Cli-fi Conversations with Claudia Befu

An in-depth discussion on the state of the climate and the writers who are speculating about it with cli-fi blogger, Claudia Befu.

Claudia Befu

’s writing is enchanting. Her prize-winning background in poetry is evident in the sumptuous phrasing and delicate language found in her Substack newsletter, Story Voyager. In it, she explores a post-climate-devastated world that forms the backdrop for a novel, There is Hope. The stories that populate There is Hope are well suited to serialization, as unlike much contemporary literature, they don’t revolve around a single hero, rather shifting focus across time and space, showing a variety of perspectives. Interspersed between, and often within the stories, are meticulously researched, data-driven essays about climate change, that are both sobering and beautifully written. Story Voyager has been a Substack featured publication and appears on Feedspot’s top 15 cli-fi blogs.

Thanks Claudia, for agreeing to this asynchronous chat. I thought I'd start by asking what came first for you, the climate or the fiction? 

The journey started with fiction. At 13, I had my first attempt at novel writing. That same summer, I met a 70-year-old female poet whose guidance led me to explore poetry. When I turned 17, I joined the local poetry cénacle, unaware that it attracted some of the most talented young poets in the country. Initially, they shredded my poetry to pieces, but I didn’t give up, refining my craft until my work met their high standards. Over two years, I won four national poetry prizes, including three first-place awards.

I was happy writing poetry until one morning in March 2013, when I wrote down the opening scene of my sci-fi novel idea—the story of an amortal elite teacher working in a school for gifted children. Although I intermittently worked on worldbuilding in the following years, I found myself lacking the narrative tools necessary to fully realize my vision. Seeking to improve my storytelling skills, I enrolled in a Master’s program in Writing for Script & Screen at Falmouth University.

During my studies, I focused exclusively on developing my story idea. Each writing exercise resulted in a new story within my storyworld. I wrote a screenplay for a short film called ‘The Seed Grower’ exploring a world devastated by climate change where a single mother grows illegal seeds. This storyline inspired a cli-fi series, now serialized on Substack under the title There Is Hope, which explains the origins of the utopian world envisioned in my novel. Additionally, I wrote The Roommate, a sci-fi theater play staged in 2019, delving into AI and healthcare corruption. I also developed outlines for three feature-length screenplays, which I intend to adapt into novels. Furthermore, I turned my original sci-fi narrative into a screenplay for a full-length film, which I plan to adapt into a book.

All my story ideas, save one, take place in the same universe at various times and contexts—from a world devastated by climate change to a world where climate issues have been resolved, leaving human nature to drive the drama. Actual change requires a fundamental shift in our worldview and relationship with the environment.

I aspire to write fiction, particularly climate fiction, deeply rooted in reality. While speculative, my narratives explore the consequences of present-day scenarios. Rather than presenting an exclusively positive portrayal of the future, I want to explore plausible scenarios, giving hints of possible solutions to our climate crisis.

Inspired by Amitav Ghosh’s work The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable, my approach to climate fiction is to write stories that reflect a preoccupation with the most urgent issue of our times, climate change. I want to reintroduce fantastical elements—absent from mainstream ‘serious’ literature—to highlight the non-human forces that shape human destiny in a world with an unpredictable climate and challenge the contemporary hero-centric narrative. As Amitav Ghosh aptly observes, addressing global issues necessitates collective action, not individual heroism.

Last but not least, it is crucial to distinguish between fiction and activism when writing climate fiction. Writers must retain the freedom to create and not be pushed by well-meaning publications into writing exclusively positive narratives about the future based on writing prompts. With this approach, literature risks turning into propaganda. True creativity thrives on freedom of thought and expression.

Thanks for sharing your journey! Your stories indeed paint a hopeful, but not entirely utopian future. More than fantastical elements, I noticed the inclusion of future tech - the drones, the AI characters, the continued tinkering with seeds (and control). Do you think that technology will play a big role in human development, whether in avoiding or responding to the changes in our natural environment that have already begun? Have you looked much into geoengineering? Is that one of the possible solutions to the climate crisis you're alluding to? If not, which others would you like to see and how is that incorporated into your writing, both fiction and non-fiction?

As for propaganda, to me it feels like most cli-fi is framed as 'cautionary tales', with negative images of a future devastated by climate change (I can't not mention Andy Weir's huge generalization of all cli-fi being summed up by ‘humanity bad, corporations bad, nature good’). I'm not as well-read as you though, so if you think it's the opposite (exclusively positive narratives), could you elaborate on some examples of that and how you are trying to change the tone/add nuance in your own writing?

The backdrop of my cli-fi series, There Is Hope, is dystopian. Observing history and human nature, it appears that we only make drastic lifestyle changes when confronted with disaster. For example, consider the agricultural revolution.

