Thursday, July 12, 2018

Bill McKibben on cli-fi -- Bill McKibben has long advocated, since 2005 in a Grist essay and again in 2009 in a similar Grist essay, for more people to use ''the power of art'' to tackle climate change

Bill McKibben on cli-fi -- Bill McKibben has long advocated since 2005 in a Grist essay and again in 2009 in a similar Grist essay for more people to use ''the power of art'' to tackle climate change.

“I wrote a piece maybe 15 years ago [in 2005 and 2009] arguing that there had been very limited literary or artistic response to climate change, which was odd given the scale and magnitude,” he says. “And I’m very glad to see that changing now in 2018 on every front.”

One group of artists who has tackled climate change is ''climate fiction'' writers, with authors like Kim Stanley Robinson, Paolo Bacigalupi, and Tobias Buckell comprising the so-called “cli-fi” movement. 

In particular McKibben praises Kim Stanley Robinson’s novel ''New York 2140,'' which depicts a future in which rising seas have transformed New York into a city of canals. “For my money the best climate fiction—and in many ways the best fiction—of the last year was New York 2140,” he says. “It’s a wonderful and oddly cheerful book, I must say. I really, really enjoyed it.”


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