cli-fi en · NOUN
Pronunciation
- /ˈklaɪfaɪ/
Etymology
From climate + fiction (modeled after sci-fi). Coined by Dan Bloom in 2006.
Meanings
-
(uncountable) A subgenre of ecofiction with issues about climate change as the main focus.
The issue is so pressing that some have started to use the term “cli-fi” for climate fiction — but this faddish coinage obscures a longer history of sf’s engagement with the environment and leaves unexamined the question of why sf has proven such a valuable genre for thinking about environmental futures.
[2021 July 20, Sherryl Vint, “A Century of Science Fiction That Changed How We Think About the Environment”, in The MIT Press Reader, archived from the original on 31 Jul 2021:Perhaps the most high-profile cli-fi author is Margaret Atwood, whose 2009 The Year of the Flood features survivors of a biological catastrophe also central to her 2003 novel Oryx and Crake, a book Atwood sometimes preferred to call "speculative fiction".
2013 May 31, Rodge Glass, “Global warning: the rise of 'cli-fi'”, in The Guardian: