Novelists illustrate the climate futures that could await us
Politicians and scientists gathered in Scotland this week to set goals to roll back emissions and save the planet from catastrophic climate change at COP26. It’s a task so daunting it’s even hard to imagine.
But fiction writers are trying to do just that.
Omar el-Akkad authored 2021’s “What Strange Paradise” and 2017’s “American War,” which is about a second civil war triggered by a ban on fossil fuels.
“[Climate change] is happening geologically in the blink of an eye,” says novelist Omar el-Akkad, “but in human terms, it’s too long to think about. Very few politicians in power right now have to worry about getting re-elected 30 years from now. Once you move past the lifespan of a mortgage, you’re in trouble.”
El-Akkad says that stories can make the abstract threat of the climate crisis real for readers.
“I think that’s one of the things that fiction allows you to do. To try to say, ‘hey, listen. Care about someone who’s not you,’ ” he says. “Is that going to work against the
