ABSTRACT
Cosmopolitanism not only affects the efficiency of fighting global warming, the cosmopolitan lifestyle is also affected by the crisis. A recurring theme in the stories is that climatic change has a strongly limiting effect on the possibilities of cosmopolitanism. In post-apocalyptic narratives, set in societies evolved after a radical break, the disastrous effects of global warming on cosmopolitanism are more fundamental. Post-apocalyptic narratives on the changing climate not only convey different attitudes to cosmopolitanism but also present different kinds of cosmopolitanism, sometimes in opposition to each other and sometimes potentially merged. Barbara Kingsolver’s characterization of Ovid Byron represents a very positive take on the normative kind of cosmopolitanism. Barbara Kingsolver’s and Kim Stanley Robinson’s stories express the same kind of solution to the climate crisis. People need to learn the art of “paying attention to the real world”, which will only come about through direct encounters with people from elsewhere.
