D.A. Baden makes an excellent point when she states, “What I’d really love to see are positive visions of what a flourishing future might look like if we did things right. A vision to give us something to aim towards rather than run away from. I like the thrutopian ideal championed by Manda Scott and Rupert Read and others of using fiction as a space to explore some of the steps by which we can get from where we are now to where we’d like to be.”
I may be less sanguine about any version of utopia, but stories about how we get from the trouble we’re in today to a time where there’s less such trouble strikes me as a matter of basic story-telling and the subject of the climate crisis, with all that is at stake, should be the subject of stories.
I recently posted “Climate Fiction, Optimism, and Realism,” [https://davidguenette.com/climate-fiction-optimism-and-realism/], sparked by an essay in Literary Hub titled "On the Urgency of Climate Change, Creating Hope in a Crisis, and the Limits of Western Storytelling: A Roundtable on Our Climate Futures with Libia Brenda, Vandana Singh, Gu Shi, and Hannah Onoguwe.” The essay captures a number of voices from a new anthology, Climate Imagination: Dispatches from Hopeful Futures that readers of Baden’s post here may find to their liking.
Here's a bit from my own post:
But overall, the thing I’ll be most curious about is not only the grounded aspects of the anthology’s story settings, but whether or not these stories are temporally local, by which I mean near- and mid-futures that reflect the reader’s world. Future worlds are challenging from the writing perspective, but there lies a common problem with climate fiction: worlds decades and centuries past our own time may reflect consequences of climate change and even offer optimistic new worlds that have overcome or adapted to climate change. But, as they reputedly say in Maine, Yuup, you can’t get theyah from heah.
I’m inclined to consider that the most optimistic climate fiction is grounded in the world we recognize as our own but also shows how we can deal with climate change.
Describing a path toward climate progress within a world recognizable to the reader is an act of hope. Fiction grounded in today’s and tomorrow’s world where we live, with all the facts, political realities, societal struggles, business conflicts, household economic anxieties, personal relationships, and all the other big questions, just like in our very own lives, is a story very well worth telling.
I'm right with you. There's a big difference, I think, between being aware of the dangers and the stakes, and becoming intellectually and emotionally trapped by them. Thank you. Off to buy your book.
"I actually feel a bit more positive about the potential of humanity's future - whereby maybe a small number of dedicated people really can change the world for the better (even against strong opposition)."
One of my reviewers, confirming your point about the effects of showing solutions rather than doom.
The word « climate » is problematic, no? It means either « the weather conditions prevailing in an area in general or over a long period » or « the prevailing trend of public opinion or of another aspect of life » and right now the prevailing winds of public opinion seem to be « maybe humans are changing the weather long term, but I can’t do anything about it and have other things to worry about. ».
I spent decades focusing on climate education, communication and outreach and concluded, well, we’re doomed….and some are more doomed than others. Humans have altered not only the global climate system but are triggering a(nother) mass extinction, filling the water with forever chemicals, all while the rich get richer, with wealth concentrated at the very tip of the pyramid, with the top 10% (which includes probably nearly everyone reading this) responsible for half the carbon emissions on the planet…..and AI poised to further pick the pockets of the people of the planet for the tech titans.
Is it hopeless? Who really knows? I, too, find creativity to be the only real antidote to despair, even if it means plunging into the fantasy world building of fiction. In my case, rather than thrutopia, I’ve conjured a « Eautopia » meaning a world in the not too distant future— post collapse (which in my scenario is due to a severe solar storm, which by the way is inevitable)— in which water becomes the organizing principle for survival.
Water is our common denominator— we are mostly water and most living systems (as well as clouds, rivers, lakes, ocean) are fundamentally water bodies. Some even suggest we were invented by water to become aware of itself. Two parts hydrogen, yes, but 88.8% oxygen, the eighth element. This of course is’t the first time water has been used as a sci-fi/cli-fi story. Some of you might remember Stranger in a Strange Land, which coined the concept of « Grok »…. Which unfortunately one of the aforementioned tech titans has stolen from our vocabulary for his own AI ambitions.
So let’s plunge in, get our feet wet and stay fluid. See you all downstream.
You make a good point - if people turn off because of a continuous barrage of 'bad news', then the message becomes lost. But if we sugarcoat everything and pretend that the future is all wonderfully techy and great, then they remain dormant, and it's business as usual. Studying the origins of climate change and Homo sapiens on our planet puts things into perspective. The world will continue to fluctuate between 'hot' and 'cold' for the next 4 to 5 billion years before its physical destruction, irrespective of our behavior. I doubt that Earth will miss Sapiens. The actual crime is the extinction of all the other creatures that we carried over the edge with us....
If you're looking for more stories that present solutions to the climate crisis and have a hopeful tone, I would suggest looking into Solarpunk anthologies. Solarpunk runs on the belief that we can can still save the world.
D.A. Baden makes an excellent point when she states, “What I’d really love to see are positive visions of what a flourishing future might look like if we did things right. A vision to give us something to aim towards rather than run away from. I like the thrutopian ideal championed by Manda Scott and Rupert Read and others of using fiction as a space to explore some of the steps by which we can get from where we are now to where we’d like to be.”
I may be less sanguine about any version of utopia, but stories about how we get from the trouble we’re in today to a time where there’s less such trouble strikes me as a matter of basic story-telling and the subject of the climate crisis, with all that is at stake, should be the subject of stories.
