In terms of Climate Change and Global warming We Are ‘Procrastination Nation’

Climate Change and 

Why We Are 

‘Procrastination Nation’

It’s a fact that we are psychologically hard-wired as 

humans to see our future selves as 

strangers. So when looking at 

future climate change and 

runaway global warming impact 

events we do nothing. Why? We Are “Procrastination Nation.’’

I recently tweeted this and 

I will tweet again for rest of my 

life. “Why do we humans procrastinate? 

It’s because we think, psychologically, 

of our future selves as ‘’strangers’’. 

So in taking steps to fight runaway #AGW, we therefore procrastinate because we don’t see the future 

as *our* future. We are “Procrastination Nation.” 

It’s true. We are never going to fix climate change 

and we are never going to stop global warming, 

and that’s because we are going to 

procrastinate forever and ever until the cows 

come home to roost. No, that’s not right: 

until the chickens come home to roost. 

Or is that the crows come home to roost? 

Whatever: 

By then it will be way too late.

https://medium.com/@danbloom_21462/climate-change-and-why-we-are-procrastination-nation-2775ae602bbe

=================================== AND

Jeff VanderMeer TWEETS  September 1, 2018

@jeffvandermeer

Anne and I are turning our old, re-wilded home into a

Southern Reach residency, alternating between non-fiction

and fiction writers who deal with the environment in their

work in some way...need some help. If you're an entity

that might be interested in making this work,

please contact me.

How the battle for ''cli-fi'' was won

by staff writer and agencies

NEW YORK -- Take 4 simple letters of the alphabet --  L, F, C and i -- and combine them with a hyphen with a nod to the assonance of the sci-fi term, mix them in a literary stew of overlapping genres and you've got the latest reading (and writing)  platform of the Anthropocene: "cli-fi."

It's a shortening of ''climate fiction,'' of course, regarding the longer, more formal name of the genre, and the even longer one of ''climate-change fiction.'' For the past 5 years or so, thanks to an often bemused but always respectful and encouraging media pool of website editors, newspaper reporters, literary critics, book reviewers and headline writers, the 5-letter term has caught on.  In a big way. Worldwide. 

And not just in the Anglophone world: ''cli-fi'' spelled in the same way as we spell it in English -- even with the hyphen -- has started to appear in news articles and literary websites in French, German. Swedish, Italian, Norwegian, Spanish and even Chinese. It's gone global. 

Thanks to its closeness in spelling and pronounciaton ot its literary cousin of sci-fi, the rising and popular cli-fi genre term has found a home along literary critics and novelists in a dozen countries, and a recent wire service report from Agence France Press (AFP, the French News Angency) reported on how cli-fi was making inroads among publishers and literary agents at the recent 2018 Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany.

Since 2012, the global landscape of cli-fi cultural websites has been chock full of news about thousands of fictional works of storytelling, in print and on the silver screen, talking about the global impact of human-induced climate change. In academia as well as in pop culture, this rapidly growing body of novels and movies is now commonly referred to by the catchy linguistic portmanteau of ''cli-fi,'' a term now monitored on social media and the internet worldwide.

That cli-fi has transitioned from a colloquial term into a cultural buzzword can be seen, to name but a few examples from a long list, by its recent addition to the Oxford Dictionaries, its appearance in numerous international conferences and academic publications, the blogs of dozens of novelists and literary critics and  Amy Brady’s monthly ''cli-fi trends'' column, “Burning Worlds,” examining cli-fi novels and trends for the Chicago Review of Books, and the increasing inclusion of cli-fi as a label in newspaper and internet articles and headlines and marketing strategies by publishers and movie studios.

In addition to the many cli-fi mentions in the media worldwide, there are also journalistic mentions of cli-fi novels and movies. Now more than 100 colleges and universities worldwide offer classes in cli-fi novels and movies. This is big. This is unstoppable. And after the most recent IPCC climate report from the U.N. climate group, with its devastating and at times unspeakable predictions for the next 80 years, cli-fi novels and movies are more needed than ever before.

While there is no general agreement on how cli-fi is to be defined, the term itself may be understood as a simple abbreviation of the longer term of ''climate fiction.'' It is an independent, standalone literary genre, as some literary critics insist it is, or perhaps a subgenre of ''science fiction'' as some sci-fi historians say. Whatever, cli-fi is here and it is here to stay. We can thank an open-minded and encouraging media landscape  for that.

