Over the last year I have found a new micro-genre of books that I LOVE: Cli-Fi or Climate Fiction. In all of the Cli-Fi books I have read, the author creates a dystopian fictional world in the future based on our very real climate change problems happening now. Whether it’s fires or floods or fog, something caused by humans stops the world as we know it, and humans have to find ways to survive in a new world. I’ve been trying to figure out why I enjoy such dark books. What I appreciate in each story is that the best and the worst of humanity come out, but that good people often rise to the occasion and save the world (however they can). What scares me in each book is how these far-fetched storylines are not-so-far away.

Climate change is real and our entire society is going to have to fight it together to avoid the fates of these Cli-Fi stories. I can recycle, compost, conserve water and energy, and drive my hybrid car, but I alone cannot make the changes needed. No one person can make significant changes. We need corporations and businesses and governments to make global changes. I have nothing new to say on this subject. My end-of-year reflective self is just making a connection between sustainability work and the green schools series I’ve written and a new favorite micro-genre.

Previous post(s) in this green schools series:

• Sustainability Education
• Reflecting on my carbon footprint
• Solar in Schools
• Green Teams
• Green CA Schools and Community College Summit 2020
• Trailblazers for Whole School Sustainability 
• Earth Day 2022

Cli-fi books I’ve enjoyed:

• The Great Transition by Nick Fuller Googins
• Camp Zero by Michelle Min Sterling 
• The Light Pirate by
• Aurora by David Koepp
• Land of Milk and Honey by C. Pam Zhang
• We are Unprepared by Meg Little Reily
• The Displacements by Bruce Holsinger
• Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich
• Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention and How to Think Deeply Again by Johann Hari (This is a nonfiction book that randomly closes with a serious call to action about climate change)
• Clean Air by Sarah Blake
• After the Flood by Kassandra Montag
• The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker