Monday, November 30, 2015

Will a cli-fi novella from 2015, ''THE LAST GENERATION OF MAN,'' originally titled "A Letter to 2499,'' will stand the test of time?

 
 
The short story, THE LAST GENERATION OF MAN, originally titled "A Letter to 2499," written by a cli-fi novelist under a pen name,  is an important one in the sense of confronting a mass international audience with the defining issue of the age. THE LAST GENERATION OF MAN, originally titled "A Letter to 2499," the story of humankind's global warming impact extinction in some future time, is not easy to read.  The author is the first genuinely popular mainstream cli-fi writer to envision the Climapocalypse, and one of only a handful to see the horrific mission through by leaving no survivors -- just a silent  unhabited (by humans) planet, adrift in space. The Earth survives of course, as do some species of fish and insects and reptiles and mammals.

The characters in THE LAST GENERATION OF MAN, originally titled "A Letter to 2499," live in the un-named yet last habitable continent, in 2499 and it's suddenly the most important place on Earth, at the very moment of its greatest impotence and ignorance, awaiting the inexorable end of humankind due to unspeakable global warming impact events 30 generations from now.
Readers today of THE LAST GENERATION OF MAN, originally titled "A Letter to 2499," are of course shocked to see themselves so cast.  Says one reader: "This short story haunted me ... Nowhere was safe. I felt so alone, so unprotected by the adults, who seemed to be unaware of the danger."


But it was in the US and UK that the story had its greatest impact, rousing readers from an uneasy stupor and becoming one of the Anthropocene Age's most powerful cultural artifacts.


Into an eerily somnolent world was THE LAST GENERATION OF MAN, originally titled "A Letter to 2499," published, first at Medium's Mattter website and later on several blogs.
Debate about climate change was underway in the US about future global warming impact events and the short story was indeed full of topicality. The writer appears to be pessimistic. Her story epitomised the apathy and complaisance of the times: thus her observation that man-made global warming had changed "everything except the nature of man".




Advance copies of THE LAST GENERATION OF MAN, originally titled "A Letter to 2499," were sent to a host of politicians, including the US president, and to senior military officials. Some had offered startlingly candid endorsements.


"Every American should read THE LAST GENERATION OF MAN, originally titled "A Letter to 2499,"  said one literary critic. "I hope it is fiction."


Some critics complained that the short story's resolutely depiction of human extinction was unconvincing: people just wouldn't die that way. Yet readers identified readily with the characters' quiet dignity. This conventional short story, a novella almost, about global warming became "the most influential work of its kind for the next quarter of a century and the only one most people ever read" - as one critic  put it - precisely by being simple:
The author directly addresses the most primal fears of the human race which has spent most of its history denying or compensating for the fact of personal death, and does so with a relentlessness which the complex technique of a more sophisticated writer might have muted. For once there are no distractions: no invading aliens, no climate refugee shelters to protect the protagonists, no struggle back from a dreadful post-AGW  barbarism. There are simply a man and a woman reaching the agonizing decision to kill their only child in its crib as the rest of the human race expires round them.



THE LAST GENERATION OF MAN, originally titled "A Letter to 2499," remains devastating, and that the author could dare write a story in 2015 like that concerning what one critic called "the most carefully avoided topic of general significance in the contemporary world" is an astounding achievement.
And how many read have THE LAST GENERATION OF MAN, originally titled "A Letter to 2499"? The short story was the great popular work on the gravest matter besetting civilisation. If it doesn't meet current taste in agitprop, or if the author seems an awkward fit in the liberal pantheon, then perhaps the relevant criteria require review.

https://medium.com/matter/a-letter-to-2499-c0434f963f05#.d487f1fc6

English machine translation of Q and A. interview with Jean-Marc Ligny in La Liberte newspaper in Switzerland (conducted by reporter Thierry Raboud)



"I do pouvaisignorer such a paradigm"

with "Seeds", the French writer Jean-Marc pasionate bishop extended a series of books of anticipation launched climate with Aqua TM It describes a world where humanity is fragmented and weakened cope with the rigors of the terrifying climate. Of what to make of this writer a worthy representative of francophone the "cli-fi", label which he said to accommodate. From when have you worked on climate change? Jean-Marc pasionate bishop: This concept has emerged in my conscience (and as a result, in my work) at the turn of the century, when it began to seep in the media, and that i realized its inevitability. I then understood that the climate change was inevitable, even if you took drastic measures to reduce - which I doubted strongly. Why you have placed at the heart of your recent books? My approach was not to explain the climate change in itself - there is above a very large literature and very explicit - but to imagine its effects on society and on the human conscience. For the first time in the history of mankind, its future was to thus say trace: we were going toward a significant degradation of living conditions on the planet, which would lead to term to a mass extinction of species, including mankind - or at least, of our civilization. As an author of science-fiction, i could not ignore such a paradigm. "Seed" is happening in 2300. On what did you base to make credible this anticipation literary? Has such a distance, we swam in the uncertainty. The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), in its official reports, cannot be doubted not to make long-term forecasts. However, shortly after the writing of Exodus, i had the chance to meet Valerie MassonDelmotte, member of the IPCC and expert in paleo. She gave me a few tips and guidelines, according to his knowledge of past climate changes. And then she offered me to organize a seminar in order to discuss the case of seeds with other specialists of the fauna, flora, the oceans, the atmosphere, etc. We have found ourselves a twenties of eminent scientists to waffle on what could become the planet in three centuries. The bulk of the context of Seed comes from there.

Anticipation -- Le réchauffement climatique
«Je ne pouvaisignorer un tel paradigme»



Avec «Semences», l’écrivain français Jean-Marc Ligny prolonge une série d’ouvrages d’anticipation climatique lancée avec Aqua TM. Il y décrit un monde où l’humanité s’est morcelée et affaiblie face aux rigueurs terrifiantes du climat. De quoi faire de cet écrivain un digne représentant francophone de la «cli-fi», étiquette dont il dit s’accommoder. A partir de quand avez-vous travaillé sur le changement climatique? Jean-Marc Ligny: Cette notion a émergé dans ma conscience (et par suite, dans mon travail) au tournant du siècle, quand elle a commencé à s’infiltrer dans les médias et que je me suis rendu compte de son caractère inéluctable. J’ai alors compris que le changement climatique était inévitable, même si l’on prenait des mesures drastiques pour le réduire – ce dont je doutais fortement. Pourquoi l’avoir placé au cœur de vos récents ouvrages? Ma démarche n’était pas d’expliquer le changement climatique en lui-même – il existe là-dessus une documentation très abondante et très explicite – mais d’imaginer ses effets sur la société et sur la conscience humaine. Pour la première fois dans l’histoire de l’humanité, son avenir était pour ainsi dire tracé: on allait vers une dégradation importante des conditions de vie sur la planète, qui mènerait à terme à une extinction massive des espèces, y compris de l’humanité – ou du moins, de notre civilisation. En tant qu’auteur de science-fiction, je ne pouvais ignorer un tel paradigme. «Semences» se passe en 2300. Sur quoi vous êtes-vous basé pour rendre crédible cette anticipation littéraire? A une telle distance, on nage dans l’incertitude. Le GIEC (Groupe d’experts intergouvernemental sur l’évolution du climat), dans ses rapports officiels, ne se hasarde pas à faire des prévisions à si long terme. Toutefois, peu après l’écriture d’Exodes, j’ai eu la chance de rencontrer Valérie MassonDelmotte, membre du GIEC et experte en paléoclimatologie. Elle m’a donné quelques conseils et orientations, d’après ses connaissances des changements climatiques du passé. Puis elle m’a proposé d’organiser un séminaire afin de discuter du cas de Semences avec d’autres spécialistes de la faune, de la flore, des océans, de l’atmosphère, etc. Nous nous sommes retrouvés une vingtaine d’éminents scientifiques à élucubrer sur ce que pourrait devenir la planète dans trois siècles. L’essentiel du contexte de Semences vient de là.