Constant  PR work by an informal group of cli-fi boosters in London and Toronto from April 2012 onward has led to cli-fi's rise in public awareness, and that led to two major New York Times articles in 2014 (one on April and one in July) and in 2017 to Dr Brady's monthly ''cli-fi trends'' column in the The Chicago Review of Books which has also been picked up by the Yale Climate Communications website.

++++++++++++++++++

POST-SCRIPT:

Why do we humans procrastinate? It's because we think, psychologically, of our future selves as ''strangers''. So in taking steps to fight runaway #AGW, we therefore procrastinate because we don't see the future as *our* future.

We are "Procrastination Nation." 

Kenya Foy at PLAYBOY website does a cli-fi news story about '' what-cli-fi-gets-right-about-our-environmental-doomsday''

https://www.playboy.com/read/what-cli-fi-gets-right-about-our-environmental-doomsday-1

ENVIRONMENT

What "Cli-Fi" Gets Right About Our Environmental Doomsday

Why do we humans procrastinate? It's because we think, psychologically, of our future selves as ''strangers''. So in taking steps to fight runaway #AGW, we therefore procrastinate because we don't see the future as *our* future. We are "Procrastination Nation." #CliFi

• Written by Kenya Foy
 
• Published on
  • 
    
  [Aug. 28, 2018]

In popular films about climate disasters, there’s typically a frenzied scenario in which a group of scientific experts with furrowed brows monitor changes in Earth’s activities just before rushing to warn the entire world of impending upheaval by way of an unprecedented cataclysmic weather event. In the background, everyday citizens go on about their daily duties in complete oblivion—that is, until a tsunami of melted ice cap water sweeps through the populated area, engulfing everything in sight and permanently altering life on Earth as we know it. 

In real life, scientists, environmental experts and climate change organizations continue doing the tireless work of making sure that these terrifying “cli-fi” apocalyptic movie plots remain onscreen and don’t actually unfold outside of big-budget movie sets, where they stand to obliterate far more than their box office competitors. The latest collective attempt at hoisting up a proverbial red flag is a study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, titled “Trajectories of the Earth System in the Anthropocene.” The review posits an overall increase of two degrees Celsius in the planet’s temperature is all that stands between us and critical climate changes that could produce what the study’s authors refer to as “Hothouse Earth” conditions. Lead scientist William Steffen collaborated with 15 other experts on the paper, which takes into account multiple other studies that explore climate-related trends over the past hundreds of thousands of years.

By combing through the planet’s climate chronicles, the study suggests that life on Earth could become increasingly precarious for humans should global warming venture two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Specifically, the temperature change could lead to substantial climate warming and a rise in sea levels, hence the catchy hothouse description. The study also outlines an alternate outcome—labeled Stabilized Earth—in which the climate remains comparable to its current state.

Some experts like Richard Betts—who provided his expertise for the hothouse review—caution us against pressing the panic button in response to the study. The odds of this frightening prediction developing beyond the literary-based speculation, Betts writes in EcoWatch, is highly unlikely, plus if it were to actually occur, we’re looking at a timeline of about one million years down the line, where humans may or may not have mined the cosmos and successfully settled on another planet altogether. 

MORE AT LINK ABOVE....

''Book reviews'' of new sci-fi and cli-fi novels by non-professional authors can be tough. Read these snippets and look at them as a cautionary tale:

Book reviews can be tough. Read these snippets and look at them as a cautionary tale:

1.

Her sci-fi cli-fi book is a dystopian novel based on potential consequences of unchecked climate change approximately 150 years from now. In this world,  she explores agricultural, political, military, civil, cultural – and notably disturbing climate scenarios – with obvious interest and attention to detail. While her imagining of this futuristic world is full throttle, his handling of the unfolding personal and family drama feels as yet underdeveloped. The blueprint is there for a complex and dynamic human interest story, but the main character, remains an over-conscious narrator of events, never allowing us to enter with her into the lived experience. ''

2.

