''Annihilation'' author Jeff VanderMeer warmly and personally endorses the rising new genre of ''cli-fi'' and cli-fi novelists as well in Q&A with John Maher at Pacific Standard magazine (link here)

Yes! ''Annihilation'' author Jeff VanderMeer has warmly and personally endorsed the rising new genre of ''cli-fi'' and cli-fi novelists as well. 

Over at Pacific Standard magazine, Jeff warmly and personally endorsed and championed the rising cli-fi genre and cli-fi novelists, telling John Maher in a Q&A there: 

''Sometimes you need new fictional modes. You hear the term cli-fi, for example, and I've heard some science fiction writers say, "Well, why do we need that when we have the term 'science fiction'?" Well, because it means climate fiction, and anyone can write climate fiction. It's not necessarily science fiction—it's not necessarily set in the future! And the reason is that it's happening right now. Climate change is happening right now. The future is happening right now.'']

FULL MAHER QUESTION AND JVM ANSWER:

MAHER: Do you think science fiction and speculative fiction are particularly well equipped to address present environmental issues?

JVM: I don't think it's a particular domain of science fiction. I think it's something where we all have areas where we default to foundational assumptions that we should be questioning. I have my own spots like that, I'm absolutely sure, but it's certainly not when it comes to animal behavior science and things like that.

It's an issue for discussion because I think mainstream literary realism is just as well equipped. And I do want to push science fiction writers to think more about these issues because science fiction can also fall back on old defaults of plot and trope that are not useful to exploring these things. Sometimes you need new fictional modes. You hear the term cli-fi, for example, and I've heard some science fiction writers say, "Well, why do we need that when we have the term 'science fiction'?" Well, because it means climate fiction, and anyone can write climate fiction. It's not necessarily science fiction—it's not necessarily set in the future! And the reason is that it's happening right now. Climate change is happening right now. The future is happening right now.