"I'm a cli-fi missionary.''

"I'm a cli-fi missionary.''

"We are a world now divided bitterly over climate change issues. Novels and movies can serve to wake people up in ways that politics and ideology cannot."

"I believe if the world does not wake up soon about the pressing climate change issues we face now, future generations of humans will be 'doomed, doomed' — within 500 years. I can see that far ahead. Will 'cli-fi' save the planet? No way. But at least it might help prepare us for what's coming in future centuries. I like to think long term."

"I'm not worried about the next 100 or 200 years. It's the kids born 30 generations from now that I'm worried about. I have a deep wellspring of empathy for  future generations. I care about the world then. Today, no problem, life is wonderful. We'll be okay. It's people living in the year 2500 A.D. that I am thinking about. That's what cli-fi means for me."

''I never set out to make money. I only wanted to make a difference. Now as I reach 70, I am seeing a little success along those lines. ''
''I'm still as poor as a churchmouse, and I don't own a house or car or anything. I ride a bicycle to get around. I rent everything, my home, my computer, my telephone. I'm not interested in fame or fortune and I am not making a single penny from this cli-fi work. I living on borrowed time, as I coast toward the end of my life on planet Earth, as I've got a stent in my heart-attacked heart keeping the blood flowing through my placque-caked arteries. ''

''I wake up every morning full of optimisim and hope. It's my DNA. I go to sleep at night depressed and blue. That's also my DNA. We are living in very troubled – and troubling – times. But I am at peace with life. Life is good. Except for this climate change problem.''

The "cli-fi" name came to me as I was thinking of ways to raise awareness of novels and movies about climate change issues. I toyed with using such terms as "climafic" or "climfic" or "clific," for the longer term of "climate fiction." But I wanted an even shorter term that could fit easily into newspaper and magazine headlines. So using the rhyming sounds of ''sci-fi,'' I decided to go with the short, simple to say and simple to write "cli-fi".

''And the short term caught on worldwide, beginning on April 20, 2013 when an American radio show did a five-minute radio segment about "cli-fi." That was the beginning of its global outreach and popularity among academics, literary critics, journalists and headline writers.''

Editor's note: “Cli-fi” in 2013 received an honorable mention by the Macquarie Dictionary as an important new word. 

Read more at "The Cli-Fi Report" at www.Cli-Fi.Net.