Imagining the Future of Climate Change: World-Making through Science Fiction and Activism (American Studies Now: Critical Histories of the Present)

American Studies Now: Critical Histories of the Present

by Shelley Streeby

From the 1960s to the present, activists, artists, and science fiction writers have imagined the consequences of climate change and its impacts on our future. Authors such as Octavia Butler and Leslie Marmon Silko, movie directors such as Bong Joon-Ho, and creators of digital media such as the makers of the Maori web series  Anamata Future News  have all envisioned future worlds during and after environmental collapse, engaging audiences to think about the earth’s sustainability. As public awareness of climate change has grown, so has the popularity of works of climate fiction that connect science with activism.

Today, real-world social movements helmed by Indigenous people and people of color are leading the way against the greatest threat to our the fossil fuel industry. Their stories and movements—in the real world and through science fiction—help us all better understand the relationship between activism and culture, and how both can be valuable tools in creating our future.  Imagining the Future of Climate Change  introduces readers to the history and most significant flashpoints in climate justice through speculative fictions and social movements, exploring post-disaster possibilities and the art of world-making.

Genres: Nonfiction, Environment, Politics, Academic, Climate Change, Nature

168 pages, Paperback

Published January 31, 2018

Reviews

[Shonna Siegers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great to look at climate change and activism in a new way. Short and academic, it wouldn’t be interesting for everyone but it was great for a teacher to add new ideas in teaching climate.

[Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay · Rating 5 out of 5]

I guess the only real complaint I have about this book is that it is too short...

[Kayla Connors · Rating 5 out of 5]

Streeby does an excellent job of connecting Indigenous, Black, and other POC authors of science and speculative fiction to ongoing climate activism. She dispells notions of geo-engineering and state intervention as a viable courses for corrective action; instead she points to direct action, mutual aid, and listening to Indigenous science as possible solutions to making our world more equitable and inhabitable for all. Highly reccomended read.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Timely premise, though it consistently pivots away from analysis of the narratives and activists in favor of historical and/or archival summary. For example, rather than (re)documenting the contents of Butler’s archives, why not make clearer arguments about what the interventions they make in cli-fi/environmental discourses?

[Matthew Simmons · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really wonderful look at intersections between climate fiction and activism. It is very descriptive and sets up a good framework for how different works of fiction can help imagine and act in new ways.