The genre of dystopian fiction may at times seem like fantasy, stories set in futuristic worlds where life is unrecognisable from what it is today, but are these worlds closer than we think?
There is growing concern that the biggest threat facing humanity today is climate change, a theme that is repeated across emerging works of the dystopian genre. Stories of environmental collapse, humanity forced to contend with extreme weather conditions or to find another planet on which to live.
This event brings together the worlds of science and fiction as authors, E. J. Swift and Sarah Govett, who have both written novels set in troubling futures, join science writer and environment editor, Oliver Morton, to discuss the most important question of all: could these dystopian futures ever become a reality?