
Climate Imagination
Dispatches from Hopeful Futures
MIT Press
Will be published approx. on 2. December 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
392 pages
978-0-262-55366-7 (ISBN)
Description
A clarion call for visions of vibrant, hopeful climate futures, bringing together global voices to share stories of resilient communities based in real science.
When we think of climate, the stories we tell about the future are often catastrophic: megastorms, crop failures, and heat waves loom over us, sending a signal that the problem is so vast, so complex, that it’s out of our control. That narrative is compelling for some, but leaves others feeling hopeless, helpless, and disillusioned. Even the most ardent champions of decarbonization sometimes focus more on sounding the alarm than on mapping out what success might look like. Without positive climate futures, visions of climate adaptation and resilience that we can work toward, it’s much harder to motivate broad-based efforts for change in the present.
Through short speculative fiction, essays, and visual art, Climate Imagination seeks to inspire a wave of narratives about what positive climate futures might look like for communities around the world. This book features perspectives from writers, artists, researchers, and advocates based in a diverse range of places, each with their own unique opportunities and challenges for climate action: from China to Wales, Germany to Nigeria, Sri Lanka to Mexico, Malaysia, India, Brazil, the United States, and more.
When we think of climate, the stories we tell about the future are often catastrophic: megastorms, crop failures, and heat waves loom over us, sending a signal that the problem is so vast, so complex, that it’s out of our control. That narrative is compelling for some, but leaves others feeling hopeless, helpless, and disillusioned. Even the most ardent champions of decarbonization sometimes focus more on sounding the alarm than on mapping out what success might look like. Without positive climate futures, visions of climate adaptation and resilience that we can work toward, it’s much harder to motivate broad-based efforts for change in the present.
Through short speculative fiction, essays, and visual art, Climate Imagination seeks to inspire a wave of narratives about what positive climate futures might look like for communities around the world. This book features perspectives from writers, artists, researchers, and advocates based in a diverse range of places, each with their own unique opportunities and challenges for climate action: from China to Wales, Germany to Nigeria, Sri Lanka to Mexico, Malaysia, India, Brazil, the United States, and more.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge (Massachusetts)
United States
Publishing group
MIT Press Ltd
Illustrations
18 BLACK AND WHITE ILLUS.
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Weight
369 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-262-55366-7 (9780262553667)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
12/2025
MIT Press
€38.99
Available for download
Persons
Joey Eschrich is Managing Editor at the Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University and Assistant Director of Future Tense, a partnership of ASU and New America on emerging technologies and society.
Ed Finn is Founding Director of the Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University, where he is Associate Professor in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society and the School of Arts, Media and Engineering.
Contributors:
Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, Jason Anderson, Claire Armitstead, Libia Brenda, Azucena Castro, Andrea Chapela, Nalini Chhetri, Alejandra Espino del Castillo, Fabio Fernandes, Ed Finn, Pippa Goldschmidt, Adeline Johns-Putra, Joseph Kunkel, Ken Liu, Manjana Milkoreit, Gabriela Damián Miravete, Benjamin Ong, Hannah Onoguwe, Chinelo Onwualu, Martha Riva Palacio, Anna Pigott, Kim Stanley Robinson, Gu Shi, Vandana Singh, Nigel Topping, Emma Törzs, Iliana Vargas, Laura Watts, Yudhanjaya Wijeratne, Farhana Yamin
Ed Finn is Founding Director of the Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University, where he is Associate Professor in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society and the School of Arts, Media and Engineering.
Contributors:
Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, Jason Anderson, Claire Armitstead, Libia Brenda, Azucena Castro, Andrea Chapela, Nalini Chhetri, Alejandra Espino del Castillo, Fabio Fernandes, Ed Finn, Pippa Goldschmidt, Adeline Johns-Putra, Joseph Kunkel, Ken Liu, Manjana Milkoreit, Gabriela Damián Miravete, Benjamin Ong, Hannah Onoguwe, Chinelo Onwualu, Martha Riva Palacio, Anna Pigott, Kim Stanley Robinson, Gu Shi, Vandana Singh, Nigel Topping, Emma Törzs, Iliana Vargas, Laura Watts, Yudhanjaya Wijeratne, Farhana Yamin
Content
- Introduction, Imagining Positive Climate Futures, by Ed Finn and Joey Eschrich
- Itineraries
- Section I: Stories that Spark Change
- Three-World Cantata, by Vandana Singh
- The Case for Reckless Climate Optimism, by Chinelo Onwualu
- The Robin, the Wolves, and the Library, by Claire Armitstead
- Learning to Dwell in Multispecies Futures, by Azucena Castro
- The Village Within, by Benjamin Ong
- Mina’s Dream, by Vandana Singh
- Section II: Reimagining Sustainable Cities
- City of Choice, by Gu Shi, translated by Ken Liu
- The Unwalkable City, by Yudhanjaya Wijeratne
- Climate Action through Indigenous Design, by Joseph Kunkel
- Ghosts of Climate Future and Climate Past, by Adeline Johns-Putra
- Neostalgia, by Fabio Fernandes
- Mothership Comes to the Heart of the Ocean, by Gu Shi, translated by Ken Liu
- Section III: From Climate Trauma to Climate Action
- Cosmic Fire, by Libia Brenda, Andrea Chapela, Gabriela Damián Miravete, Martha Riva Palacio, Iliana Vargas and Alejandra Espino del Castillo, translated by Emma Törzs
- A Walk in Berlin, by Pippa Goldschmidt
- Flights of Fancy, by Anna Pigott
- Landslides, Terror, and Resilience in the Himalayas, by Nalini Chhetri
- Climate Action Dialogue: From Linear to Fractal, with Nigel Topping, Farhana Yamin, and Ed Finn
- Robots & Insects & Languages & Other Living Things, by Libia Brenda
- Section IV: Navigating Transitions, Building Communities
- Death Is Not an Ornament, by Hannah Onoguwe
- Imagination in Climate Policy: A Story from Norway, by Manjana Milkoreit
- Stormpunk Islands, by Laura Watts
- Climate Action Dialogue: Becoming Better Humans, with Kim Stanley Robinson, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, and Ed Finn
- Notes for Adda, by Hannah Onoguwe
- Afterword: Pruning the Dystopiary, by Jason Anderson
- Acknowledgments
- Further Reading