"Cli-fi and the Feeling of Risk"

This short contribution to an extended forum on cli-fi and American Studies starts from the premise that almost all American climate change fiction is risk fiction and then proceeds to analyze some of the dominant narrative strategies used in cli-fi to engage readers emotionally in a story about an uncertain and possibly catasrophic future.  It argues that such engagement can provide readers with a highly visceral imaginative experience of the potential future consequences of current real-world policies and practices.