English machine translation for Thierry Raboud's news article in French in La Liberte culture section in Switzerland

"Mere-Nature is avenged. She burned with lava flows, has poisoned with clouds of sulfur, has been eaten with the rains of acid. She has sunk in the ocean of entire cites, changed of the fertile areas in deserts sterile." In three centuries, climate change requires, the man will have a lot of work to do to survive on a land become inhospitable. At least that is the ominous prophecy of Jean-Marc pasionate bishop, who has just come on the excellent Seeds, a surprising roadmovie survivaliste. The French novelist is not the first to make the upheavals, assumed or proved, of our planetary ecosystem, a powerful dramatic spring. Jules Verne was guided by already, the television series and the Hollywood cinema does not cease to grab the theme (read next page).  "Ecofictions" who, by their symbolic power and their ambition visionary, seem more than ever respond to the concerns of our time, whereas the Paris Conference on the climate (COP21) opens on Monday. Inspire a new trend in 2012, Christian Chelebourg formalised already a critical inventory of these many "mythologies of the end of the world", to the wire for a test abounding. And among the threats flat- etary - genetic mutations or nuclear wars - which these fictions are nourished, the researcher does not omitted the latter, more and more Handwerksordnung: the climate warming. To the point that a new literary genre has recently seen the light of day, the "cli-fi", abbreviation of "climate-fiction".  The neologism is not under the pen of Dan Bloom, an American reporter today retirement. "I used this term the first time on my blog, to describe a film of anticipation on climate change. A word which makes echo to "sci-fi", for science-fiction. From 2013, this term, relayed by an American radio and then by various articles in the press, became popular", explains the septuagenarian, who said he wanted "stimulate, inspire, motivate a new trend among the writers of the world".  There seems to be reached because the kind climate fact Flores, especially in the English language, door by major authors such as Ian McEwan (with Solar), Kim Stanley Robinson (Sixty days and counting) or even Margaret Atwood (MaddAddam).  France is puts slowly with a few authors such as Claude Ecken (The season of anger) or Jean-Marc pasionate bishop (read below).  "There are still examples of authors German, Finnish, Norwegian, Icelandic or Spaniards", said Adeline Johns-Putra , professor of literature at the University of Surrey and former chairman of the English section of the Association for the study of the literature and of the environment. An association, born in the course of 1990, which deals in the world the torch academic of the "ecocritique", a current of literary criticism sensitive to environmental thematic. "The writers have taken their time to discuss the climate change", continues the specialist. "Probably because publishers, until recently, did not consider as a theme of importance. Even a major writer as Kim Stanley Robinson has had much to do to convince his editor to publish his trilogy on climate change." For it, some 100 to 150 current authors, all languages combined, could be rewarded to the label "cli-fi", "a number called to progress".  Dan Bloom would say the same. For him, no doubt about it: climate change is "the existential threat the most important to which the human species have never been confronted".  Transform this anguish in contemporary fiction would thus be a means to better apprehend. This is also the opinion of Marc Atallah, director of the House of elsewhere in Yverdon, for which the extrapolations based on the climate issue make this future credible in the eyes of the reader, but serve mainly to give concrete expression to this notion. "By showing the climate catastrophe but also its symbolic, this literature is investing emotionally a reality quite abstract. These texts are used to multiply the representations alternative to those, poor and uniforms, which exist on the climate change", he pointed out.

What promote a of global awareness? "No, the literature of anticipation has no vocation instructive, it assumes an awareness prior to the reading", for Marc Atallah. And Adeline Johns-Putra to abound: "While the propaganda seeks to influence the spirits, good literature suggests. The writers can especially change things indirectly, by inspiring and provoking the debate." No doubt that books freshly labelled "cli-fi" will continue long to feed the discussions on climate change. "The question is in the minds of all, even unconsciously, concludes Dan Bloom. It is in the air!" A air which, inexorably, to re- heated. And ca, unfortunately, this is not a fiction.

FRENCH ORIGINAL TEXT:

«Mère-Nature s’est vengée. Elle les a brûlés avec des flots de lave, les a empoisonnés avec des nuages de soufre, les a rongés avec des pluies d’acide. Elle a englouti dans l’océan des cités entières, changé des régions fertiles en déserts stériles.» Dans trois siècles, changement climatique oblige, l’homme aura fort à faire pour survivre sur une Terre devenue inhospitalière. C’est du moins la prophétie inquiétante de Jean-Marc Ligny, qui vient de sortir l’excellent Semences, un étonnant roadmovie survivaliste. Le romancier français n’est pas le premier à faire des dérèglements, supposés ou avérés, de notre écosystème planétaire, un puissant ressort dramatique. Jules Verne s’en inspirait déjà, les séries télévisées et le cinéma hollywoodien ne cessent d’empoigner la thématique (lire page suivante). Des «écofictions» qui, par leur puissance symbolique et leur ambition visionnaire, semblent plus que jamais répondre aux préoccupations de notre temps, alors que la Conférence de Paris sur le climat (COP21) s’ouvre lundi. Inspirer une nouvelle tendance En 2012, Christian Chelebourg dressait déjà un inventaire critique de ces nombreuses «mythologies de la fin du monde», au fil d’un essai foisonnant. Et parmi les menaces plané- taires – mutations génétiques ou guerres nucléaires – dont ces fictions se nourrissent, le chercheur n’omettait pas celle-ci, de plus en plus prégnante: le réchauffement climatique. Au point qu’un nouveau genre littéraire a récemment vu le jour, la «cli-fi», abréviation de «climate-fiction». Le néologisme est né sous la plume de Dan Bloom, un reporter américain aujourd’hui retraité. «J’ai utilisé ce terme la première fois sur mon blog, pour décrire un film d’anticipation sur le changement climatique. Un mot qui fait écho à «sci-fi», pour science-fiction. A partir de 2013, ce terme, relayé par une radio américaine puis par diffé- rents articles de presse, est devenu populaire», explique le septuagénaire, qui dit avoir voulu «stimuler, inspirer, motiver une nouvelle tendance chez les écrivains du monde entier». Il semble y être parvenu car le genre climatique fait florès, surtout en langue anglaise, porté par des auteurs majeurs comme Ian McEwan (avec Solar), Kim Stanley Robinson (Sixty days and Counting) ou encore Margaret Atwood (MaddAddam). La France s’y met lentement avec quelques auteurs comme Claude Ecken (La Saison de la colère) ou Jean-Marc Ligny (lire ci-contre). «Il y a encore des exemples d’auteurs allemands, finlandais, norvégiens, islandais ou espagnols», précise Adeline Johns-Putra, professeur de littérature à l’Université de Surrey et ancienne présidente de la section anglaise de l’Association pour l’étude de la litté- rature et de l’environnement. Une association, née au cours des années 1990, qui porte dans le monde entier le flambeau académique de l’«écocritique», un courant de critique littéraire sensible aux thématiques environnementales. «Les écrivains ont pris leur temps pour évoquer le changement climatique», continue la spécialiste. «Probablement car les éditeurs, jusqu’à récemment, ne le considéraient pas comme un thème d’importance. Même un écrivain majeur comme Kim Stanley Robinson a eu fort à faire pour convaincre son éditeur de publier sa trilogie sur le changement climatique.» Pour elle, quelque 100 à 150 auteurs actuels, toutes langues confondues, pourraient être gratifiés de l’étiquette «cli-fi», «un nombre appelé à progresser». Ce n’est pas Dan Bloom qui dira le contraire. Pour lui, pas de doute: le changement climatique est «la menace existentielle la plus importante à laquelle les espèces humaines aient jamais été confrontées». Transformer cette angoisse contemporaine en fiction serait ainsi un moyen de mieux l’appréhender. C’est aussi l’avis de Marc Atallah, directeur de la Maison d’Ailleurs à Yverdon, pour qui les extrapolations à partir de la question climatique rendent ce futur crédible aux yeux du lecteur, mais servent surtout à concrétiser cette notion. «En montrant la catastrophe climatique mais aussi sa symbolique, cette littérature investit émotionnellement une réalité assez abstraite. Ces textes permettent de multiplier les représentations alternatives à celles, pauvres et uniformes, qui existent sur le changement climatique», souligne-t-il.