I recently posted “Climate Fiction, Optimism, and Realism,” [https://davidguenette.com/climate-fiction-optimism-and-realism/], sparked by an essay in Literary Hub titled "On the Urgency of Climate Change, Creating Hope in a Crisis, and the Limits of Western Storytelling: A Roundtable on Our Climate Futures with Libia Brenda, Vandana Singh, Gu Shi, and Hannah Onoguwe.” The essay captures a number of voices from a new anthology, Climate Imagination: Dispatches from Hopeful Futures that readers of Baden’s post here may find to their liking.
Here's a bit from my own post:
But overall, the thing I’ll be most curious about is not only the grounded aspects of the anthology’s story settings, but whether or not these stories are temporally local, by which I mean near- and mid-futures that reflect the reader’s world. Future worlds are challenging from the writing perspective, but there lies a common problem with climate fiction: worlds decades and centuries past our own time may reflect consequences of climate change and even offer optimistic new worlds that have overcome or adapted to climate change. But, as they reputedly say in Maine, Yuup, you can’t get theyah from heah.
I’m inclined to consider that the most optimistic climate fiction is grounded in the world we recognize as our own but also shows how we can deal with climate change.
Describing a path toward climate progress within a world recognizable to the reader is an act of hope. Fiction grounded in today’s and tomorrow’s world where we live, with all the facts, political realities, societal struggles, business conflicts, household economic anxieties, personal relationships, and all the other big questions, just like in our very own lives, is a story very well worth telling.
I'm right with you. There's a big difference, I think, between being aware of the dangers and the stakes, and becoming intellectually and emotionally trapped by them. Thank you. Off to buy your book.
Thanks, I hope you enjoy it. If you do, I'd welcome a review: see https://habitatpress.com/best-reader-led-review-sites/
"I actually feel a bit more positive about the potential of humanity's future - whereby maybe a small number of dedicated people really can change the world for the better (even against strong opposition)."
One of my reviewers, confirming your point about the effects of showing solutions rather than doom.
I'm glad. I'm going to the extreme of showing solutions in my next 'Jigsaw Save the World project - see: https://www.dabaden.com/a-20-piece-jigsaw-to-save-the-world/
Thanks for all your comments. For my next project, I'm returning to non-fiction - and a jigsaw. It will begin as linked-In newsletter (subscribe for free here: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/creative-climate-communication-7300475505529540608/) and will end up as a book and an actual jigsaw. Details here: https://www.dabaden.com/a-20-piece-jigsaw-to-save-the-world/
The word « climate » is problematic, no? It means either « the weather conditions prevailing in an area in general or over a long period » or « the prevailing trend of public opinion or of another aspect of life » and right now the prevailing winds of public opinion seem to be « maybe humans are changing the weather long term, but I can’t do anything about it and have other things to worry about. ».
I spent decades focusing on climate education, communication and outreach and concluded, well, we’re doomed….and some are more doomed than others. Humans have altered not only the global climate system but are triggering a(nother) mass extinction, filling the water with forever chemicals, all while the rich get richer, with wealth concentrated at the very tip of the pyramid, with the top 10% (which includes probably nearly everyone reading this) responsible for half the carbon emissions on the planet…..and AI poised to further pick the pockets of the people of the planet for the tech titans.
Is it hopeless? Who really knows? I, too, find creativity to be the only real antidote to despair, even if it means plunging into the fantasy world building of fiction. In my case, rather than thrutopia, I’ve conjured a « Eautopia » meaning a world in the not too distant future— post collapse (which in my scenario is due to a severe solar storm, which by the way is inevitable)— in which water becomes the organizing principle for survival.
Water is our common denominator— we are mostly water and most living systems (as well as clouds, rivers, lakes, ocean) are fundamentally water bodies. Some even suggest we were invented by water to become aware of itself. Two parts hydrogen, yes, but 88.8% oxygen, the eighth element. This of course is’t the first time water has been used as a sci-fi/cli-fi story. Some of you might remember Stranger in a Strange Land, which coined the concept of « Grok »…. Which unfortunately one of the aforementioned tech titans has stolen from our vocabulary for his own AI ambitions.
So let’s plunge in, get our feet wet and stay fluid. See you all downstream.
M
Yes it's creativity which helps to keep me sane too. I'm especially excited about my project for 2026: see: https://www.dabaden.com/a-20-piece-jigsaw-to-save-the-world/
Yes. More “Thrutopian” spec fic. Gonna get on that.
My next project is more non fiction - but also quite fun - see https://www.dabaden.com/a-20-piece-jigsaw-to-save-the-world/
I tried to push for an anthology that was all EcoGrief writings but no luck. We try to live with it but it's so hard.
I feel your pain!
You make a good point - if people turn off because of a continuous barrage of 'bad news', then the message becomes lost. But if we sugarcoat everything and pretend that the future is all wonderfully techy and great, then they remain dormant, and it's business as usual. Studying the origins of climate change and Homo sapiens on our planet puts things into perspective. The world will continue to fluctuate between 'hot' and 'cold' for the next 4 to 5 billion years before its physical destruction, irrespective of our behavior. I doubt that Earth will miss Sapiens. The actual crime is the extinction of all the other creatures that we carried over the edge with us....
Too true, we rarely consider the animals
If you're looking for more stories that present solutions to the climate crisis and have a hopeful tone, I would suggest looking into Solarpunk anthologies. Solarpunk runs on the belief that we can can still save the world.