SPOILERS AHEAD: The Ministry for the Future, Strange World
You’d be forgiven for thinking the world is ending.
I’ve thought it’s happening too. As a climate science student who has left lectures in tears and had to put a cap on how many times I check the news, I often feel anxious for what the future will hold. What really frustrates me though, is that when I sit down to tune out the horrors, I’m presented with the same looming catastrophe in books and movies. Ecological collapse, war, deadly diseases and extreme weather events not only dominate our daily headlines, but also our entertainment.
The way we imagine the future in fiction is too often bleak and dystopian. Stories like 1984, The Hunger Games or The Handmaid’s Tale predict a future where ecological collapse has led to oppressive control by totalitarian governments (1, 2, 3). In Mad Max and Waterworld it has left us hunting each other for sport (4, 5). Eco-fascists destroy worlds in Snowpiercer (6); sea level rise has inundated Melbourne’s poorest in The Sea and Summer (7); and collective inaction leads to the literal end of the world in Don’t Look Up (8).
Everywhere you look, the apocalypse is inescapable. Even comical stories like Sharknado forecast that devastating climate change is inevitable and will leave humanity scrambling to survive (9). We can’t catch a break.
If this is all we can tell of our future, then this is cause for concern.
Stories are more than just entertainment – they have real world impact. Science fiction, in particular, has already changed the world countless times over. Video phone calls, automatic sliding doors and self-driving cars are amongst the dozens of inventions inspired by the words and worlds of science fiction (10). Fiction can also influence and act as a warning of political and social systems. Cyberpunk as a genre anticipated worlds defined by mass surveillance, corporate greed and societal decay – all of which you can find inside a Coles supermarket today. Stories can become self-fulfilling prophecies.
Warnings are all well and good to raise awareness, but when it comes to the climate crisis, we certainly don’t need any more catastrophising. Climate change is recognised as a serious threat to mental health, with eco-anxiety on the rise, especially amongst young people (11,12). In 2021, a survey found that 75% of young people believe the future is “frightening” and more than 50% felt “helpless and powerless” (13). For some, this can encourage them to engage in climate action (14), but for others it can be debilitating. Severe eco-anxiety has been linked to a feeling coined ‘eco-paralysis’, where individuals are too overwhelmed to take action on climate change (15, 16).
Disaster and dystopian stories have, ironically, aided this rise of eco-anxiety and inaction. The Day After Tomorrow (2004), arguably the most famous piece of climate fiction, is set in a near future where the North Atlantic Oceanic current has broken down due to climate change, shepherding in an ice age that freezes over New York City (17). While the movie increased awareness and concern over climate change, research found it left audiences unsure of how to act and scared for the future (18, 19).
With our crippled imagination for optimistic alternatives, we’re left stranded in the dystopia, watching helplessly as our future is swept away by Sharknado.
We need to rewrite the script. Solarpunk, an emerging sci-fi subgenre and social movement, is trying to do just that. Solarpunk stories reject the doomism and imagine futures where humanity has succeeded in warding off devastating climate change. They include stories like Disney’s Strange World where humanity swaps an unsustainable fuel source for renewable energy (20), as well as stories like Arco and A Psalm for the Wild Built where we rely only on green technology, live within our means and rewild most of the planet (21, 22).
What makes solarpunk stories so compelling is that they don’t shy away from showing how complex the problem is and how difficult system change can be. The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson centres around an organisation that is formed to protect the rights of future generations from climate change (23). Using different perspectives and writing styles, Robinson explains the science of climate change and the complicated world of climate economics and policy. He illustrates just how much needs to be changed, but without overwhelm. The story does not leave you eco-paralysed. Instead, it acts as a roadmap showing all the possible pathways to a sustainable future. In taking these actions, we not only address climate change, but also the social inequalities that are intertwined with it. The energy transition is complete, and a successful and equitable restructuring of the global economy has abolished billionaires. It’s a future we can look forward to.
At their core, solarpunk stories have hope. A realistic hope that we can achieve a sustainable future using the tools we already have. We need this right now, because hope is incredibly useful in inspiring and navigating change. People with higher levels of hope are generally better equipped to navigate traumatic or stressful circumstances (24). Hopeful people are also more likely to engage in pro-environmental behaviour. One study of more than 500 high school students found that students who felt hopeful about the future were more likely to engage in sustainable behaviours (25). While a number of students also exhibited eco-anxiety, the study concluded that hope was the stronger predictor for actually taking action.