De quoi favoriser une prise de conscience globale? «Non, la littérature d’anticipation n’a pas de vocation instructive, elle suppose une prise de conscience antérieure à la lecture», pour Marc Atallah. Et Adeline Johns-Putra d’abonder: «Alors que la propagande cherche à influencer les esprits, la bonne littérature donne à penser. Les écrivains peuvent surtout changer les choses indirectement, en inspirant et provoquant le débat.» Nul doute que les ouvrages fraîchement étiquetés «cli-fi» continueront longtemps à nourrir les discussions sur le changement climatique. «La question est dans tous les esprits, même de manière inconsciente, conclut Dan Bloom. C’est dans l’air!» Un air qui, inexorablement, se ré- chauffe. Et ça, ce n’est malheureusement pas de la fiction.

"Vi racconto come vivremo l’incubo del surriscaldamento" -- Cli-Fi in Italian literature: an interview with Bruno Arpaia (TRANSLATION HERE)

Bruno Arpaia: «Vi racconto come vivremo l’incubo del surriscaldamento»

 
(TRANSLATION HERE)
 
"I will tell how we are living the nightmare of global warming."
di Elisa Cozzarini
 
 Città sommerse dall'acqua, paesaggi desertificati, alluvioni, siccità, scenari apocalittici fanno da sfondo ai libri di cli-fi, un genere letterario nato nell'ambito...

Cities submerged by the water, landscapes which are desertified, floods, drought, apocalyptic scenarios form the backdrop to the books of cli-fi, a literary genre was born in the context ...

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by Elisa Cozzarini in ITALY
(c) 2015

Città sommerse dall'acqua, paesaggi desertificati, alluvioni, siccità, scenari apocalittici fanno da sfondo ai libri di cli-fi, un genere letterario nato nell'ambito della fantascienza, oggi ormai diventato autonomo e molto popolare tra i lettori più giovani nel mondo anglosassone. La definizione è stata coniata dallo scrittore e giornalista nordamericano Dan Bloom nel 2008. Facendo adesso una ricerca su Amazon, si trovano oltre duemila titoli che rispondono alla classificazione di cli-fi.

Tra gli autori più noti, ci sono la canadese Margaret Atwood e l'inglese Ian McEwan. Costruiscono probabili mondi futuri da incubo, fanno vivere ai lettori l'esperienza di una vita quotidiana stravolta dalla catastrofe del surriscaldamento globale. Cercano di scuotere l'opinione pubblica e portare i governi a misure radicali per arrestare il cambiamento climatico. Tentano, con la letteratura, di fare la loro parte per salvare il pianeta.

In Italia, il primo a sposare il genere della climate fiction è Bruno Arpaia, scrittore, giornalista e traduttore di letteratura spagnola e sudamericana. Il suo prossimo romanzo, "Qualcosa, là fuori", che uscirà per Guanda ad aprile 2016, è ambientato in un'Italia completamente desertificata e in una Germania dove d'inverno la pioggia è incessante e d'estate manca l'acqua. Sentiamo che cosa ci racconta a proposito della scelta di questo filone letterario.

Cities submerged by the water, landscapes which are desertified, floods, drought, apocalyptic scenarios form the backdrop to the books of cli-fi, a literary genre was born in the context of science fiction, today has become an autonomous and very popular among the readers more young people in the English-speaking world. The definition was coined by writer and journalist north american Dan Bloom in 2008. Now doing a search on Amazon, there are more than two thousand titles that meet the classification of cli-fi.

Among the authors more known, we are the canadian Margaret Atwood and the english Ian McEwan. Build probable future worlds from nightmare, live readers the experience of a daily life disrupted by the catastrophe of global warming. Trying to shake the public opinion and lead governments to radical measures to halt climate change. Try, with the literature, to do their part to save the planet.

In Italy, the first to marry the kind of climate fiction and Bruno Arpaia, writer, journalist and translator of Spanish literature and south American. His next novel, "Something, the outside", which will be released for Guanda to April 2016, is set in an Italy desertificata completely and in a Germany where in winter the rain is incessant and summer is missing the water. We feel that what she tells us about the choice of this literary genre.

Bruno Arpaia, come si inseriscono gli scrittori di cli-fi in un dibattito pubblico dove c'è sempre poco spazio per i cambiamenti climatici?

«In "Solar", romanzo di Ian McEwan che rientra nella climate fiction, la compagna del protagonista dichiara che prendere sul serio il surriscaldamento globale significherebbe non pensare ad altro, per la gravità degli scenari che si configurano. Da un lato, quindi, è un argomento così terrificante che si fa fatica a parlarne. Il cambiamento climatico, a cui ora si aggiunge il terrorismo, rappresenta la grande paura della nostra epoca, come la bomba atomica è stata il terrore del Novecento. Ma dall'altro lato è un argomento poco presente nel dibattito pubblico, perché si fa fatica a trattarlo. Infatti, se il 99,5% degli scienziati concorda ormai che la causa dell'innalzamento della temperatura della Terra sia dovuta all'intervento dell'uomo, non ci sono strumenti che permettano una previsione chiara di ciò che accadrà. Molte variabili sono sconosciute, come i movimenti profondi dei mari, cose talmente grandi da sfuggire alla nostra comprensione. Ci sono, però, studi e modelli che permettono di immaginare un mondo probabile futuro. Rispetto alla fantascienza, quindi, la climate fiction costruisce contesti che potrebbero davvero verificarsi, si fonda su basi scientifiche. Leggendo, impari, entri in un mondo che potrebbe essere il nostro tra sessant'anni, se non si farà niente».

Bruno Arpaia, how do I insert the writers of the cli-fi in a public debate where there is always a little space for climate change?

"In "Solar", novel by Ian McEwan that falls within the climate fiction, the companion of the protagonist declares that take seriously the global warming would not think of anything else, for the severity of the scenarios that you configure. On the one hand, then, is a topic so terrifying that it is difficult to talk about it. Climate change, and now it adds terrorism, is the great fear of our age, as the atomic bomb was the terror of the Twentieth Century. But, on the other hand, is a topic a little present in the public debate, because it is hard to treat it. In fact, if the 99.5 % of the scientists now agree that the cause of the rise in temperature of the Earth is due to the intervention of man, there are no tools that enable a clear prediction of what will happen. Many variables are unknown, as the movements deep seas, things so great that escape our understanding. There are, however, studies and models that allow us to imagine a world likely future. With respect to science fiction, then, the climate fiction builds contexts that could really happen, it is based on a scientific basis. By reading, you learn, you are entering a world that might be our between sixty years, if nothing is done".

Oggi inizia a Parigi la 21.a Conferenza Onu sul clima. L'obiettivo dei 195 Stati presenti è raggiungere un accordo che permetta di limitare l'innalzamento della temperatura globale a 2°C. Ci sono molte aspettative attorno a questo appuntamento, cosa ne pensa?
«Mi auguro che si concluda un accordo ambizioso, ma sapp. iamo già che sarà al di sotto di quel che servirebbe per un cambiamento radicale. Molti scienziati ormai pensano che lo scenario delineato dagli esperti dell'Ipcc, il Gruppo intergovernativo dell'Onu, sia ottimistico. Per esempio non si tiene conto degli effetti dello scioglimento del permafrost, con la liberazione del metano, che è ventidue volte più riscaldante dell'anidride carbonica. Ecco perché il limite del surriscaldamento di 2°C appare arbitrario, una convenzione senza una base certa. Nessuno ci assicura che alcuni processi irreversibili non siano già iniziati. Molti scienziati prevedono che lo scioglimento dei ghiacci potrebbe portare a un innalzamento del livello dei mari dai 12 agli 80 metri, con un aumento delle temperature di 6°C nel 2100. Sottolineo che ciò potrebbe accadere se non si agisse da subito».

Begins today in Paris the 21.a UN Conference on climate change. The goal of 195 States present and reach an agreement that allows to limit the rise in global temperature at 2 °C.  There are many expectations about this appointment, what do you think?
"I hope that you will conclude an ambitious agreement, but sapp. e are already which will be below that which would be used for a radical change. Many scientists now think that the scenario outlined by the experts of the IPCC, the intergovernmental group of the UN, is optimistic. For example does not take into account the effects of the melting of permafrost, with the release of methane, which is twenty times more heating of the carbon dioxide. That is why the limit of the overheating of 2 °C appears arbitrary, a convention without a basis. Nobody assures us that some irreversible processes are not already begun. Many scientists predict that the melting ice caps could lead to a rise in sea level from 12 to 80 meters, with an increase in temperatures of 6 °C in 2100. I stress that this could happen if you do not act immediately".

La letteratura può avere un peso nello smuovere le coscienze. Quale potrebbe essere la chiave del cambiamento?
«Nelle nostre democrazie, a tutti i livelli, dai governi degli Stati a quelli delle città, i politici non sono in grado di guardare a un orizzonte lontano, sono troppo concentrati a farsi rieleggere. Riconoscere l'urgenza di agire contro il cambiamento climatico, invece, significherebbe adottare misure drastiche, anche impopolari, che non porterebbero consensi a breve termine. È soprattutto in questo senso che la letteratura può avere un ruolo importante, facendo vivere l'esperienza di un universo stravolto al lettore. Sentendosi parte di una storia, si ha una percezione più precisa, più forte, di quello che potrebbe accadere. La conoscenza di questi scenari attraverso il nostro lato emozionale, che è il più impattante, può dare davvero una scossa all'opinione pubblica e portare a una pressione sui governi per l'adozione di misure lungimiranti, per evitare gli scenari peggiori».

The literature may have a weight in touch consciences. What could be the key to change?
"In our democracies, at all levels, by the governments of the States in the cities, the politicians are not able to look to a far horizon, are too concentrated in being re-elected. Recognizing the urgency to act against climate change, on the other hand, would take drastic measures, even unpopular, that would not lead plaudits in the short term. IT IS especially in this sense that the literature can have an important role, doing live the experience of a universe upset to the reader. Feeling part of a story, it has a more accurate perception, stronger, what could happen. The knowledge of these scenarios through our emotional side, which is the most impacting, can really bring a shock to the public, and lead to pressure on governments to adopt measures far-sighted, to avoid the worst-case scenarios".

Come ha costruito l'ambientazione del suo romanzo?
«È un mondo angosciante, ma realistico, che ho ricavato dalle previsioni degli scienziati. Tra sessanta, settant'anni, potrebbe davvero essere questo il futuro e una vita come la intendiamo noi oggi sarebbe possibile solo attorno al Circolo polare artico, in Scandinavia, Siberia, Groenlandia, Canada. Ho letto gli studi di James Hansen, uno dei guru del cambiamento climatico, tra i primi alla Nasa a prevedere i rischi del surriscaldamento del pianeta, e i documenti dell'Earth science department (Dipartimento di Scienza della Terra) dell'Università di Oxford. Questo libro è in continuità con la mia linea di scrivere romanzi che hanno al centro la scienza, un territorio affascinante, misterioso, avvincente per il lettore».

As he has built the setting of his novel?
"It's a world agonizing, but realistic, that i have derived from scientists predict. Between sixty and seventy years, could really be this the future and a life as we know it today would only be possible around the Arctic Circle in Scandinavia, Siberia, Greenland, Canada. I have read the studies of James Hansen, one of the guru of climate change, among the first to Nasa to predict the risk of global warming, and the documents of the Earth science department (Department of Earth Science) of the University of Oxford. This book is in continuity with my line to write novels that have at the center, the science, a fascinating area, mysterious, compelling to the reader".

Mentre narrava queste vicende, si è immedesimato nei suoi personaggi, sentendo su di sé gli effetti del cambiamento climatico?
«Quando scrivi sei nella testa dei tuoi personaggi, dunque sì, mi sentivo angosciato, assetato, sognavo anch'io la salvezza, come loro. Scrivere è un processo in cui impari sempre qualcosa, è una scoperta. Ho visto le mangrovie dalle parti di Amburgo, passeggiando con uno dei miei personaggi, ho fatto l'esperienza di come potrebbe essere un mondo così. Per la prima volta ho scritto in un tempo compresso, soli tre mesi, mentre tutti gli altri miei libri hanno avuto una gestazione di anni. Sono partito da un'immagine che avevo in testa da vent'anni, di una grande migrazione, l'ho unita alle letture sul cambiamento climatico e mi sono immaginato questo mondo.
Sentivo quest'esigenza, all'inizio non sapevo nemmeno che esistesse questo trend letterario. Perché è proprio vero, come dice il personaggio di "Solar", che il cambiamento climatico sembra qualcosa di troppo grande per pensarci, ma dopotutto è importante farlo».

While narrated these vicissitudes, and enthralled by its characters, and hearing on whether the effects of climate change?
"When you write you're in the head of your characters, so yes, i felt anguish, the thirsty, I dreamed I too the salvation, as their. Writing is a process wherein you learn something, and a discovery. I saw the mangroves from parts of Hamburg, walking with one of my characters, i have had the experience of how it could be a world so. For the first time i have written in a time compressed, just three months, while all my other books have had a gestation period of years. I went from an image i had in mind for the past twenty years, a great migration, i drive to the readings on climate change and i have imagined this world.

I felt this need, at the beginning does not even know that there was this literary trend. Because it is really true, as says the character of "Solar", that climate change seems to be something too great to think about it, but after all, it is important to do so".
©RIPRODUZIONE RISERVATA 2015


From India with cli-fi love: ‘క్లై ఫై’తో ప్రళయమా ? న్యూఢిల్లీ: క్లైమేట్ ఛేంజ్...భూతాపోన్నతి పెరిగి ప్రపంచంలో సంభవించే పెను మార్పులు. నేటి ‘వైఫై’ యుగంలో క్లైమేట్ ఛేంజ్‌ను ‘క్లైఫై’ అని పిలుస్తున్నారు. తైవాన్‌లోని బ్లాగర్ డాన్ బ్లూమ్ 2007లో ఈ పదాన్ని కాయిన్ చేశారు. ఇది 2013 నుంచి బాగా ప్రచారంలోకి వచ్చింది. బ్లాగ్‌లు, వార్తా పత్రికలు, నవలల్లో ఎప్పటి నుంచో భూతాపోన్నతి పెరగడం పట్ల చర్చోపచర్చలు కొనసాగుతున్నాయి. ఫిక్షన్ కథలు వెలువడుతున్నాయి. ఇదే అంశంపై దేశ, దేశాధినేతలు కూడా సుదీర్ఘకాలంగా

http://www.sakshi.com/news/international/how-cli-fi-novels-humanise-the-science-of-climate-change-294533

"Cli-Fi disaster?
November 30, 2015

Sakshi is a Telugu media site. Telugu is a language spoken in Andhra Pradesh, INDIAand part of e southern group of Indian languages.



New Delhi: Climate Change ... bhutaponnati up major changes occurring in the world. In today's "Wi-Fi" Climate Change in the era of 'klaiphai' is called. Taiwan blogger Dan Bloom coin the term was in 2007. It was promoted as from 2013. Blogs, newspapers, novels, a long-time debates, continues to grow bhutaponnati. There is fiction stories. In the same issue of the country, heads of state, even long conferences, meetings are maintained.
In a way, the Bible, from the period of the floods bhutaponnati Negotiations are underway as a result of the formulation. Where is alternately cast catterpillar still there. Rio, in 1992, an international agreement between nations, between nations, was to reduce bhutaponnati. Also today is not going to run any aspect of it. Reviewing the treaty of the Convention and thus began in Paris on Monday.
 

