect, proved most true.
Prizes are for the present,
for those who work courageously,
in a thousand ways, to warn us
and to help us see just how beautifully fragile
the actual world we live in is,
and for those who are trying with all their might
and creativity, and heart,
to do what they can,
right now, to protect it.
The fantastical interspecies communication
may add a little fictional cheer.
But the primary reason for writing such books
is not to get it right, not to nail it,
but to try on various fictional futures as our present reality
begins to frighten and forewarn us.
There will be no prize for the book
that, in retrospect, proved most true.
Prizes are for the present,
for those who work courageously,
in a thousand ways, to warn us
and to help us see just how beautifully fragile
the actual world we live in is,
and for those who are trying with all their might
and creativity, and heart,
to do what they can,
right now, to protect it.
3
The human species might very well be the last of nature`s runaway biological experiments. Runaway biology has happened before, but, until now, it always found a way to co-exist with, or even improve on, a livable planet. In fact, it was a runaway biological process that created the oxygen we breathe, opening the door to far richer biology. Our species is shutting close that door. When it is all done, we will have turned our blue planet into a steamy cauldron much like Venus.
5
And BTW, I totally agree with Jonathan Foley: the solutions are 'not as sexy'.