Environmental Havoc in Teen Fiction: Speculating Futures

Contemporary speculative fiction for teenagers increasingly reflects the concerns of western society about the environment and climate change. This chapter considers how the reader is placed by speculative fiction which reflects upon potential problems arising from the consequences of global warming and environmental destruction projected into imagined futures on a spectrum from realism to the posthuman. These concerns are discussed through a range of texts including Floodland (2010) by Marcus Sedgwick; Jeanne DuPrau’s The City of Ember (2003/2005) and Isobelle Carmody’s Obernewtyn (1987/2010). Suggestions for classroom activities are also provided.