‘The goal of Martian economics is not “sustainable development” but a sustainable prosperity for its entire biosphere':science fiction and the sustainability debate

Abstract

Science fiction (sf) has explored visions of sustainable and unsustainable practices in the light of the transformations to society that technology brings. Through its capacity to create potentially educative spaces for reflection on a variety of ecological and environmental issues, sf can help answer the call for sustainability and sustainability science to expand its boundaries to include, not just ecological, economic, scientific and technological knowledge, but wider socio-political practices, lifestyles and thought from a variety of disciplines. This paper reconnoitres the engagement by writers such as H.G. Wells and John Brunner with themes and issues now incorporated into the sustainability debate, and considers how Frederick Pohl and C.M. Kornbluth, Ernest Callenbach and Kim Stanley Robinson portray the relationship between economics, society and the environment.