Drabble is a fun word for a short work of fiction that’s precisely 100 words long.
The word comes from a joke in Monty Python’s Big Red Book — the drabble was a game where players competed to be the first to write a novel, hence the necessarily short length.
After dipping our toes into the world of climate fiction, the Grist team decided to make it a mainstay of our solutions-focused newsletter, Looking Forward. Fiction can be a powerful tool to help us think outside the confines of today and imagine the future that we want. That’s why most issues of the newsletter start with a cli-fi drabble — to offer a glimpse of the endgame for the solutions and ideas we cover. We’re collecting some of our favorites below.
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Want to try writing your own drabble? Send it our way, and we’ll consider featuring it in a future newsletter!
On a gorgeous day like this, nothing beats your family’s morning commute.
The four of you hop happily on your bikes, feeling the sun on your arms and faces. First you drop your wife off at her office building, blowing kisses as she heads in. The kids’ school is just another 10-minute ride. More kisses blown.
Then you take the long way back home, along the waterfront, smelling blooming daphne and lilacs. You pick up the family’s ancient golden retriever and walk, slowly but surely, to your job at the bookstore, stopping for coffee and a biscuit on the way …
— Where can you go in 15 minutes? May 8, 2024
The 15-minute city, an urban design concept pioneered by scientist Carlos Moreno, offers the opportunity to rethink the way our cities and town are laid out, to provide basic services, work opportunities, and low-carbon transit options in close proximity to where people live. In this newsletter, we spoke with Moreno about his new book exploring the idea. Read more
“For one thing, it’s illegal,” your little brother’s chiding voice chirps at you.
“Don’t be stupid,” you shoot back. “It’s not illegal to have it, it’s illegal to make it. Or sell it. I just found it on the ground!”
“Well, anyway, you shouldn’t touch it. It causes cancer.”
“I’m not going to eat it,” you say, rolling your eyes. “I just want to take it home and look at it under my microscope. It’s like a piece of history.”
Your brother shrugs and continues up the hill. You follow, pocketing your treasure — a thin, shiny, blue piece of plastic.
— This Earth Day is all about plastics, April 24, 2024
Earth Day 2024 took on the theme of “Planet vs. Plastics” — a timely focus for a year when U.N. members are supposed to be finalizing a global treaty to address plastic pollution. In this newsletter, we covered the evolution of the global plastics treaty and the latest round of negotiations. Read more
“Your grandy’s so ancient, they wore clothes made from PLASTIC,” one child said to another. The crowd around them burst out laughing.
“Polyester-wearing fools!” one yelled.
“Oh yeah? Your zizi’s so old, they predate the eradication of HOMELESSNESS,” the contender said, smirking.
Shouts of “BUUURN” ran through the crowd. The opponent knew they had to come back strong.
“Well your zaza’s so old, they had to use synthetic tampons …”
Everybody held their breath.
“… that they purchased from a BIG-BOX STORE.”
That did them in. The kids ran around in circles, howling. Doubling over. Some cracked up until they cried.
— Would you wear apple waste? March 13, 2024
This drabble, by Looking Forward reader Becca Godwin, offers a fun glimpse of a future where plastic-based clothing is looked on as an absurdity of the past. In this newsletter, we rounded up a handful of biomaterials companies that are beginning to usher in a wave of bio-based textiles that could reduce our dependence on synthetic fabrics. Read more
It’s a five-minute bike ride to the train station. On brisk mornings like this, I wear gloves and pack a warm coffee for the commute. My work buddy Lucy gets on two stops down, always with a pair of scones, wheeling her bike next to mine in the locker downstairs before joining me in the sunny coach section. Half an hour later, we unload the bikes and race each other along the greenway to our office. Twice a week, this; twice a week, we co-work from a cafe in the suburbs. The rest of the week is ours to enjoy.
— Slow down, February 21, 2024
This drabble, shared by Looking Forward reader Betsy Ruckman, envisions a future of reduced working hours and accessible public services, like transportation. These are two of the central ideas of degrowth, a philosophy that’s gaining traction. In this newsletter, we excerpted a Q&A with bestselling degrowth author Kohei Saito, by Grist’s Akielly Hu. Read more
Contractors at the Salvaged Materials Market ignored the stack of misshapen supplies, but Carmelo saw the makings of his masterpiece in that pile. The sculptor spent an hour scrounging to gather all he needed, then pushed his cart of discarded treasures out the door.
