Climate change story ideas

Climate change is real, and more writers than ever are taking to their pens and keyboards to write about them. I’ve put together 5 climate change story ideas to inspire even more tales.

By writing about climate change, we can educate ourselves and others on the struggles and warning signs our planet is experiencing.

Whether it’s creative non-fiction or speculative fiction – including horror – we can explore worst-case scenarios and solutions.

For more writing prompts, check out my writing prompts for short stories and other fiction.

How climate change can feature in your stories

Taking inspiration from the 2024 Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change report, I’ve put together 5 story ideas focused on climate change.

The Lancet Countdown report is a massive report that monitors the evolving health profile of climate change. The full report can be found here. I’ve used The Journalist’s Resource to identify the key takeaways of the 2024 report.

Climate change doesn’t just have to feature as the antagonist of your short story. It can also create struggles for your characters to go through as part of an overarching plot.

Instead of relying on cliches like miscommunication, you can introduce other stress factors to create reasonable conflicts. For example, if a character struggles to cope with the heat, a heatwave will cause them to be stressed and more likely to lash out over small inconveniences.

Climate change often features in speculative fiction, like dystopian novels and horror. It’s also a common reason for science fiction books to move off-planet, because people have evacuated Earth due to irreversible climate change.

There are even writing competitions specific to environmental writing, like the Green Stories Project.

Get inspired with these climate change story ideas

• The impact of heatwaves on people
  • What’s the worst-case scenario of a heatwave?
  • How can people and communities adapt to extreme heat?
  • What happens when a heatwave suddenly strikes an unprepared community?
• The struggles of sleeping when it’s too hot at night
  • What is the impact of not getting enough sleep on your characters?
  • How can a household or community respond to rising temperatures at night?
  • What do animals have to do to cool off during the night?
• Sustainability and how it contributes to climate resilience
  • What ancient sustainable practices helps a community to cope with sudden weather changes?
  • How do people prepare for new seasons?
  • What disruptions do non-indigenous people create that disrupt a local area’s climate resilience?
• Food insecurity caused by climate change
  • What food scarcity is introduced when a drought and heatwave affect local farms?
  • How does a local farmer adapt to extreme weather so they can feed themself and their community?
  • What can a community do to prepare for food insecurity?
• Droughts and water scarcity
  • What effects do droughts and water scarcity have on a community?
  • What are the first signs of water scarcity? How can these warn someone of oncoming droughts?
  • How is a person impacted by water scarcity when there’s no clean water?

Climate change character ideas

For more inspiration, here are some climate change character ideas to explore in your stories.

• A farmer and their celebrated vegetable farm deal with major financial worries as a drought is forecasted.
• An alert gardener who warns their community about the effects of climate change, after seeing how their plants are affected.
• Two climate deniers who have a sudden change of heart.
• A volunteer at a local food bank or pantry finds themself struggling on their own.
• The politicians responsible for a climate-denying bill learn a lesson.