ecodystopian

Ecodystopian is a label used in literary criticism to describe a subgenre of speculative fiction in which futures are depicted as severely degraded environments whose distress is inseparable from social, political, and economic structures. In ecodystopian works, ecological crisis—such as climate disruption, pollution, biodiversity loss, or resource scarcity—drives not only the setting but the dynamics of power, coercion, and inequality. The genre often foregrounds how institutions respond to ecological pressures, sometimes through technocratic control, privatization, or repressive governance.

Origins and usage: The term has gained traction alongside climate fiction (cli-fi) in the early 21st century, though there is no single definition. Ecodystopia emphasizes systemic failures and human-environment entanglements rather than single-catastrophe plots. Settings typically feature austerity, stratified societies, and environmental collapse that creates or intensifies conflict over water, land, and energy.

Common examples include The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi, Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood, and The Windup Girl by Bacigalupi, which are frequently cited as ecodystopian for their focus on ecological crisis shaping social order. Films and series sometimes discussed in ecodystopian terms include Snowpiercer and others that foreground ecological scarcity as the engine of social division.

Relation to related terms: Ecodystopia is often distinguished from cli-fi by its emphasis on social-political breakdown rather than climate change alone. Critics use the concept to analyze environmental justice, governance, and the ethics of survival, while noting definitional overlap with ecopunk, ecofeminism, and utopian or dystopian ecologies.