Every footstep fed his mind as they led to a four-story makerspace graffitied in the mismatched styles of his community’s cultures. Carmelo floated to his curtained-off corner, spilled his haul, and began to pick and place parts on his piece-in-progress in a dance that brought his dream from the dark of mind into the studio light.
— “Deconstruction, not demolition,” by Syris Valentine, January 17, 2024
Globally, the act of erecting new buildings and tearing down old ones consumes roughly a third of all resources extracted from the environment every year and produces just under a third of all the world’s waste. This newsletter, by Syris Valentine, explores the rise of “deconstruction,” and how a handful of cities are striving to keep building materials out of the landfill and in use. Read more
Publishers declare 2024 the year of climate fiction.
You’re skeptical at first — how much more doom and gloom can you take? — but then you try one and bam! Just like that, you’re hooked.
By December, your Kindle library is an ode to the genre. You don’t know which was your favorite: the tightly paced thriller set in the buried halls of the Svalbard Seed Vault or the solarpunk fantasy about a girl who discovers she’s a descendant of an Afro-Cuban deity of the ocean, Yemaya, and the inheritor of the rising seas.
All you know is that you want more.
— contributed by reader Danielle Arostegui, January 10, 2024
The sight of the stars from mile 105 of the Benton MacKaye Trail takes my breath away, just as it has at every other campsite during our monthly backpacking hikes this year. Yet compared to that first excursion in January, everything else feels different.
The forest’s healing powers leveled up my relationships with loved ones — including myself.
The bodies of water kept my thirst for alcohol at bay for a second year.
The mountains strengthened my legs, lungs, and resolve.
The hiker community’s embrace warmed my heart.
The planet intensified my love for it.
The wildlife made my life wild.
— contributed by reader Becca Godwin, January 10, 2024
I’m returning home from my walk and it’s barely dawn. I couldn’t tolerate the scorching temperatures again this summer, so I adopted new habits. I’m not alone, something far bigger changed this year. In addition to climate tipping points, there’s another transformation underway, finally! Mainstream and social media, and personal conversations are decisively acknowledging the climate crisis. People, many people, are talking about it openly and with urgency. They’re shocked, angry, but at least they’re awake, no longer in bliss denial. Citizens worldwide are demanding their governments take corrective action, and some are. There’s hope. I pray the momentum lasts!
— contributed by reader Kathy Posey, January 10, 2024
Our Christmas menu this year came from within 15 miles of us.
It was a challenge. Fields around here still grow a lot of field corn and soybeans. Many will, for a while. But other farms, sheltered in evergreen windbreaks and deepening perennial roots, even in December, feed the soil and the soul, too.
A tangy juneberry-aronia chutney pairs perfectly with nibbles of herby goat cheese and Kernza crackers. We drink warming spiceberry tea and our own mulled apple cider. And, with all the requisite bliss, we roast our first American chestnuts over an open fire. It tastes like home.
— contributed by reader Betsy Ruckman, January 3, 2024
The cool blades of grass between my toes were prickly, little sticky, teeming with ladybugs.
Growing up, my dad would mow the lawn every weekend in some Sisyphean jockeying for the top spot among neighborhood men.
When people proclaimed their love for that cut-grass smell, I recoiled.
“It’s a warning to other plants and insects, didn’t you read that article?!”
Perhaps they preferred the scent of control.
It’s the 20th anniversary of the lawnmower ban. At 63, the age my father passed, I bury my head in the hill and take a deep breath — the smell of sweet, untouched relief.
— A new lawn, a new day, November 29, 2023
This drabble, sent in by Looking Forward reader Caitlin Caplinger, inspired a newsletter exploring the problems with lawn care culture and the growth of alternatives. Read more
Other volunteers find the nursing home sad around the holidays. Not you — you’ve been baking, canning, and candying for weeks, bringing treats to every resident you visit. When you pull out the food, they pull out their food stories. And you pull up a chair.
Today, you’re in Mrs. Reed’s room, listening to how she used to feed 30 people at Thanksgiving.
“And that was during the shelf shortage years? How did you manage?”
“Well, for starters, we never threw a dang thing away,” she says.