''I feel for the author -- it's never easy to hear criticism of one's work, but hopefully he can use it to make positive changes before taking his novel to a wider audience. Here are my thoughts. Please keep in mind that this is not a polished, publication-worthy review, just a few opinions after reading it:''

His novel contains some interesting concepts. The idea of a divided former USA and its political attitudes has potential for a futuristic thriller. However, the vision needs to improve its execution. My biggest concern is that the characters feel like cogs in the plotting wheel rather than unique personalities. There's a lot of stiff, expository dialogue intended to give readers background information. None of the characters have their depths revealed. The characters feel like staging pieces for the plot, and unfortunately the plot lacks cohesion as well. Instead of rising and falling action, it's a lot of tedious conversations punctuated by B-movie action sequences. The author should consider how his protagonist changes between the story's start and end, and shape the events around that arc. Perhaps he goes from being an insular academic to an outspoken advocate for a cause, or discovered that one of his core beliefs is misguided and adopts a different worldview. Lots of possibilities.''

''I'm sorry if my comments seem harsh. As a new author myself, I'm painfully familiar with many of the challenges the author faced in writing his  novel, and I empathize. My intentions here are purely constructive. I think the author has some promising ideas that will make solid story material; he just needs to refine his craft and incorporate those themes in a stronger narrative.''

3.

''If you get many similar negative reviews and negative comments from other readers, you might suggest to the author that there's a consensus about his sci fi novel book having problems. Would be much better than getting a slew of bad reviews and ratings once the book is out. He's obviously serious about presenting alternative views of the future, and I'd hate to see him discouraged. But he needs to brush up on his botany as well as study about writing fiction. The book just does not work as it is. Sorry but that's my take.''

4.

"While I appreciate the opportunity to read the book, and also appreciate the author's attempt to portray a future USA, I'm afraid that I won't be able to write a review. I post reviews only for books that I'm willing to recommend, and unfortunately this isn't one. After the first three chapters, I started skimming, hoping for some improvement, which took me through only a few more chapters before I had to give up.''

''While it's grammatically correct and seems to be thoroughly proofread, the author has made every possible beginner's mistake -- lack of characterization, too much telling instead of showing, massive info dump posing as conversation, unrealistic dialogue, poorly conceived concept of the results of such drastic climate change, unbelievable plot points, and unintentionally funny bits that border on parody. And it's massively boring.''

''I honestly don't know what kind of publisher would be willing to put out a book that's so obviously a first effort by someone who means well but has no concept of how a novel is written.''

''I'm sorry to have to be so harsh and I hope that the book is successful in spite of its flaws. 

Publishers applaud the rise of cli-fi genre novels as the Earth heats up and seek more novels in the rising genre

Publishers and literary agents applaud the rise of cli-fi genre novels as the Earth heats up

by staff writer and agencies

As the cyclical natural phenomena that affect our planet’s climate amplify the effect of human-made ''global warming,'' publishers and literary agents call for more cli-fi novels and movies to mirror the Earth system events that are unfolding now

Webposted August 13, 2018

The world is likely to see more extreme temperatures in the coming 40 years [2018-2060] -- to be accompanied by more and more cli-fi novels and movies to mirror reality -- as natural warming reinforces human-made climate change, according to a new global forecasting system.

To find out what people on the publishing industry think about cli-fi and its recent rise as a global literary genre in several languages, we asked a group of movers and shakers in the book industry in New York, London and Sydney what the prospects were, in their opinions, for the continued popularity of cli-fi novels and movies.

“There is a high possibility that we will be at the peak of cli-fi novels and movies for the next four decades at least,” said Astrid Markham, a prominent American literary agent based in London.

Want to know more? Ask these people quoted here yourself if you want to know more about how they view the rise of cli-fi in their industry and whether they are warming up to the new genre in the 21st century, or, if they still remain a bit cool to it all.

“If the warming trend caused by greenhouse gas emissions continues, years like 2018 will be the norm in the 2040s, and would be classed as cold by the end of the century,” according to James Renick, a climate scientist in New Zealand. 

Enter cli-fi, stage left.

