Climate Fiction of the Anthropocene

Humanity is collectively experiencing the Anthropocene. Human-induced climate change is catastrophically altering the relationships between Earth systems and human systems. The homeostasis of the whole-Earth ecosystem is dangerously off-kilter, with marginalised humans, other than humans, and more-than-humans most at risk as hydroclimatic volatility lurches us from floods to fires and back again in ways that forever alter our social and cultural (well)being. Some of us can only endure this repeated ontological whiplash for so long, while others are already enduring its most catastrophic effects. As environmental educators, we realise the role that education might play in supporting children and young people, with their adult allies, to learn to live with this climate change by radically altering the relationships that we humans have with our biotic and abiotic kin. First Nations Peoples and Non-Indigenous Peoples, whose presence on these lands is shaped by ongoing colonial occupation, must come together to learn from and with each other to realise such desirable futures. In this Special Issue, we showcase contributions that explore the power of Climate Fiction (Cli-Fi) as integral to environmental education as a transformative force for good in the Anthropocene. The papers in this collection are in three sets, those that: theorise Cli-Fi and its vital role in environmental education; investigate innovative interdisciplinary research that engages with Cli-Fi in the context of environmental education; and present Cli-Fi as creative practice-as-research in environmental education that involves rich and varied representational forms. As a collective, the authors of these papers seek to extend, revise and challenge current notions of Cli-Fi as that between fiction and nonfiction, humanities and sciences, and through varied styles and substances offer hope for re-imagining education for the Anthropocene through/as environmental education.