Science fiction presents us with many visions of different worlds. As defined by Oxford Languages, science fiction is “fiction based on imagined future scientific or technological advances and major social or environmental changes, frequently portraying space or time travel and life on other planets.” Some sci-fi visions of the future seem more far-fetched, while others, like Fahrenheit 451 or 1984, may seem all too possible. But at its core, all science fiction is rooted in imagination: it depicts a world that is different from our current one. Despite our associations with science fiction as magical or imagined, it can be a useful framework to think about solutions to climate change — especially as many of the once-far-fetched, semi-apocalyptic predictions about climate change’s worst impacts are coming true before our eyes.
The scientific community has long presented dire predictions around climate change, ranging from climate disasters, to unbearable heat, to catastrophic sea level rise. And now, the future we feared has now arrived. Already this summer, climate change has caused record-breaking heat waves in the Western U.S., historic flooding in Europe and China, and devastating hurricane and fire seasons all around the world. But in this moment where the improbable has become real, we also have the opportunity to reimagine what we want that future to look like as we face the climate crisis and enter a post-pandemic world — and we can take a lesson from science fiction to do so.
So how might science fiction help us imagine a more climate-just future, a world in which humanity lives in harmony with nature and one another? Such a world could be considered a utopia, an imagined place or state of things in which everything is perfect. By contrast, a dystopia is an imagined state or society in which there is great suffering or injustice, typically one that is totalitarian or post-apocalyptic. We currently live in a society in which there is great suffering and injustice, and some of the worst income inequality in modern history — by many metrics and for many populations, a dystopian society.
How can we create transformative change without being discouraged by current injustices? This is where science fiction comes in. We must first imagine a utopia, one where we have adapted to the climate crisis and there is no suffering or injustice, and truly believe such a utopia can exist beyond just our imagination. To quote Adrienne Maree Brown’s book Emergent Strategy, we must imagine and spread a vision of an “irresistible future,” then do everything in our power to realize it. What we envision can become reality if we invest our time, energy, and hope into the climate justice movement. Though utopian thinking might seem impossible, we must start with an image of a better future — without something to strive for, change can never begin.
As we work to create our perfect utopian society, we must be open to that vision changing and adapting, and we cannot expect to achieve perfection on the first try. In fact, though we need to set our sights on sweeping, systemic change, it can be simpler and more practical to start on a smaller scale. One way to attempt such change is to use cities as laboratories, when action stalls on a federal level.
The Green New Deal for Boston Report, produced by the Center and authored by Executive Director Nina Schlegel, presents an actionable guide toward realizing our utopian vision at the city-level, starting with Boston. Using cities as laboratories is an important practice because they are often more responsive towards everyday people. Unlike the federal government, city governments are smaller and more responsive to the needs of their residents. According to the report, 71 percent of U.S. adults trust their local government, over four times as many as those who trust the federal government. In addition, through taxes, investments, and local policies, cities have more direct power to create visible change in their communities — making it more likely for residents to see the changes they want.
One way to use cities as laboratories is to develop eco-districts within them. As outlined in the report, eco-districts are designated planning areas within a city that are purposely planned to have distinct and comprehensive sustainability goals for advancing comprehensive district sustainability. These districts are set up purposefully in areas that have faced the disproportionate impacts of environmental harms along with the harms of disinvestment in the community. These districts help create a healthier, greener community without initiating the cycle of gentrification and displacement. They can also help give the neighborhood more direct political power and give residents a chance to imagine their own future — making them the perfect mini-laboratories in which to test utopian ideas. As we test out utopian ideas on smaller scales and find success, these ideas can grow in size and scale as we expand our definition of what is possible.
A crucial step to creating a utopia is not giving in to fear and doubt, but to instead keep working and imagining through those fears. There are many policies that seem unachievable at first glance. For example, a not-for-profit national health care system can seem like an impossible utopian goal. But if we set aside our fear of failure and continue to dream of what society could become with socialized health care, we remain empowered to actually work towards those goals. We must continue investing our energy in proactive policy reforms and programs that can serve as building blocks for the climate justice movement and for more ideal policies down the road.
Imagination is a crucial part of enacting a GND and creating a greener, more just world. We have never lived in such a world before, so making it reality will not only take tremendous willpower and hope, but also true imagination. As the philosopher and Founding Father Thomas Paine said, “We have it in our power to begin the world over again.” Instead of settling for small changes or feeling confined to our status quo, we instead need to think big and imagine new systems. To solve the existential threat to humanity that is climate change requires nothing less than transformative, systemic change.
And we must spread that utopian vision beyond the bounds of the climate justice movement. By imagining and publicizing a vision of an “irresistible future,” we can draw others into the movement. And perhaps realizing this vision is not as daunting as it seems: studies have found that only 3.5 percent of a population has to become politically mobilized to make real social change possible. If our utopian vision is irresistible enough and our hope is inextinguishable, we have the power to make it our reality. After all, with a crisis as serious as climate change, failure is not an option.