Earlier, on Cly 'What is that? What are its consequences? How to block them? Literates and illiterates, to the puzzling question of more people!
పరిశ్రమలు, వాహనాల నుంచి వెలువడే కార్బన ఉద్గారాల వల్ల భూతాపోన్నతి పెరుగుతోందని, ఫలితంగా రుతుక్రమాలు గతి తప్పుతాయని, ఒక ప్రాంతంలో వర్షాలు అధికంగా పడి వరదలు  సంభవిస్తే, మరో ప్రాంతంలో వర్షపు చినుకు కూడా పడకుండా దుర్భర కరువు పరిస్థితులు దాపురిస్తాయని, భూతాపోన్నతి కారణంగా ధ్రువాల్లో మంచు కొండలు కరిగిపోయి జల ప్రళయం వస్తుందని, భూపొరల్లో మార్పులు వచ్చి అగ్ని పర్వతాలు బద్ధలై ప్రళయ భీకరాన్నిసృష్టిస్తాయని, సకాలంలో సరైన చర్యలు తీసుకోకపోతే ఏదో ఒకరోజు భూగోళంపై సమస్త జీవరాశి నశిస్తుందని స్థూలంగా సామాన్యులకున్న అవగాహన.






‘క్లై ఫై’తో ప్రళయమా ?
Others | Updated: November 30, 2015      
‘క్లై ఫై’తో ప్రళయమా ?
న్యూఢిల్లీ: క్లైమేట్ ఛేంజ్...భూతాపోన్నతి పెరిగి ప్రపంచంలో సంభవించే పెను మార్పులు. నేటి ‘వైఫై’ యుగంలో క్లైమేట్ ఛేంజ్‌ను ‘క్లైఫై’ అని పిలుస్తున్నారు. తైవాన్‌లోని బ్లాగర్ డాన్ బ్లూమ్ 2007లో ఈ పదాన్ని కాయిన్ చేశారు. ఇది 2013 నుంచి బాగా ప్రచారంలోకి వచ్చింది. బ్లాగ్‌లు, వార్తా పత్రికలు, నవలల్లో ఎప్పటి నుంచో భూతాపోన్నతి పెరగడం పట్ల చర్చోపచర్చలు కొనసాగుతున్నాయి. ఫిక్షన్ కథలు వెలువడుతున్నాయి. ఇదే అంశంపై దేశ, దేశాధినేతలు కూడా సుదీర్ఘకాలంగా సదస్సులు, సమావేశాలు నిర్వహిస్తూనే ఉన్నారు.

ఒక విధంగా చెప్పాలంటే బైబిల్‌లో పేర్కొన్న వరదలు కూడా భూతాపోన్నతి కారణంగానే అన్న సూత్రీకరణల కాలం నుంచే చర్చలు కొనసాగుతున్నాయి. అయినా ఇప్పటికీ ఎక్కడ వేసిన గొంగలి అక్కడే చందంగా ఉంది. రియోలో 1992లో ప్రపంచ దేశాల మధ్య భూతాపోన్నతి తగ్గించేందుకు ప్రపంచ దేశాల మధ్య అంతర్జాతీయ ఒప్పందం జరిగింది. దానిలో ఏ అంశం కూడా నేడు అమలు కావడం లేదు. అందుకే సోమవారం పారిస్‌లో ప్రారంభమైన సదస్సు ప్రధానంగా నాటి ఒప్పందాన్నే సమీక్షిస్తోంది.

 ఇంతకు ‘క్లై ఫై’ అంటే ఏమిటి? దాని పరిణామాలు ఎలా ఉంటాయి? వాటిని అడ్డుకోవడం ఎట్లా? నిరక్షరాస్యుల నుంచి అక్షరాస్యుల వరకు ఎక్కువ మందికి అంతు చిక్కని ప్రశ్నే! పరిశ్రమలు, వాహనాల నుంచి వెలువడే కార్బన ఉద్గారాల వల్ల భూతాపోన్నతి పెరుగుతోందని, ఫలితంగా రుతుక్రమాలు గతి తప్పుతాయని, ఒక ప్రాంతంలో వర్షాలు అధికంగా పడి వరదలు  సంభవిస్తే, మరో ప్రాంతంలో వర్షపు చినుకు కూడా పడకుండా దుర్భర కరువు పరిస్థితులు దాపురిస్తాయని, భూతాపోన్నతి కారణంగా ధ్రువాల్లో మంచు కొండలు కరిగిపోయి జల ప్రళయం వస్తుందని, భూపొరల్లో మార్పులు వచ్చి అగ్ని పర్వతాలు బద్ధలై ప్రళయ భీకరాన్నిసృష్టిస్తాయని, సకాలంలో సరైన చర్యలు తీసుకోకపోతే ఏదో ఒకరోజు భూగోళంపై సమస్త జీవరాశి నశిస్తుందని స్థూలంగా సామాన్యులకున్న అవగాహన.

 అందుకనే భూతాపోన్నతి పరిణామాలపై ఎన్నో హాలివుడ్ సినిమాలు, దాదాపు 150 నవలలు వచ్చాయి. 1976లో ‘హీట్’ అనే నవలను ఆర్థర్ హెర్జోగా రాశారు. ‘ది సన్ అండ్ ది సమ్మర్’ అనే నవలను జార్జ్ టర్నర్ 1987లో రాశారు. మ్యాగీ గీ, టీసీ బోయల్, అట్వూడ్, మైఖేల్ క్రిక్టాన్, బార్బర కింగ్‌సాల్వర్, ఐయాన్ మ్యాక్‌ఎవాన్, కిమ్ స్టాన్లే రాబిన్సన్, ఐజా త్రోజనోవ్, జీనెట్ వింటర్‌సన్ లాంటి రచియతలతోపాటు వర్ధమాన రచయితలు  స్టీవెన్ ఆమ్‌స్టర్‌డామ్, ఎడన్ లెపుకీ, జాన్ రాసన్, నిథానియల్ రిచ్ లాంటి వారు పలు రచనలు చేశారు.  వీరి రచనల కారణంగానైతేనేమీ, హాలివుడ్ సినిమాలు, పత్రికలు, ఇతర మీడియా మాధ్యమాల వల్లనైతేనేమీ భూతాపోన్నతిపై చర్చలు జరుగుతున్నా అభివృద్ధి చెందిన దేశాలు, వర్ధమాన దేశాల మధ్య సయోధ్య కుదరక భూతాపోన్నతి అరికట్టే చర్యలు ముందుకు సాగడం లేదు.

అమెరికా, చైనా లాంటి అగ్ర దేశాలే కర్బన ఉద్గారాలకు ఎక్కువ కారణమవుతున్నాయని, వాటితో సమానంగా చర్యల ప్రమాణాలను తమకు సూచిస్తే ఎట్లా ? అని వర్ధమాన దేశాలు ప్రశ్నిస్తూ వస్తున్నాయి. పరిశ్రమలు, వాహనాల నుంచి వెలువడే కర్బన ఉద్గారాల వల్లనే భూతాపోన్నతి పెరగడం లేదు. అడవుల విస్తరణ తరిగి పోవడం, ఖనిజ సంపద కోసం గనుల తవ్వకాలు జరపడం, రాళ్లు, కంకర కోసం పర్వతాలను మట్టి కరిపించడం,  నదీ జలాల ప్రవాహాన్ని భారీ డ్యామ్‌లతో అరికట్టడం, వాటిని ప్రకృతికి విరుద్ధంగా తరలించడం కూడా ప్రధాన కారణాలే.

When the Wrap in Hollywood speaks, the world listens: a 1993 CBS-TV movie led the way on cli-fi movies in Hollywood and more to come!


http://www.thewrap.com/climate-change-cbs-tv-movie-predict-craig-nelson-bonnie-bedelia-fire-next-time/


When the Wrap in Hollywood speaks, the world listens: a 1993 CBS-TV movie led the way on cli-fi movies in Hollywood and more to come!

BUT of course the rightwing climate denialists like Marc Morano immediately picked up this article and started mocking it: http://www.climatedepot.com/2015/11/30/wacky-claim-how-a-1993-craig-t-nelson-tv-movie-predicted-the-climate-debate/

Wacky Claim: ‘How a 1993 Craig T. Nelson TV Movie Predicted the Climate Debate’


Read more: http://www.climatedepot.com/2015/11/30/wacky-claim-how-a-1993-craig-t-nelson-tv-movie-predicted-the-climate-debate/#ixzz3t2i50M5x

Will a cli-fi from 2015, LAST GENERATION OF MAN originally Letter to 2499, stand the test of time? 

Anticipation.Le réchauffement climatique et Cli-Fi - en francais by THIERRY RABOUD in laliberte.cn a la Suisse

«Je ne pouvaisignorer un tel paradigme»



Avec «Semences», l’écrivain français Jean-Marc Ligny prolonge une série d’ouvrages d’anticipation climatique lancée avec Aqua TM. Il y décrit un monde où l’humanité s’est morcelée et affaiblie face aux rigueurs terrifiantes du climat. De quoi faire de cet écrivain un digne représentant francophone de la «cli-fi», étiquette dont il dit s’accommoder. A partir de quand avez-vous travaillé sur le changement climatique? Jean-Marc Ligny: Cette notion a émergé dans ma conscience (et par suite, dans mon travail) au tournant du siècle, quand elle a commencé à s’infiltrer dans les médias et que je me suis rendu compte de son caractère inéluctable. J’ai alors compris que le changement climatique était inévitable, même si l’on prenait des mesures drastiques pour le réduire – ce dont je doutais fortement. Pourquoi l’avoir placé au cœur de vos récents ouvrages? Ma démarche n’était pas d’expliquer le changement climatique en lui-même – il existe là-dessus une documentation très abondante et très explicite – mais d’imaginer ses effets sur la société et sur la conscience humaine. Pour la première fois dans l’histoire de l’humanité, son avenir était pour ainsi dire tracé: on allait vers une dégradation importante des conditions de vie sur la planète, qui mènerait à terme à une extinction massive des espèces, y compris de l’humanité – ou du moins, de notre civilisation. En tant qu’auteur de science-fiction, je ne pouvais ignorer un tel paradigme. «Semences» se passe en 2300. Sur quoi vous êtes-vous basé pour rendre crédible cette anticipation littéraire? A une telle distance, on nage dans l’incertitude. Le GIEC (Groupe d’experts intergouvernemental sur l’évolution du climat), dans ses rapports officiels, ne se hasarde pas à faire des prévisions à si long terme. Toutefois, peu après l’écriture d’Exodes, j’ai eu la chance de rencontrer Valérie MassonDelmotte, membre du GIEC et experte en paléoclimatologie. Elle m’a donné quelques conseils et orientations, d’après ses connaissances des changements climatiques du passé. Puis elle m’a proposé d’organiser un séminaire afin de discuter du cas de Semences avec d’autres spécialistes de la faune, de la flore, des océans, de l’atmosphère, etc. Nous nous sommes retrouvés une vingtaine d’éminents scientifiques à élucubrer sur ce que pourrait devenir la planète dans trois siècles. L’essentiel du contexte de Semences vient de là. TR > Jean-Marc Ligny, Semences,
Anticipation.Le réchauffement climatique dérègle notre écosystème,mais inspire aussi un nouveau genre littéraire. THIERRY RABOUD «Mère-Nature s’est vengée. Elle les a brûlés avec des flots de lave, les a empoisonnés avec des nuages de soufre, les a rongés avec des pluies d’acide. Elle a englouti dans l’océan des cités entières, changé des régions fertiles en déserts stériles.» Dans trois siècles, changement climatique oblige, l’homme aura fort à faire pour survivre sur une Terre devenue inhospitalière. C’est du moins la prophétie inquiétante de Jean-Marc Ligny, qui vient de sortir l’excellent Semences, un étonnant roadmovie survivaliste. Le romancier français n’est pas le premier à faire des dérèglements, supposés ou avérés, de notre écosystème planétaire, un puissant ressort dramatique. Jules Verne s’en inspirait déjà, les séries télévisées et le cinéma hollywoodien ne cessent d’empoigner la thématique (lire page suivante). Des «écofictions» qui, par leur puissance symbolique et leur ambition visionnaire, semblent plus que jamais répondre aux préoccupations de notre temps, alors que la Conférence de Paris sur le climat (COP21) s’ouvre lundi. Inspirer une nouvelle tendance En 2012, Christian Chelebourg dressait déjà un inventaire critique de ces nombreuses «mythologies de la fin du monde», au fil d’un essai foisonnant. Et parmi les menaces plané- taires – mutations génétiques ou guerres nucléaires – dont ces fictions se nourrissent, le chercheur n’omettait pas celle-ci, de plus en plus prégnante: le réchauffement climatique. Au point qu’un nouveau genre littéraire a récemment vu le jour, la «cli-fi», abréviation de «climate-fiction». Le néologisme est né sous la plume de Dan Bloom, un reporter américain aujourd’hui retraité. «J’ai utilisé ce terme la première fois sur mon blog, pour décrire un film d’anticipation sur le changement climatique. Un mot qui fait écho à «sci-fi», pour science-fiction. A partir de 2013, ce terme, relayé par une radio américaine puis par diffé- rents articles de presse, est devenu populaire», explique le septuagénaire, qui dit avoir voulu «stimuler, inspirer, motiver une nouvelle tendance chez les écrivains du monde entier». Il semble y être parvenu car le genre climatique fait florès, surtout en langue anglaise, porté par des auteurs majeurs comme Ian McEwan (avec Solar), Kim Stanley Robinson (Sixty days and Counting) ou encore Margaret Atwood (MaddAddam). La France s’y met lentement avec quelques auteurs comme Claude Ecken (La Saison de la colère) ou Jean-Marc Ligny (lire ci-contre). «Il y a encore des exemples d’auteurs allemands, finlandais, norvégiens, islandais ou espagnols», précise Adeline Johns-Putra, professeur de littérature à l’Université de Surrey et ancienne présidente de la section anglaise de l’Association pour l’étude de la litté- rature et de l’environnement. Une association, née au cours des années 1990, qui porte dans le monde entier le flambeau académique de l’«écocritique», un courant de critique littéraire sensible aux thématiques environnementales. «Les écrivains ont pris leur temps pour évoquer le changement climatique», continue la spécialiste. «Probablement car les éditeurs, jusqu’à récemment, ne le considéraient pas comme un thème d’importance. Même un écrivain majeur comme Kim Stanley Robinson a eu fort à faire pour convaincre son éditeur de publier sa trilogie sur le changement climatique.» Pour elle, quelque 100 à 150 auteurs actuels, toutes langues confondues, pourraient être gratifiés de l’étiquette «cli-fi», «un nombre appelé à progresser». Ce n’est pas Dan Bloom qui dira le contraire. Pour lui, pas de doute: le changement climatique est «la menace existentielle la plus importante à laquelle les espèces humaines aient jamais été confrontées». Transformer cette angoisse contemporaine en fiction serait ainsi un moyen de mieux l’appréhender. C’est aussi l’avis de Marc Atallah, directeur de la Maison d’Ailleurs à Yverdon, pour qui les extrapolations à partir de la question climatique rendent ce futur crédible aux yeux du lecteur, mais servent surtout à concrétiser cette notion. «En montrant la catastrophe climatique mais aussi sa symbolique, cette littérature investit émotionnellement une réalité assez abstraite. Ces textes permettent de multiplier les représentations alternatives à celles, pauvres et uniformes, qui existent sur le changement climatique», souligne-t-il. De quoi favoriser une prise de conscience globale? «Non, la littérature d’anticipation n’a pas de vocation instructive, elle suppose une prise de conscience antérieure à la lecture», pour Marc Atallah. Et Adeline Johns-Putra d’abonder: «Alors que la propagande cherche à influencer les esprits, la bonne littérature donne à penser. Les écrivains peuvent surtout changer les choses indirectement, en inspirant et provoquant le débat.» Nul doute que les ouvrages fraîchement étiquetés «cli-fi» continueront longtemps à nourrir les discussions sur le changement climatique. «La question est dans tous les esprits, même de manière inconsciente, conclut Dan Bloom. C’est dans l’air!» Un air qui, inexorablement, se ré- chauffe. Et ça, ce n’est malheureusement pas de la fiction. I > A découvrir: Reportages climatiques (Ed. d’Autre part), qui rassemble les impressions de 12 auteurs romands sur le festival climatique genevois Alternatiba. > L

Sunday, November 29, 2015

Peter Gould goes for gold in a serious yet comic cli-fi novel sure to knock your Vermont socks off!

http://vtdigger.org/2015/11/27/new-book-spins-unusual-take-wind-turbines/

The novel?

