[see Cli Fi Movie Awards 2015]: korgw101.blogspot.com
Novels and movies works about climate change, or ''cli-fi,'' have been hailed as a new genre.
As a complement to previous studies of novels and plays, this article
possible impacts of climate change predicted by scientists, this study finds that
filmmakers have focused on extreme weather events and the possibility of Earth
slipping into a new ice age.
These choices reflect filmmakers ’ predispositions
more than any scientific consensus and thus demonstrate the challenge that cli-fi
films pose to climate change communicators. Finally, noting the recent emer-
gence of films that parody concerns about climate change or that depict attempts
to mitigate its causes or ameliorate its effects as possibly more disastrous than
climate change itself, this study recommends that researchers in the humanities
more attention than any other film.
© 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
''Cli-fi'' on the screen(s): patterns in
the representations of climate
change in fictional films
Cli-fi on the screen(s): patterns in
the representations of climate
change in fictional films
*
Edited by Timothy R. Carter, Domain Editor, and Mike Hulme, Editor-in-Chief
Fictional works about climate change, or cli-fi, have been hailed as a new genre.
As a complement to previous WIREs studies of novels and plays, this article
focuses on cli-fifilms, providing an overview of some 60 films, including major
theatrical releases, smaller festival films, and made-for-TV movies. Of the many
possible impacts of climate change predicted by scientists, this study finds that
filmmakers have focused on extreme weather events and the possibility of Earth
slipping into a new ice age. These choices reflect filmmakers ’ predispositions
more than any scientific consensus and thus demonstrate the challenge that cli-fi
films pose to climate change communicators. Finally, noting the recent emer-
gence of films that parody concerns about climate change or that depict attempts
to mitigate its causes or ameliorate its effects as possibly more disastrous than
climate change itself, this study recommends that researchers in the humanities
and social sciences look beyond The Day After Tomorrow, which has received far
more attention than any other film.
© 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
How to cite this article:
WIREs Clim Change 2015. doi: 10.1002/wcc.381
INTRODUCTION
I
n a July 10, 2015 post,
1
on one of his many web-
sites, Dan Bloom, the Taiwan-based journalist
widely credited with having coined the term ‘cli-fi,’
recalled the challenges separately issued in 2005 by
Bill McKibben
2
and Robert Macfarlane.
3
Where are
the works of art, they asked, the fictional works
about climate change? In the 10 years since these
questions were posed, Bloom argued, they have been
answered—by cli-fi novels and cli- fifilms. In fact, by
2005 at least 14 novels about climate change had
already been published in the UK and the United
States, and what is still the most commercially
successful feature film about climate change, The
Day After Tomorrow
4
(hereafter TDAT), had been
released the year before (a point McKibben grudg-
ingly acknowledged). But Bloom is right: in the
10 years since McKibben and Macfarlane issued their
challenges, there has been an outpouring of work. So
much so that the state of ‘cli-fi’ is now regularly
updated in the pages of major news venues such as
The Guardian
5
and The New York Times
6
; in maga-
zines devoted to political/cultural commentary such
as Dissent
7
and Salon
8
; in environmental newswires
and websites such as ClimateWire,
9
The Daily
Climate,
10
and Grist
11
; and in film-trade publications
such as Entertainment Weekly.
12
Fictional works
about climate change have also been addressed in the
pages of WIREs Climate Change. In 2011, Adam
Trexler and Adeline Johns-Putra provided an over-
view of ‘Climate Change in Literature and Literary
Criticism.’
13
Then, in 2012, Stephen Bottoms covered
‘Climate Science on the London Stage.’
14
To this
*Correspondence to: msvoboda@gwu.edu
Columbia College of Arts and Sciences, George Washington Uni-
versity, Washington, DC, USA
Conflict of interest: The author has declared no conflicts of interest
for this article.
© 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
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