You frown. “What do you mean ‘threw away’?”
She smiles a deep, faraway smile.
— Holiday cooking blueprint, November 22, 2023
In this newsletter, food writer and recipe creator Caroline Saunders shared some of her go-to recipes and tips for a low-waste, plant-forward holiday feast. Read more
I’m on all fours in the orchard soil, my head tilted in hopes of amplifying the sounds coming from my pongamia shoots. Their slight droop and seeming wistfulness tell me they’re not getting quite what they need. I adjust my florameter toward the stems — and there it is, that anxious popping, a sign of distress.
Admittedly, I don’t know what they’re saying. But if I can find out and help this orchard thrive, their beans will become oil, will become food and fuel that will serve as the basis of this community’s carbon-negative grid system. So I’ll keep on listening.
— Listening to the trees, contributed by reader Camilla Sterne
May 3, 2023
You’re surprised to find yourself a little misty-eyed at this Harbor Day parade. The 60-foot float carrying the retired trash wheel — once an iconic waterfront fixture — glides joyously down the street. You remember visiting the wheel on school trips decades ago. Now, your kids will visit it in a museum.
It hasn’t been doing much for years now. Your city’s zero-waste strategies are some of the most ambitious in the country, and it shows. Still, you’ll miss seeing the snail-like structure out there, swimmers splashing around it — a reminder of all the work it took to get this harbor clean.
— Meet Mr. Trash Wheel, April 26, 2023
This newsletter profiles a Baltimore celebrity — a 50-foot, solar- and hydro-powered, googly-eyed, garbage-guzzling device named Mr. Trash Wheel. What started as a practical solution to litter in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor has become an online personality with a dedicated following, and the idea has spread within the city and beyond. Read more
Your wife comes downstairs just as you finish packing her lunch box — an extra indulgent one. She’s been pulling more shifts at the hospital while one of the other doctors is on leave. Meanwhile, since the public schools adopted the four-day week, you won’t be going in to teach today.
It’s Field Trip Friday for your two young sons. They’re going to volunteer at the aquarium. Once you kiss her goodbye, you’ll cook their breakfast and walk them to the bus stop. And then … bike to the grocery store? Read? Maybe you’ll finally install the new heat pump …
— Working less — for the planet, April 19, 2023
A four-day workweek is gaining popularity for its benefits in areas like job satisfaction, stress, and fatigue. But the research indicates that working less could provide benefits to the planet as well. In this newsletter we take a look at some of the immediate climate connections from things like commuting, as well as what a four-day week could mean for the future of work. Read more
It’s become a running joke in your family that you’re going to return any gift your brother gets you. Bless him, he just doesn’t understand your aesthetic, or your approach to stuff.
Hence, your jaw-drop when you unwrap this gorgeous pair of distressed, patch-covered, wide-legged jeans. You recognize the brand but they look so … unique.
“They’re refurbished,” he explains. “I thought it’d be funny, you know. You always return my presents, and this one has already been returned,” he chuckles.
You’re almost speechless. “Actually, I … love them.”
Equally shocked, he starts to smile. “Did I just win Christmas??”
— The gifts that keep on giving: November 22, 2022
The holidays bring many traditions that some of us would rather avoid: fossil fuel-guzzling travel, piles of leftover food that often go to waste, and the obligation of gift-giving. Although it’s a sweet ritual that can bring a lot of joy, it can also fuel overconsumption, extraction, and more waste. Thankfully, several companies have begun to recognize that holiday shoppers (and consumers year-round) want more sustainable options. This newsletter explores the rise of resale programs. Read more
I cycle down to the neighborhood store — mama forgot a tomato.
I loop down streets so wide you used to see rows of cars on either side, well before the rEVolution. Things are slow to change here, but last spring, my neighbors and I convinced the city council to add us a stop on the BRT. At least it’s something.
Bright, beautiful home gardens — no longer forbidden by archaic HOA rules — blossom in the late summer sun. Our crop had a tough start to the season this year, too much rain.
I wonder whose tomato I’m going to purchase tonight?
— Contributed by reader Bethany N. Bella
August 4, 2022
“This tastes … surprisingly good!” Akash remarked, chewing the salad I’d made from foraged roots, dressed with apple-peel vinegar and scraps of mango-turmeric we grew out back.
Appa and Usha came in with armfuls of kindling they found. “Most of it’s charred, but this stuff could be useful.”
We lit the fire, letting the sage-scented smoke rise up to the sky. Halfway across the world from where we were born, we are here now, permanent new natives, tied to this land.
As dawn broke, I heard the drip of our water-collection bags. I watched my sweet family, cobbled together, sleep.
— Contributed by reader Rani Jayakumar
August 4, 2022
“Cheer up! The AQI this morning is only 261, you’ll have at least 30 minutes,” she said with a sad smile and the heavy eyes that most grandmothers have.
Our new airsuits can only withstand 130 degrees Fahrenheit and an AQI of 265.
Sigh. I guess in 30 minutes, I can throw the ball around with Linux. Sometimes Grandma tells me about her dog Bear from the before times. I wish I knew how fur and grass felt.
Grandma tightens my airsuit’s oxygen mask.
“Come on Linux, let’s go while we can!” The robodog runs toward the fusion-powered sliding door.
— Contributed by reader Shai Basys
August 4, 2022
Mother says floods and wildfires caused a collapse of governments, financial systems, the internet, and power grids. …
So we garden and barter.
In the marketplace while waiting for someone to weigh my pumpkins, I see the boy I like, kneeling beside some bushes.
My heart flips as I wonder what he’s doing. Animals and insects are such honored members of our community, harming one would mean expulsion.
I approach. “Zander?”
He beams. “Astra! These mice have built a nest. I’m feeding them corn.”
“Oh!” I laugh.
“Want me to carry your basket home for you?” he asks.
I smile. “Okay.”
— Contributed by reader Susmita Ramani
August 4, 2022
You try to limit your after-work screen time — but today, there’s been so much good news. You’ve been joyscrolling for over an hour, sharing all your best finds with your little digital community of climate and justice nerds.
You’re getting ready to log off when you see an email from a friend, wondering if you’ll proofread a cli-fi story he’s written. Ooh, you’re tempted.
You glance out the window. It’s still too rainy to go for a walk or rally the neighbors for stoop drinks.
So you flip on your electric tea kettle and settle in for another good read.
— Here’s looking at you: May 19, 2022
In this newsletter, we share the results from our Looking Forward audience survey, as well as a little bit of reintroduction of Looking Forward’s mission and what we strive to bring to our audience. Read more
In my dream, I heard loud cheers outside my window. I tossed my blanket aside and ran to the balcony, blinking in the morning light. A crowd of people, many of whom I knew, marched toward the town square, dancing and singing.
“We did it!” They cheered.
“Did what?” I yelled back. They looked so free, I wanted to join them.
“We walked into our banks and withdrew all our money.”
“All of you? All of your money? Where is it now?”
“It’s in the meadows, turning into butterflies. At the farm, sprouting greens. In the forest, becoming trees …”
— Put your money where your planet is: April 21, 2022
Using money to support climate action isn’t just about donating, or buying more ethical products. It also comes down to where our money “sleeps” — what the bank or investment firm does with it while we’re not using it. In this Earth Day newsletter, we share about money moves that can help support a greener and more compassionate economy. Read more
It’s a friendly neighborhood contest. It provides dozens of fresh, nutritious loaves to the food pantry. Yeah, yeah. This year, you want to win.
It’s taken you weeks of practice to make half-decent bread out of HeatWheat2042 — the star variety from the mill this year. But you’ve tested and retested your latest recipe and … It. Is. Perfect.
“Are you done draining our kitchen battery now, you maniac?” your girlfriend asks. You only grin. Wiping sweat from your brow, you offer her a lightly buttered, warm slice of heaven.
“Oh, yeah,” she says, savoring her bite. “You’re going to win.”
— More carbs, less carbon: January 27, 2022
Climate change poses a threat to our food system — including important staple crops like wheat. But experimenting with different types of cooking and baking today might help us prepare for (or even prevent) that uncertain future. In this newsletter, we talk with Caroline Saunders, host of The Sustainable Baker podcast, about embracing experimentation and variability in the kitchen. Read more
“300 fruit trees. All alive and healthy,” she typed just before her mother interrupted to ask about the schedule at school tomorrow.
“We filed an absence request. We need to work on the final presentation for our Generation’s Mission,” she replied, and finished typing: “date of check: May 14th, 2053.”
