With the escalating effects of climate change taking toll on various sectors of the world, it has been realised that the war on climate change cannot be fought from the scientific, environmental, political and economic fronts only.
The other sector that has been seemingly neglected is the literary one and writers need to be motivated on different styles between science and literature in breathing new life into the rather tired and jargon infested scientific writing. For quite some time, people have enjoyed the fruits of the art of fiction, but technological developments seem to have taken over. The reading culture is dead so is the writing culture and creativity. But regardless of these challenges, literary experts still have a role to play in conscientising people on climate issues through the novel, short stories, poetry, drama, film and theatre.
Literature has the power to mediate between the scientific and political landscapes that have done a lot to disempower the once lively readership. It is also quite clear that people don’t feel the same about climate change, therefore, they need to write differently. The scientific nature of climate change is more riddled with fear inducing messages, while the politics of climate change is more than intoxicating. Political decisions now supersede environmental ones resulting in an intricate climate deadlock. Literary works are highly people-centred and context specific, as they appeal favourably to personal and cultural changes of individuals and society.
People always view the world through the literature they read and in turn, behave in the real world, accordingly on the basis of what they see. Through fiction, writers are better placed to imagine and visualise what the future might look like and how humanity can respond. Basing their facts on the changing environment, fiction writers may provide the most needed vision in articulating issues related to sustainable environmental management. If the world has been accustomed to watching scientific fictional films and reading science fiction novels, what then can stop literary experts from embarking on environmental fiction, with climate change as the first port of call?
Storytelling and folklore can be revived or digitised to buttress the point of environmental stewardship as well as moving with the current technological advancement. These will be used to name and shame polluters of the environment so that they mould and shape their behaviours accordingly. Hymns, songs and choruses can be fused within the stories to give the audiences time to reflect on how they relate and interact with their environments. Everybody likes music, either by listening or performing, as such genres favoured by the youth should not be ignored in this discourse. The youths should be actively engaged and groomed to face challenges related to climate change in their future as adults.
Climate fiction stories also need to touch on how societies can adapt to the ever changing environments. Science fiction is full of mind shattering and action filled events while literature has the descriptive and narrative power to its disposal. In this regard, literary writers, as the creative experts they are, can come up with versatile and sustainable practices of presenting environmental issues. Climate change, as another source of conflict in an already suspicious world, needs to be communicated sustainably well. Literature can be seen as a weapon of trust, a therapeutic wedge that diffuses tensions in a world that has lost faith and trust.
Literature, in its own right, is good for capturing, moulding and preserving cultural practices and perceptions for the future generations. Literature does not only provide a variety of platforms for communicating climate fiction, but hope and vision as well. Literary experts, with the writing skills they already possess, are able to bring the relationship between narrative and the environment much closer to interact.
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New genres of literature such as eco-criticism and eco-linguistics are coming up and they need to be explored for climate fiction. Eco-criticism is the relationship between literature and the physical natural environment. Eco-criticism also advances the point that literature promotes environmental consciousness, appreciation, knowledge and stewardship in people. According to eco-critics, local people use experiential knowledge to acquire skills to adapt themselves to changes in their environments. As such, they know the terrain, the landscapes and sacred places as well as the coping strategies in the event of hunger and natural disasters that are highly climate induced.
Another genre, which is sustainable and eco-conscious and is also related to linguistics but can be utilised in literature is eco-linguistics. It is the study of the environment in relation to language use. It is the study of how discourses about the natural environment potentially influence our perceptions of the environment and our interactions with it. In this view, linguists and literary experts can use climate fiction to challenge discourses that encourage language habits that have contributed to our present environmental crisis. According to research in social ecology, humans will not stop dominating nature and treating it as a resource until we stop dominating each other as well as treating each other as resources. It is the duty of literary experts to come up with stories (fiction) that do not encourage repeating of the same errors of the past and consider humans as part of the natural world rather than conquerors of it.
Research in climate fiction should also be encouraged to look at the power of language in the context of environmental consciousness in order to identify gaps in the few existing research so as to suggest new solutions and mapping the way forward.
Finally, environmental consciousness of society is informed by environmental consciousness of individuals since human beings, in their own right, are influenced by their surroundings, mother tongue and ethno-social groups they belong to. For, it is only in God that we always trust but in human beings we always need to check or remind each other.
●Peter Makwanya is a climate change communicator. He writes in his own capacity and can be contacted on: [email protected]
