There are already many genres in the literary world and you might be tempted to think that all possible genres have already been covered. However, the creation of genres is certainly not about to come to an end. Change is one of the factors that causes sub-genres and totally new genres to be created. Climate change is a song that we have been singing since the '50s and it is now on the verge of causing the acceptance of a previously obscure genre.

As the polar ice caps melt and carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere reach record highs, the literary world is preparing to usher in a new genre called climate fiction. In the 1990s, you could count the novels that mentioned climate change off the top of your head. However, more than 150 novels have mentioned climate change and it is the main theme in more than 50 of them. Nathaniel Rich is one of the latest authors to write a book about climate change. His book titled Odds Against Tomorrow has done well.

The cover of this 2012 novel shows Manhattan submerged by seawater. The novel was released just seven months before Hurricane Sandy hit the city. The author was going over the final proof of his novel when the hurricane hit and, when interviewed, he said that he had never heard about climate fiction. However, he said that many more similar novels would be written. However, the effect that such books will have on the discussion about climate change is hard to predict. In his interview, he mentioned Uncle Tom’s Cabin, an anti-slavery novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe, and said that there is always the possibility that a novel can influence political change.

It is, however, not the role of a novelist to be an activist and Rich did not mince his words. He reiterated that there is already a category of fiction that has the main purpose of influencing attitudes: propaganda. Most climate fiction novelists are tempted to write novels that seek to change people’s attitudes and as a result their novels have little influence.

Over the years, the types of literary works that mention climate change have been evolving. In the period between 1962 and 2011, the number of novels mentioning climate change was a little more than 300. Most of the books written prior to the late '90s were science fiction and they did not consider climate change to be a main problem, but rather one of the many problems mentioned. Later, more renowned authors started to tackle the problem of climate change and the pattern began to change. Climate change became an increasingly talked about theme, not only because of the authors who were writing about it but also because of public concern about the problem. There is an increasing awareness by the public about the gravity of climate change and why we should do something about it. Climate fiction, however, still has a long way to go before it gets anywhere close to bestselling genres such as romance and crime.