This document discusses the role that climate fiction can play in engaging the public on climate change. It notes that simply providing information is not enough, and that stories, art, and experiential ways of learning can help shift perceptions and motivate behavior change. The arts and humanities can disrupt views that separate people from the reality of climate change by helping them see and feel its impacts corporally. Climate change communication needs to move beyond just conveying facts to including storytelling. Libraries can play an important role by curating diverse collections of climate fiction, promoting these works, and organizing educational programs to bring these stories to the public.

1. Schrijven voor de planeet
De kracht van klimaatfictie
www.stefcraps.com Oostende, 19-20
oktober 2023
prof. dr. Stef Craps (Universiteit Gent) Informatie aan
Zee

5. Isaac Cordal, “Follow the Leaders” (aka “Politicians Discussing Global Warming”

7. Peope learn
something
Attitudes change
People change
behaviour
Informatiedeficitmodel

11. Knowledge-Action Gap
“the most striking fact of our time”

12. Splitting

13. “the social organization of denial”
“implicatory denial”

14. “we collectively need to get more creative and
innovative in order to more effectively and
meaningfully communicate and engage with climate
change in the public sphere”
“The truth does not reveal itself by virtue of being
the truth: it must be told, and we need to learn how
to tell the truth more effectively. It must have
stories woven around it, works of art made about it;
it must be communicated in new ways.” (Stephen
Duncombe)
“We therefore need to enlarge considerations of
how knowledge influences actions, through
experiential, emotional, visceral, tactile, tangible,
affective and aesthetic ways of learning and
knowing about climate change.”

15. “The arts and humanities can play an important role
in disrupting the social and cultural worldviews that
filter climate information and separate the public
from the reality of climate change.”
“the arts and humanities can help move beyond
simply conveying information about climate change
to seeing and feeling it corporally.”
Julia B. Corbett en Brett Clark, “The Arts and Humanities in
Climate Change Engagement,” The Oxford Encyclopedia of
Climate Change Communication, 2017

16. “the importance of story-making and story-
telling around climate change needs
elevating alongside that of fact-finding.
Stories are the way that humans make sense
of change, and the humanities understand
the practices of story-telling very well.”
Mike Hulme, “Meet the Humanities,” Nature Climate
Change, 2011

18. “the climate crisis is also a crisis of
culture, and thus of the imagination.”

26. “the most important
environmental book ever
written”
George Monbiot

32. 32

34. “it’s clear from my surveys and experiments that climate fiction
can play an important role in warning us of the dangers of
inaction, helping to shift perception, attitudes, and beliefs, and
modeling effective actions”

35. “there is no ‘silver bullet’ that creates active
and sustained behavioral engagement; rather
‘silver buckshot’ approaches to engagement
through many pathways to learning and
knowing about climate change are needed.”

36. “the arts and humanities can help effectively
reach and motivate a diverse population—with
messages, stories, and experiences that are
corporally sensed, that illuminate
interdependency with the world, that openly
engage emotions, and that connect people with
place.”
“the arts and humanities are an important—in
fact, an essential—part of successfully engaging
the public in climate change.”
Julia B. Corbett en Brett Clark, “The Arts and Humanities in
Climate Change Engagement,” The Oxford Encyclopedia of
Climate Change Communication, 2017

37. Take-aways voor bibliothecarissen/bibliotheekmedewerkers
• Belangrijke rol in circulatie van en stimuleren van debat
over impactvolle teksten
• Collecties samenstellen die ruim en divers aanbod aan
klimaatfictie omvatten
• Voor het voetlicht brengen
• Displays, webpagina’s, tentoonstellingen, evenementen en
leesgroepen
• Geschikte momenten:
• Dag van de Aarde (22/4)
• Herdenkingsdag voor Verdwenen Soorten (30/11)
• VN-klimaattoppen
• Educatieve programma’s opzetten

38. Schrijven voor de planeet
De kracht van klimaatfictie
www.stefcraps.com Oostende, 19-20
oktober 2023
prof. dr. Stef Craps (Universiteit Gent) Informatie aan
Zee