If dystopian stories are becoming a self-fulling prophecy, I’m willing to bet – and science is too – that if we tell them, the same could be true for stories of ecological and societal care. The main challenge here is that these stories remain niche. Like most climate fiction, they often only circulate within audiences already concerned about environmental issues, rather than reaching people who are disengaged from or hostile towards climate action (26). This is precisely why these stories need to become more visible. To normalise this future, more of us need to be creating and consuming solarpunk stories. Preventing the climate apocalypse requires you to pick up a book or watch a movie.
The stories we tell today shape the world we build tomorrow. So, let them be stories of hope.
References
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Collins S. The Hunger Games. Scholastic Press; 2008.
Atwood M. The Handmaid’s Tale. McClelland & Stewart; 1985.
Miller G. Mad Max. Roadshow Film Distributors; 1979.
Reynolds K. Waterworld. Universal Pictures; 1995.
Ho BJ. Snowpiercer. CJ Entertainment; 2013.
Turner G. The Sea and Summer. Faber & Faber; 1987.
McKay A. Don’t Look Up. Netflix; 2021.
Ferrante AC. Sharknado. The Asylum and Syfy Films; 2013.
BBC News. Science fact: Sci-fi inventions that became reality. 2016. Accessed May 24 2026. https://www.bbc.com/news/health-38026393
Clayton S, Karazsia BT. Development and validation of a measure of climate change anxiety. Journal of Environmental Psychology. 2020;69:101434. doi:10.1016/j.jenvp.2020.101434
Passmore H, Lutz PK, Howell AJ. Eco-Anxiety: A Cascade of Fundamental Existential Anxieties. Journal of Constructivist Psychology. 2020;36(2):138-153. doi:10.1080/10720537.2022.2068706
Hickman C, Marks E, Pihkala P, et al. Climate anxiety in children and young people and their beliefs about government responses to climate change: a global survey. Lancet Planet Health. 2021;5:e863-73. doi: 10.1016/S2542-5196(21)00278-3
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Innocenti M, Santarelli G, Lombardi GS, et al. How Can Climate Change Anxiety Induce Both Pro-Environmental Behaviours and Eco-Paralysis? The Mediating Role of General Self-Efficacy. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2023;20(4):3085. doi:10.3390/ijerph20043085
Leger-Goodes T, Malboeuf-Hurtubise C, Mastine T, Généreux M, Paradis P, Camden C. Eco-anxiety in children: A scoping review of the mental health impacts of the awareness of climate change. Frontiers in Psychology. 2022;13:872544. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.872544
Emmerich R. The Day After Tomorrow. 20th Century Fox; 2004.
Svoboda, M. The lingering influence of ‘Day After Tomorrow’. Yale Climate Connections. 2014. Accessed May 24 2026. https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2014/11/the-long-melt-the-lingering-influence-of-the-day-after-tomorrow/
Lowe T, Brown K, Dessai S, Doria MF, Haynes K, Vincent K. Does tomorrow ever come? Disaster narrative and public perceptions of climate change. Public Understanding of Science. 2006;15(4):435-457. doi:10.1177/0963662506063796
Hall D. Strange World. Walt Disney Studios and Motion Pictures; 2022.
Bienvenu U. Arco. Diaphana Distribution; 2025.
Chambers B. A Psalm for the Wild Built. Tor Books; 2021.
Robinson KS. The Ministry for the Future. Orbit Books; 2021.
Ritschel LA, Cassiello-Robbons C. Hope and depression and personality disorders. Current Opinion in Psychology. 2023;49:101507. doi:10.1016/j.copsyc.2022.101507
Finnegan W. Educating for hope and action competence: a study of secondary school students and teachers in England. Environmental Education Research. 2022;29:1617-1636. doi:10.1080/13504622.2022.2120963
Schneider-Mayerson M. The Influence of Climate Fiction: An Empirical Survey of Readers. Environmental Humanities. 2018;10(2):473-500. doi:10.1215/22011919-7156848
