Week 13: Climate Fictions & Decolonizing the Anthropocene

This week, we discussed the concept of fiction writing as a form of climate action, particularly in the genre of climate fiction.  Within this realm of climate storytelling can include Afrofuturism.  This genre represents African-American culture within science fiction, an area in which African-Americans and Black storytellers were missing for a long time as it was a field dominated by white, male authors.  Octavia Butler, one of the most prominent Afrofuturism authors, warned of social chaos stemming from climate change and economic disaster in her novel about what could happen in the early 2020s.  Her book strays away from typical science fiction tropes and trajectories by using real-world terrors to create a sense of dystopia and panic.  We also read an article that referenced the very real and timely issue of climate refugees, an issue that will only continue to worsen as more land becomes uninhabitable and more countries react by tightening immigration laws and preventing people from seeking safety.   This phenomenon represents an apocalypse itself for the people forced to leave what was once their home due to climate disasters, pollution, and disappearing land.  Many of the readings this week also emphasized the fact that the term apocalypse is subjective, as some people are already facing severe impacts of climate change whereas for others they have more resources to protect them from these effects, but will ultimately be unable to escape them no matter how long they delay them.  In Imagining the Future of Climate Change, the author discusses how climate fiction authors are activists actively trying to imagine and shape a world that diverges from dominant narratives of power and aim to decolonize the imagination by sharing this vision.  

The concept of climate fiction is interesting to me because it is able to take real-life challenges and threats and turn them into scary stories even more impactful than crazy horror movies made up of monsters.  I also would have never considered science fiction authors to be activists until considering how they can create a reality check for readers by speculating on how greed, corruption, and pollution can ultimately lead to devastation and death, not unlike that of end-of-the-world movies.  My favorite part of this week's readings was the zine without borders.  After doing a project where I am analyzing groups of mostly white, straight couples with similar backgrounds and motivations for joining very narrowly focused groups.  It was cool to read stories and submissions from activists that seemed to represent a wide variety of backgrounds, beliefs, cultures, and experiences.  

Keywords:
Green gentrification = occurs when green space creation, restoration, and beautification processes in Black neighborhoods attract wealthy white populations who raise the cost of housing and displace the long term and low-income families of color who have always lived there 
Geo-historical junctures = collisions between scientific reasoning of the Anthropocene and cultural fears embedded in future imaginaries
Climate fiction = represents fears of ecological disaster fueled by overconsumption and industrialization