The Ministry for the Future

Written by Kim Stanley Robinson

 

OPL BOOK SUMMARY:  Two months ago, I finished The Ministry for the Future, and it still lingers with me. It is science fiction at its best. You get to be in a future world that changes how you see things. It is a powerful story of climate change in the next 30 years. Kim Stanley Robinson masterfully combines real elements of science, finance, organizations, and human behaviors with fictional characters trying to save the world for the future.

It begins in 2025, the pivotal decade to reduce CO2 to avoid the worst of climate change.  It’s the first fiction book I have read where people struggle in a plausible way to stay within the 2-degree Celsius threshold. There is much drama and competing forces as people, groups, organizations, and countries take different approaches.  The solutions used exist today, are in development, or are being discussed. At the same time, climate change is brutal, and a staggering number of people die.  The Ministry for the Future is haunting and hopeful. It hangs around my mind as I wonder how we will survive and how to help—a highly recommended read.

Available used at BetterWorldBooks.

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