MARLY

''a novel in once voice.''

FROM the REVIEW by Kevin O’Connor:

''Gould, whose past novels have been produced by two of New York’s most prestigious publishers, is releasing “Marly” through Green Writers Press, a Vermont imprint aiming to spread the state’s environmental ethos by giving a percentage of its proceeds to such causes as the grassroots climate-crisis group 350.org.

''The Brattleboro-based outfit will print Gould’s communal farm memoir “Life Is Short Eat More Pie” early next year. But with wind projects and proposals generating headlines in such towns as Grafton, Irasburg, Sheffield, Swanton and Windham, the author knows his present book will resonate well into the future.

“‘Marly’ is fiction — the woman with that name is purely imaginary,” Gould says, “but the ridgelines she loves are real, and some of the problems and conflicts that come with our rapid embrace of alternative energy will not be leaving us soon.”

Kevin O’Connor, a former staffer of the Rutland Herald and Barre-Montpelier Times Argus, is a Brattleboro-based writer. Email: kevinoconnorvt@gmail.com

The Percipience Series: ''cli-fi'' nnovels set in 2022, 2222 and 2232 by Canadian author Ken Kroes

When this blogger received a letter out of the blue from a cli-fi novelist in Canada named Ken Kroes asking for some PR help with his three novels, I read his email with interest, of course:

 
Dear Dan,
 
I really enjoyed going through your website and the many articles on ''cli-fi''. It must be a pile of work to keep up and it looks great!

I am an indie author and have just finished the third novel in my ''Cli-fi'' series Percipience and am wondering if you would be open to recieving a set of these books and pershaps consider posting about them in your blog.

If interested, please let me know and I will send you either an electronic or paperback set of the books.

Thank you for your time.

- Ken Kroes

I REPLIED, IN INTERNET TIME: ''YES, OF COURSE, PLEASE SEND ME SOME INFORMATION!''

Ken wrote back, also in Internet time:
 
Dear Dan,
 
Thank-you for your speedy response!

I have included attachments for all three books to the trilogy.  If you have any issues with these PDF files, please let me know. This series is intended for a broad audience with the goal to raise awareness in key areas and hopefully motivate people to take action.

In addition to the fictional story, the primary Cli-fi focus of each book is as follows;

2022 – Complexity of the problems we face and the relatively short time line that we have to come up with solutions.

2222 – Comparison of our society today to a radically different sustainable one. Discussion on usage of natural resources, food, water etc.

2232 – CO2 and climate change along with what I believe to be one of the more important social issues that are impeding our actions today, entitlement.

At the end of each book are a few short appendices that relate topics of the fictional story back to real issues that we face in today’s world.

I hope you enjoy them. Thank-you for your time and consideration. This Canadian indie author really appreciates it.

-- Ken


www.the2222book.com
The official website of the Percipience Eco Fiction book series.
MORE INFORMATION COMING SOON from The Cli-Fi.Net blog on these three novels!






 

 

‘Cli-Fi’ Reaches into Literature Classrooms at Vanderbilt, SUNY Buffalo, Harvard, Tufts and Princeton

By Dan Bloom

The writer is a freelance writer from Boston. A 1971 graduate of Tufts University where he majored in literature, he has been working as a climate activist and a literary theorist since 2006. He can contacted by email at: danbloom AT GMAIL dot COM

2015 is shaping up to be ''The Year of Cli-Fi'' in academia, and not just in North America, but in Britain and Australia as well. Credit: Tulane Public Relations/cc by 2.0
2016 will be shaping up as another important ''Year of Cli-Fi'' in academia, and not just in North America, but in Britain and Australia as well. Credit: Tulane Public Relations/cc by 2.0
 
From Vanderbilt University in Nashville to SUNY Buffalo in New York state, hundreds of college classrooms are now picking up on the “cli-fi” genre of fiction, and cinema and academia is right behind them. The year 2016 promises to offer more classes in the genre. too.

Teachers like teaching it, and students seem to enjoy studying it. Cli-Fi is here to stay.

While authors are penning cli-fi novels — with movie scriptwriters creating cli-fi screenplays to try to sell to Hollywood — classrooms worldwide are focusing attention of the rising genre of literature and cinema. 
"Literary fiction has dreamed up many versions of the end of the world, but how is contemporary fiction dealing with the threat of climate change?" -- Prof. Jenny Bavidge

Jenny Bavidge at the University of Cambridge taught a class on cli-fi at the Institute of Continuing Education there, and Darragh Martin taught a cli-fi class at Columbia University in Manhattan, too.
Professor Edward Rubin has a cli-fi literature class planned for the Spring 2016 semester, he told this blog, noting that Professor Teresa A. Goddu at Vanderbilt taught a cli-fi class in the fall 2015 semester and invited cli-fi novelist Nathaniel Rich to campus to chat with students and faculty.

Cli-fi is a catchy abbreviation for the genre of “climate fiction,” much in the same way that “sci-fi” is a nickname for “science fiction.” With news articles about the rise of cli-fi appearing in the New York Times and Time magazine last year, literature professors saw an opportune time to introduce cli-fi classes into the curriculum.

“Literary fiction has dreamed up many versions of the end of the world, but how is contemporary fiction dealing with the threat of climate change?” Bavidge asked students in her introduction to the class. “This course will focus on works by contemporary authors, including Margaret Atwood and Ian McEwan, and ask whether ‘cli-fi’ imagines solutions as well as ends.

“As people living through this particular historical moment, we may want to ask how far [cli-fi] novels contribute to efforts to better understand our relationship with the planet and its ecosystems,” she wrote.

One of my mentors in the world of sci-fi literature is the novelist David Brin.
I once asked him about how climate change themes have been influencing sci-fi novels and movies, and he told me by email: “Global warming and flooding were important in my 1989 novel ‘Earth,’ but they were earlier featured in the film ‘Soylent Green’ based on Harry Harrison’s novel ‘Make Room, Make Room!’”
Over 100 college English departments are now planning  to set up cli-fi classes in 2016 and 2017, with both undergrad and graduate level courses involved. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Several non-English speaking countries are also looking at cli-fi and how it impacts their own literary circles, including Brazil, Spain, Germany and France.

While so many universities and colleges in the United States have taken up the call and are part of the new trend in higher education , the genre is reaching out worldwide to writers (and readers) across the globe. Cli-fi is not an American or British genre; it has become a global genre.

The Chronicle of Higher Education newspaper in Washington, D.C., which covers academic issues in a variety of subject areas, has assigned a staff reporter to look into the rise of cli fi in the academy as well, according to sources.

In addition to Martin’s class at Columbia, professors at Temple University in Philadelphia, the University of Oregon, Holyoke Community College, the State University of New York in Geneseo (SUNY Geneseo) and The University of Delaware have offered cli-fi classes.

