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.