During the Ice Age, European hunter-gatherer societies needed deep knowledge of the flora and fauna across vast areas, spanning up to 250,000 square kilometers. They migrated seasonally with the animals on which they subsisted in a mammoth steppe tundra, the largest biome of the last Ice Age, stretching from the Iberian Peninsula to North America and from the Arctic to China. This tundra ecosystem that dominated Earth for 100,000 years was flooded at the end of the last Ice Age within months. The ice sheet covering Eurasia melted at a rate of 600 meters per day for months. The food source of the animals we hunted was gone which led to the extinction of mammoths, as they didn't have any time to adapt. Many other species died as well or were drastically reduced in numbers. Agriculture was not a revolution but a necessity for survival.

Similarly, developments like the European enlightenment, the rise of science, and colonialism leading to the Industrial Revolution were propelled by a climate event known as the Little Ice Age, lasting from 1250 to 1860, which claimed millions of lives. Birds fell frozen from the sky, fish in lakes froze to death, and people starved, sparking social unrest.

In short, my assumption in There Is Hope is that people won't change until the consequences of climate change become unbearable. How unbearable? I draw on the climate science outlined in The uninhabitable earth: life after warming by David Wallace-Wells, and, for the technological trends, I observe the latest developments. In There Is Hope I mention a Data War because I foresee technology becoming so influential that tech companies may take over the world. Will they fight for dominance? The details of this background story will be included in an upcoming story. I assume that a combination of technology, a new non-materialistic philosophy deeply rooted in nature, and a heightened awareness of the necessity to safeguard essential resources like natural seeds, drinking water, and habitats will be pivotal for a better future.

I haven't read much about geoengineering, but I'm currently exploring it in a cli-fi book I'm reading. I also watched the series Snowpiercer on Netflix and the film. I will introduce some form of geoengineering in the sequel to There Is Hope, which will lean more toward a utopian vision, but I will focus on weather engineering rather than throwing stuff in the air.

Last year, I read 10 cli-fi books, and I'm already onto my third this year. While it's true that most of them serve as cautionary tales, there's a new trend where non-fiction publications offer prompts for writers to imagine how to save the planet by specific dates, like 2050 or 2200. The resulting stories often remind me of the childhood books I read in communist Romania, where children made scientific discoveries at a young age to help society. Nowadays, the storyline involves influencers for good, initiating movements to save the world. I encountered this narrative in a book I read this year which was a mix of cautionary tale and happy ending. While these stories are uplifting, change requires examining a situation from all angles, not just a positive perspective. You can't come up with solutions if you ignore reality. Regarding Andy Weir, depending on what cli-fi books he read, he might be right.

Your description of the climate influencing the agricultural revolution is new to me, and so fascinating! 

It certainly appears that humans struggle to make widespread change without external forcing, but we're seeing a separation of GDP growth from emissions across a lot of countries as renewable energies become competitive with fossil fuel-based ones and cleaner tech like EVs gain more widespread use. Could we hope that market forces could drive a cleaner atmosphere in the near future? 

I see what you mean about the uplifting cli-fi stories emerging. Do you think there is a place for neither utopian nor dystopian fiction, that presents a net neutral future that allows for our society to continue along its current bumpy road? After all, you named your story There is Hope, which gives cause for cautious optimism.

Unfortunately, as our energy needs increase, so does our reliance on fossil fuels. In 2023, we witnessed record-high CO2 emissions, and the atmospheric concentration of CO2 continues to rise annually. This trend persists because fossil fuels still account for over 80% of our global energy production. Cities contribute to over 70% of global CO2 emissions. While there has been significant growth in renewable energy production, particularly in the electricity sector, fossil fuels still generated over 60% of global electricity in 2023. More, by 2027, the use of AI in data centers could consume energy equivalent to that of a small country like the Netherlands or Sweden. Building the renewable energy infrastructure necessary to meet this substantial energy demand is costly and takes time. Something has to give. If we want to advance AI technology, then we must cut energy consumption in other sectors, for example fashion. We must implement laws and regulations to control CO2 emissions, and we probably need citizens worldwide to pressure their governments into enacting such laws. Greenwashing and the CO2 certificate economy will not help reach our goal of reducing CO2 emissions. If we only focus on market dynamics and economic growth, we will have a hard time achieving meaningful change.

Given this urgent situation, I believe fiction writers should have the freedom to choose the genre they wish to explore, whether utopian, dystopian, or realistic. There is room for all perspectives, and there is no need to silence any voices. Too often, I observe people criticizing those who express distress or despair over climate change. However, demanding positivity in the face of such adversity is unrealistic. It's normal to feel fear and apprehension, just as it is to hope for a better world. We are all in this together.

I couldn't agree more. I also appreciate that your own fiction combines a short-term dystopian vision, with a longer-term view to regrowth and the gaining of wisdom. Can you give us any hints about where the series is going and what have been your favorite parts to write and research so far?