She knew her mother always wanted to hear more, because back in her day you had homework to do, you did not engage on a mission to shorten the supply chain.
“Our entire neighborhood is now self-sufficient, fruit-wise. Fifth year in a row. We did it. Our generation did it.”
— Contributed by reader Anca Stănescu
January 13, 2022
We cross the street, over the permeable-paver bikeway, and duck into Lucas’s kitchen. At least the haze held off today.
“Wow, everything smells amazing!” I exclaim.
Turning back from the solar-powered stove, Lucas smiles and shouts, “Thanks!” as I swoon over maple-glazed brussels sprouts. Somehow, it’s never the same menu — just whatever was fresh from the day before.
Alli throws open the rented kitchen’s window, revealing a cluster of folks already outside with their ceramic containers. I tie my apron around my waist and wave excitedly out the window. Sunday mornings just aren’t the same without community.
“Let’s get serving!”
— Contributed by reader Bethany N. Bella
January 13, 2022
They make another venture out of the underground nest onto a forest floor teeming with the colorful flora and fauna of the tropics. These ants on a foraging mission don’t number very many, their tiny, dark bodies inconspicuous.
Years ago, the forest was an abandoned field. Its soil couldn’t support the hardiest of crops. Ants ventured, as they do, into the field. They built nests, foraged, defecated, and laid their dead to rest, all in the soil. They started something.
The foragers carry on, with only their mission in mind. They don’t know it, but they are agents of rebirth.
— Contributed by reader Anika Hazra
January 13, 2022
You stand and brush some dirt off your jeans. Your left palm’s a little scraped, but your bike looks unscathed.
“Really sorry, man,” the kid says. “I shoulda signaled.”
“It’s all good,” you tell him. “If you’d been a car, then maybe I’d be in trouble.”
He laughs, and you realize he may not be old enough to remember when cars and bikes shared these roads. How polluted this neighborhood used to be, before activists forced the city to care. You look off beyond the tree-filled median as the kid gets ready to remount.
“Ride safe,” you tell him, smiling.
— A more inclusive bike culture: December 9, 2021
When cities plan to expand safe bike infrastructure, they tend to cater to affluent white bikers. A lack of bike lanes in low-income communities of color is one reason why the fatality rate is 30 percent higher for Black cyclists and 23 percent higher for Hispanics, compared with white riders. This newsletter profiles the work of Courtney Williams — aka The Brown Bike Girl — a mobility justice advocate who pushes for systemic change while also educating individual riders about what they can do to stay safe. Read more
You sigh at the empty bottles forgotten on your kitchen counter. Your partner was supposed to stop by the refillery after work. You’re about to send a grumpy text when …
Ugh, is all they type.
DON’T buy more bottles, you write. You’ve got bottles galore, all you need is shampoo.
Let’s just go together tomorrow? We need to go food shopping too, we can hit both places. You’re annoyed, but at least now you get to go to the refillery — a favorite weekend stop. You start listing the other things that could use refilling: lotion, toothpaste, sunscreen …
— Refill, replace, upcycle: November 23, 2021
Plastic is an environmental scourge — emissions from the plastic industry are on track to surpass coal by the end of this decade. But the solutions to it are way more exciting than paper straws and canvas grocery bags. In this newsletter, we spotlight three paths to a less plasticky future. Read more
Affordable homes border swaths of public green space.
An environmental justice organization, well funded and powered by community voices, advocates for residents’ needs and brings its expertise to local and national policymaking.
Health care, locally grown produce, and sustainable goods abound — easily accessible by bike or electric bus.
Those goods are the result of a global supply chain that has taken a holistic approach to sustainability, changing the lives of millions of workers.
What’s behind this picture? “Holistic, comprehensive development,” “a diversity of perspectives and backgrounds in all environmental policymaking,” an end to “the exploitative nature of market capitalism.”
— based on visions of the future from Robert Bullard, Charles Lee, Peggy Shepard, and Baldemar Velasquez
To achieve a just future, you’ve got to know its roots:
November 11, 2021
Sometimes in order to look forward, you need to look back. In this newsletter, we interviewed four leaders who were part of the first National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit in 1991 about the history of the environmental justice movement — and how it marches on today, and into the future. Read more
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