The Unevenly Distributed Futures of Climate Narratives

Abstract

The distinction between speculative and realist fiction often hinges not on whether a scenario depicts a future possibility, but rather on its connection to present-day geographic, sociopolitical, and economic realities. A common, but limiting, approach to climate fiction in the Global North frames it as cautionary tales for a distant future, rather than an honest exploration of the diverse consequences behind processes of environmental degradation. Nick Wood and Faeza Meyer call this phenomenon ‘climate apartheid’, and it describes how privileged populations, by being more shielded from immediate climate impacts —if only for the time being—  tend to produce more abstract or less urgent portrayals of environmental degradation in their fiction (31). This creates a preference for the speculative genre to imagine the effects and consequences of the climate crisis. Conversely, authors from the Global South often depict survival struggles and systemic inequalities that are rooted in more present and pressing concerns (Sankaran 114). Their fiction is more posed to challenge dominant, detached narratives, and advocate for a paradigm of environmental justice that tackles the role of current unequal structures that do not need to be imagined as dystopic.