So far, my favorite aspect has been worldbuilding. I've built a secondary world tentatively named The Deep Dive, spanning over 1,200 years from approximately 2400 CE to 3600 CE. The interconnected short stories in There Is Hope, set around the year 2550 CE, lay the groundwork for a novel with the working title The Deep Dive, set around the year 3600 CE. I’ve already plotted several significant events on this timeline. For example, toward the end of the 25th century, a Data War erupts, with the six largest tech powers worldwide fighting for supremacy. The descendants of these tech empires will play pivotal roles in the stories set in the 3600 CE timeline.

Around the year 2700 CE, the main character from There Is Hope creates a virtual space called The Museum of Life, where she curates human experiences. Initially, this involves crafting digital stories based on salvaged data from past generations, eventually progressing to uploading human memories entirely into the virtual museum. I intend to utilize this museum for participatory worldbuilding and will soon launch a call-to-action for everyone to submit their Letters for the Future to the Museum of Life. I envision this as a virtual collection of human experiences similar to the photography collection depicted in Stephen Poliakoff's BBC film Shooting the past. In the film, curators sift through seemingly unrelated photographs in the vast collection to reconstruct compelling narratives. It's a concept that I find immensely fascinating and that I’ve integrated into my story.

Next to worldbuilding, I’ve developed several characters whom I deeply care about and who have been existing in my mind for the past decade, awaiting their stories to be written. Currently, I’m editing the third story out of a total of five for There Is Hope and I aim to finish the novel this year.

Last but not least, the themes that inspired me to build this secondary world are many, but one central theme remained constant throughout my life. Having grown up under a communist regime and later experiencing socialism in Austria and capitalism worldwide, I understand that no form of government is flawless or everlasting. I've always been in pursuit of a better world, and I aim to explore this quest through my writing.

Finally, you say that the role of current practitioners of cli-fi is:

1) To make sense of the situation, and

2) To reintroduce fantasy into the realm of serious literature.

Which authors and works do you think are best succeeding at these tasks, and what is the influence it's having (if any) on public discourse around this charged topic?

From all the climate fiction books I’ve read so far, The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi has left the strongest impression on me. Beyond its exceptional writing and its setting in one of my favorite cities in the world, Bangkok, the themes explored in the book deeply resonated with me. The primary topic addressed in the book is food security, which I believe is often overlooked in discussions about climate change and science fiction. After reading Seeds of resistance by Mark Shapiro, a non-fiction book about the future of our food, I realized how little we know about the food we put daily on our tables. Prior to this, I had believed that genetically modified foods were essential for feeding the growing world population and for developing seeds capable of adapting to changing climate conditions. However, the reality is starkly different. Four pesticide and fertilizer companies now hold a monopoly over seeds worldwide, launching an offensive against independent seed banks maintained by farmers and indigenous groups. These seed varieties, cultivated and adapted over thousands of years, offer a diverse and resilient food source, unlike the sterile seeds manufactured and sold by corporate giants. Bacigalupi's focus on seeds feels particularly timely and shows a deep understanding of the most pressing issue facing humanity. While we can survive without technology, we cannot survive without food.

In addition to the theme of food security, I was impressed by the technology in The Windup Girl, particularly one of the characters, a wind-up girl, which is a Japanese robot and one of the narrators. Her role is to hold a mirror up to humanity, exposing our flaws and shortcomings. Bacigalupi also addresses the use of expensive technology to protect a city built on water from rising sea levels, a theme explored in the non-fiction book The Great Derangement by Amitav Gosh. Our complacency, rooted  in millennia of stable climate conditions, is exposed— why build cities in vulnerable locations susceptible to flooding, hurricanes and tsunamis?

Another novel that continues to resonate with me is Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood, which was written before the emergence of the genre but it definitely fits within the realm of cli-fi. Eighteen years ago, when I first read it, I didn’t believe that some of the topics would become eerily relevant today. For example, people streaming their lives online, writers relegated to writing ads propaganda for pennies, corporates with higher annual revenues than the GDPs of entire countries, rich people living in gated communities to protect themselves from the degenerate outside world. The subsequent books in the trilogy delve into genetically modified animals in our food, organ growth in pigs, and groups seeking to dismantle modern civilization to save the Earth.

Which brings me to my last example, The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson, that stands out as a highly recommended read, generating considerable hype, an uncommon thing for a book in recent years. Although I hesitate to label it a traditional novel due to its somewhat lacking plot and chapters functioning as info dumps on various aspects of climate change, it includes interesting propositions for safeguarding the future of our planet. From unconventional guerrilla tactics like bombing airplanes and sinking cargo ships, to creating a carbon-based currency and living in airships, the book offers a spectrum of ideas. A tedious but informative and at times eerily inspiring read, especially the carbon-based currency, a concept to which I can relate given my current job is in a company that wants to create a currency based on renewable energy. 

Thanks so much for your participation, Claudia. It’s been informative and fun!

Thank you so much, Shoni, for the opportunity to talk about my interest in climate fiction and for your thoughtful questions.