Cli-Fi is a subgenre of science fiction (much like dystopian, utopian, cyberpunk, and space odyssey) in literature and film. While science fiction was once primarily "about science," it has since evolved into a far-reaching field that encompasses a variety of these subgenres. Cli-Fi is the assimilation of climate change inspired science fiction coined by author Yolonda Sweitzer in her upcoming young adult novel WHEN THE FIRST LEAVES WILT.
While Science fiction is a genre of speculative fiction dealing with
imaginative concepts such as futuristic settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, time travel, faster than light travel, parallel universes and
extraterrestrial life, Cli-Fi, by definition, deals specifically with a future set against the backdrop of an extreme environment due to climate shift and adverse weather patterns due to human interference in earth’s natural balance. Science fiction often explores the potential consequences of scientific and other
innovations, and has been called a "literature of ideas." Cli-Fi is no different in that sense, dealing most often with the man vs. nature themes of literature and maintaining a strong
environmental subject.