It’s a beginning. And there’s more to come.

Academics writing in Spanish, Portuguese and Italian, among other world languages are putting out papers about cli-fi and planning classes in the genre at the universities where they teach.

There is, of course, a long and storied history of teaching sci-fi at colleges in North America and Britain, with several universities even setting up literature departments that specialise in sci-fi research. Now cli-fi is joining the global academic world and finding a room of its own there as well.

Elizabeth Trobaugh and Steve Winters at Holyoke Community College team-taught a climate-themed literature class titled “Cli Fi: Stories and Science from the Coming Climate Apocalypse.”

When I told Trobaugh that I planned to write an oped about her course, she replied: “Thank you for your interest in what we are doing this semester. Professor Winters and I thought we were onto something, and your email confirms our conviction that cli-fi is indeed on the rise, and this is the moment (as Macklemore says in the song) to catch the wave.”

Stephen Siperstein, a doctoral student at the University of Oregon, has also taught a cli-fi literature class, with his undergrad students posting weekly class blogs about what they were reading and how they were  reacting to the new genre of fiction.

At Temple University, Ted Howell taught an undergraduate class titled “Cli-fi: Science Fiction, Climate Change, and Apocalypse” with about 30 students enrolled. They kept weekly blogs about the course, using them to interact online outside of class with their professor and fellow students.

At SUNY Geneseo in upstate New York, Professor Ken Cooper taught a class titled “Reader and Text: Cli-Fi.”

”Representative works will include Paolo Bacigalupi’s ‘The Windup Girl,’ Barbara Kingsolver’s ‘Flight Behavior,’ and other novels,” Cooper told his students by way of introduction, adding mischievously: “There will be at least one zombie apocalypse, too.”

Siohban Carroll at the University of Delaware is a specialist in 19th century British literature, and told me in a recent Tweet: “I’ve taught a 19th Century ‘cli-fi’ class at the graduate level. One segment was on Mary Shelley and the Anthropocene.”

So there you have it. Cli-fi has reached into academia and found partners on college campuses worldwide, from Indiana to India. It’s a worldwide trend because global warming impacts us all, and literature and cinema always respond to the things that matter.

Saturday, November 28, 2015

Reading Cli-Fi in J.G. Ballard's 1962 and 1966 novels: ''The Drowned World'' and ''The Crystal World''

Reading Cli-Fi in J.G. Ballard

http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/berghahn/csurv/2013/00000025/00000002/art00002

Abstract:

J.G. Ballard's early novels The Drowned World (1962) and The Crystal World (1966) take a climatological approach to apocalyptic dystopia.

This has led survey studies of ''cli-fi'' novels and movies to identify these novels as founding texts of the genre.

 Yet Ballard wrote in an era before man-made global warming [AGW] had been identified by climate scientists, and his fiction is as much psychological and ontological as it is physiological.

Ballard both adheres to and deviates from the AGW narrative now accepted by contemporary climatology, working within and beyond the genre of post-apocalyptic fiction.

 This paper will assess the extent to which these dystopian narratives can be understood as cli-fi novels and explore the debt that more recent ''cli-fi'' may owe to Ballard.

When Professor Adeline Johns-Putra speaks about the rise of 'cli-fi', the world and COP21 listens....

Here is Professor Johns-Putra speaking here at the CONVERSATION in the UK:

http://theconversation.com/cli-fi-novels-humanise-the-science-of-climate-change-and-leading-authors-are-getting-in-on-the-act-51270

EXCERPTS FROM HER TEXT: When COP 21 begins in Paris, the world’s leaders will review the climate framework agreed in Rio in 1992. For well over 20 years, the world has not just been thinking and talking about climate change, it has also been writing and reading about it, in blogs, newspapers, magazines – and in novels.

Climate change fiction is now a recognizable literary phenomenon replete with its own nickname: "Cli-fi''.  The cli-fi term was coined in 2008. Since then, its use has spread: it was even tweeted by Margaret Atwood in 2013.



It is not a genre in the accepted scholarly sense, since it lacks the plot formulas or stylistic conventions that tend to define genres (such as science fiction or the western). However, it does name a remarkable recent literary and publishing trend.

A 21st-century phenomenon?

Putting a number to this phenomenon depends, partly, on how one defines cli-fi. How much of a novel has to be devoted to climate change before it is considered cli-fi? Should we restrict the term to novels about man-made global warming? (If we don’t, we should remember that narratives about global climatic change are as old as The Epic of Gilgamesh and the Biblical story of the flood.) If we define cli-fi as fictional treatments of climate change caused by human activity in terms of setting, theme or plot – and accept there will be grey areas in the extent of this treatment – a conservative estimate would put the all-time number of cli-fi novels at 150 and growing. This is the figure put forward by Adam Trexler, who has worked with me to survey the development of cli-fi.
This definition also gives us a start date for cli-fi’s history. While planetary climatic change occurs in much 20th-century science fiction, it is only after growing scientific awareness of specifically man-made, carbon-induced climate change in the 1960s and 1970s that novels on this subject emerged. The first is Arthur Herzog’s Heat in 1976, followed by George Turner’s The Sun and the Summer (published in the US as Drowning Towers) in 1987.
Author Ian McEwan. Thesupermat, CC BY-SA

At the turn of this century, Maggie Gee and TC Boyle were among the first mainstream authors to publish climate change novels. In this century, we can count Atwood, Michael Crichton, Barbara Kingsolver, Ian McEwan, Kim Stanley Robinson, Ilija Trojanow and Jeanette Winterson as major authors who have written about climate change. The past five years have given us notable examples of cli-fi by emerging authors, such as Steven Amsterdam, Edan Lepucki, Jane Rawson, Nathaniel Rich and Antti Tuomainen.

Creative challenges

Cli-fi is all the more noteworthy considering the creative challenge posed by climate change. First, there is the problem of scale – spatial and temporal. Climate change affects the entire planet and all its species – and concerns the end of this planet as we know it. Novels, by contrast, conventionally concern the actions of individual protagonists and/or, sometimes, small communities.
Added to this is the networked nature of climate change: in physical terms, the climate is a large, complex system whose effects are difficult to model. In socio-cultural terms, solutions require intergovernmental agreement – just what COP21 intends – and various top-down and bottom-up transformations. Finally, there exists the difficulty of translating scientific information, with all its predictive uncertainty, into something both accurate and interesting to the average reader.
Still, cli-fi writers have adopted a range of strategies to engage their readers. Many cli-fi novels could be classified as dystopian, post-apocalyptic or, indeed, both – depicting nightmarish societies triggered by sometimes catastrophic climate events. A future world is one effective way of narrating the planetary condition of climate change.
Post-apocalyptic visions of society. Spinster cardigan., CC BY

Some novelists are also careful to underpin their scenarios with rigorous climatic predictions and, in this way, translate science fact into a fictional setting. Kingsolver, who trained as an ecologist, is the best example of this – and Atwood and Robinson are also known for their attempts at making their speculations scientifically plausible. Also, cli-fi novels, particularly those set in the present day or very near future rather than in a dystopian future, tend to show the political or psychological dimensions of living with climate change. Readers can identify with protagonists. To some extent, the global community is represented in fictional everymen or everywomen. Or, often, it is through such characters that science is humanised and its role in combating climate change better understood.

Can 'cli-fi' lead to change?

Dystopian Margaret Atwood: a cli-fi proponent. Thompsons Rivers University, CC BY-NC-SA

Could cli-fi affect how we think and act on climate change? The paradox is that the harder cli-fi tries, the less effective it is. Many writers want to inspire change, not insist on it: the line between literature and propaganda is one that most novelists respect. Literature invites us to inhabit other worlds and live other lives. Cli-fi at its best lets us travel to climate-changed worlds, to strive there alongside others and then to return armed with that experience.
In Paris, the UN will seek a global agreement on climate action for the first time in more than 20 years. There is plenty of climate change fiction out there to help provide the mental and psychological space to consider that action.