The Ministry For the Future - Kim Stanley Robinson
I think the tagline on the cover ("The best science fiction nonfiction novel") is quite accurate in this case. A tale of climate change disasters that are ignored until past the time of no return, and finally some people - not all, by any means - start to take it seriously enough to attempt some global rescues, even as some fight these efforts to the death. It's literally a story that we are living through every day, with certain details changed in order to call it fiction.
In this account, after a catastrophic heat wave in India that killed tens of thousands, some people realized that the current inaction was not working and started to take matters in their own hands. India as a country took some measures to cool its land while individuals banded together to use what may be referred to as terrorist activities to make their point, although they initially avoided taking lives. This reluctance changed when they saw that they needed more extreme measures, but continued to do their best to avoid "collateral damage". Many others continued to work on the problem in more "legitimate" venues, from research scientists to the group the book is named after - The Ministry For the Future, whose purview is to look after future generations. Among others, we follow the leader of this Ministry as she encounters those who have been personally affected and discovers that there is a black ops team in her group that she was unaware of.
The narration follows different people and groups as they react to this new world where some change is actually enacted, mainly due to the Children of Kali, who crash planes and destroy boats, kidnap the wealthy and think outside the box. Change does occur but it comes slowly, and seemingly too slow to stop the inevitable. In the end, after years and years, things do improve, but there is always more to be done, even after radical steps have been taken.
I appreciate that Robinson has different perspectives and comes up with - or has read about others' ideas for - steps that can be taken, and either he or his sources seem to have quite a bit of scientific knowledge that covers many different areas. I am afraid, though, that our real world will not take the steps necessary to make any real change, since the world is seeing incredibly violent climate events already that are met with a overall yawn, and if we had real-life climate terrorists, I'm afraid that the powers-that-be would fight them rather than the true sources of the problems.
So, somewhat simultaneously hopeful and depressing, and the next generations will see and judge us for what we do and don't do to tackle this very real issue. Sobering but well written.
posted by rich @ 1:34 PM
