Climate Fiction: A Promising Way of Communicating Climate Change with the General Public

Mingcan Rong
Additional contact information
Mingcan Rong: Guangzhou Yuexiu Kelaimeite Environmental Protection Exchange Center, Beijing, China; School of GeoSciences, The University of Edinburgh

Studies in Social Science & Humanities, 2023, vol. 2, issue 2, 21-27

Abstract: Since anthropogenic climate change was first noticed in the late 1980s, despite scientists’ consensus on its urgency and seriousness with strong evidence, climate risk is still a tough issue for the public to engage with due to its ambiguity, invisibility and uncertainty. This article reviews the emotive and empathetic role of climate fiction (cli-fi) in climate change communication, using the precautionary principle of relevance to sustainable development to discuss how cli-fi has influenced the way people feel and think about climate change and further foster pro-environmental attitudes and opinions. Through discussing the effectiveness of cli-fi as a communication tool, I argue that cli-fi allows readers to visualise the implications of climate change on themselves and triggers their empathetic and emotional responses, especially negative emotions. Those emotions, on the one hand, could arouse a wider and deeper climate consciousness by inspiring audiences to consider previously unnoticed subjects; on the other hand, could facilitate affective engagement and the perceived need for action.

Keywords: climate change communication; climate-fiction (cli-fi); risk perception; narrative; the precautionary principle; sustainable development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.paradigmpress.org/SSSH/article/view/432/376 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bdz:ssosch:v:2:y:2023:i:2:p:21-27

DOI: 10.56397/SSSH.2023.02.04

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Studies in Social Science & Humanities from Paradigm Academic Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Editorial Office ().