The Futures We Tell

Journalists, novelists, and filmmakers have been confronted with the expectation that their speculative storytelling should be useful in the fight against climate change. As the calls keep multiplying for more diverse, more positive, more effective, and better imaginations of the future, we must consider the different modes, aims, and intended audiences of such storytelling. By themselves, stories cannot save us from political failures and their effects on environments, lives, and livelihoods. But their ability to engage the imagination is nevertheless a valuable tool in climate-change adaptation and mitigation efforts.