Ellen Centerman, CEO of Aquarius Books in Sydney, said: "Sure, I have hear about the cli-fi term, and like sci-fi, I think such novels (and their movie adaptations) have a big future over the next 40 years. Barbara Kingsolver's Flight Behavior was a fantastic cli-fi novel, without being preachy or lecturing readers. It was just a wonderfully-written and executed novel. I expect to see more such novels in the future. I'm all for them. Bring them on! I've told my acquring editors and PR people and marketing department here in Australia to get ready for the rise of cli-fi in the publishing industry. Such novels will make reading popular again among young people."

Bob Marcus, an acquiring editor for Somesuch Books in London, an indie operation, said: "Cli-fi? It's a new term for me, but I like the sound of it and I like what it stands for. I am looking for intelligent literary fiction for my imprint, and if an agent or an author pitches me with a good cli-fi story, I will be there for meet them for lunch and sign a contract. These will be 21st century novels. With reviews in the New York Times and the Guardian. Even Hillel Italie at the Associated Press will write about these cli-fi novels and interview the authors for his always-interesting wire stories."

"Big Ed" Rosenberg, a top literary agent in Manhattan told us: "They call me 'Big Ed' in Manhattan, not such much because of my girth or my height, but because I have a big heart and I value empathy. It's how I was raised in Boston. So I am in the marrket for cli-fi novels, of course, and with our rights department, I am also interested in selling the movie rights to Hollywood producers like Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio and Marshall Herskovitz. Books to movies is part of  my business and I see cli-fi as a bright spot in the future. Just as Jeff VanderMeer's novel "Annihilation" was sold to Hollywood, I can see the same future for well-written well-plotted cli-fi novels. Jeff was a trailblazer. He is leading the way. I love the guy. Met him a few times in New York, too. We have friends in common."

Barbara Narjaram, a PR person at Jinsum Publishers in New York said:: "I never heard of cli-fi until you mentioned it. It is a new genre or something? Sounds like sci-fi but with the added value of a climate theme. We can do amazing thing with this genre in the PR world, and given the the way the world has been heating up the past ten years, or more, cli-fi is a perfect match for what ails us. If the authors are willing to do the promotional tours, and visit bookstores as part of the cli-fi promotions, I am all for it."

Daniel-Jean Bertin, who runs the marketing department for the French publisher Asterix Plus, said:: "Whatever the boss says, we can do. We have been marketing sci-fi novels for years and we know the market. So with cli-fi novels grabbing a piece of the public's mind now, we can do the same thing with cli-fi. It's a natural in this age of the Anthropocene. It's a long word but I like it. I can work it. I can work with cli-fi. Send them to me!"

Joan LeBoeuf, who is a noted literary critic in the London, said: "It's too bad that Michiko Kakutani is no longer at the New York Times as a book reviewer, she would be a good person to look at the rise of cli-fi and explain it all for us. But in the meantine, there are plenty of others out there in the book world who can explain cli-fi to readers. In fact, Alexander Kaufman recently referred to Kim Stanley Robinson as "the godfather of cli-fi." That's quite a statement. He wrote that in the Huffington Post."

Steffan Fennander-Knowles, who runs the bookstore display department for Foyles in the UK, puts it this way: "I work at Foyles here in London, and  one summer we put up a cli-fi display table, and it was an eye-catching attraction. Media reports picked up the photo and it went worldwide via social media. Waterstones in the UK also did a cli-fi display recently with very good results. So bookstores are getting into the act as well. It's good for business. It's good for books."

Michelle Ashekanzi is the bookstore buyer for a major retail chain in Australia and she says:  "If they publish more cli-fi books and the novels get noticed, we'll order them. It all starts with the publishers and the book reviewers and the literary critics. We will see. I'm optimistic."

Jannifer Mercredit is a sci-fi novelist in South Africa, and she tells us:: "Count me in. Publish my new cli-fi novel, get me an option for a movie, and I will promote the heck out of it. I will go anywhere for my book. It's more than about my career, it's about the fate of the Earth. My novel is optimistic and full of hope, so I think people like Bill McKibben and Katharine Hayhoe will get behind it. too. Cli-fi doesn't have to be depressing and dystopian to sell well. We need positvie stories too. Margaret Atwood coined a term I like -- ''ustopia'' -- for novels that a hybrid of dystopia and utopia."

Sally Flood, am editor who works at a major British trade magazine for books says: "We're the trade magazine of the book industry here in the UK, and if we say a cli-fi novel is worth reading, readers will follow. I'm all for it. Of course, there might be others who say they are "not interested" in cli-fi, for various reasons, but  remember that in the beginning the sci-fi genre faced an uphill battle in gaining recognition. Cli-fi can rise to new heights, I am sure."

Book maven Pilita Clark way back in 2103 -- 5 years ago! --put it this way at the FT in London and said: ''The literary world already has plenty of genres, but as the Arctic melts, the planet warms and carbon dioxide levels reach their highest point in human history, a new class of fiction has been added to the list: climate fiction, or cli-fi.''

And now it's 2018. What would Pilita Clark say now? We'd love to hear from her.

A blast from the past: Amy Brady interviews Allegra Hyde in 2016 before she started the BURNING WORLDS monthly column re the rise of cli-fi : this interview took place in 2016

Amy Brady: What do you make of the recent spate of climate fiction (or “cli-fi”) that’s emerged in recent years? Do you think it’s a bona fide new genre of literature or a fleeting trend? Or something else?

Allegra Hyde: I’m guessing “cli-fi” is here to stay. What will be interesting to watch, however, is how this kind of fiction evolves alongside our rapidly changing world. Is climate-fiction going to become more and more darkly dystopic? Or is it going to serve as a vehicle for imagining solutions?

***"Curious, empathetic, compassionate: What we should be as human beings."***

THE ''Cli-Fi ''REPORT:
100 academic and  media links:
http://cli-fi.net

A global warming ''message in bottle'' sent out to the world in 2018, with a due date of 2518. Deal with this as you wish.

''The Madonna of Global Warming'' outside a church in northern France, 2012. [Photo Yann Quero]

Why do we humans procrastinate? It's because we think, psychologically, of our future selves as ''strangers''. So in taking steps to fight runaway #AGW, we therefore procrastinate because we don't see the future as *our* future. We are "Procrastination Nation." #CliFi

A global warming ''message in bottle'' sent out to the world in 2018, with a due date of 2518. Deal with this as you wish. 

Readers: Don't attack me and don't attack my message. I come to you with acceptance and vision. Don't be afraid. We did this to ourselves.This message is not so much for you living in 2018 as for our descendants living 500 years from now, if there is a 500 years from now in human terms. 

Here is my message to now, and then, 2018 and 2518.

"We" didn't almost fix climate change 40 years ago, as the NYT said in 2018, and we aren't able to fix it now since we lack the political will and muscle worldwide, and it's ''game over'' for the human species within the next 500 years. Time has run out. 

All we can do now is prepare for what our descendants will be facing 30 generations now. It ain't gonna be  a pretty picture. 

We were warned, we decided to keep on partying instead. You know that old saying, "people get what they deserve"? Well, we got what we deserved. Serves us right. Quitchbellyaching. Face facts. Face reality. 

We did this to ourselves, unwittingly.  

Now's the time to prepare our descendants to learn how to lie down and die with dignity and grace, hopefully with sleeping pills or fermented drinks, when that time comes in 500 years. 

I have seen the future. I have spoken. Ignore my vision at your peril. There is no way out of here now. A dead end awaits us. Be brave, pucker up, be strong in the face of this adversity. 

Our descendants' days are numbered and there is no God or Jesus to un-number them. Prayer is useless. But it might help numb the pain. Sure. Pray if it helps you. 

But remember and forward my words, as you prepare to raise the next 30 generations of humans. There is no hope, but we can be strong and prepare. 

Are you on board? We face the worst calamity humanity has ever, in our long march up the long ladder of evolution, faced. Face it. Don't look away. 

Tomorrow's another day and there's work to be done. Do it with dignity and grace. Stop playing games with your mind. Bill McKibben and Katharine Hayhoe and Eric Holthaus and Nat Rich and Jay Sparrow  and Heidi Hutner and everyone else in the we can fix it camp don't have the answers, well intentioned do-gooders that they are. 

There are no longer any answers. I hope you are listening to me. I don't come to you with answers. I come to you with fate, your fate, our fate, 30 generations from now.  

REPEAT: Readers: Don't attack me and don't attack my message. I come to you with acceptance and vision. Don't be afraid. We did this to ourselves.This message is not so much for you living in 2018 as for our descendants living 500 years from now, if there is a 500 years from now in human terms.