The Ministry for the Future: A Novel

This book is a work of genius. I should declare immediately that I am a ‘doomer’. I consider that humanity is now too far down the road of climate altering action and general resource overshoot to make the effective U-turn that most fervently hope to be possible.The book is constructed as a very clever series of mostly short chapters that both educate and keep the plot moving.Some chapters follow the main characters as they struggle creatively and mightily to force the entrenched powers-that-be to take an increasingly more radical approach to the efforts needed to turn spaceship Earth around from unmitigated disaster. Other chapters provide haunting and jarring vignettes in the form of first-person accounts of events occurring around the world. Interleaved with the above are short, informative and insightful essays on various relevant topics such as capitalist economics, international politics. PTSD, geoengineering, climate refugees, species extinction and alternative economic mechanisms.The titular organization which came to be known colloquially as ‘The Ministry for the Future’ is started as a quasi-independent spin-off from the United Nations. Its charter was to represent, on the world stage, the future generations of humans (current children included) as if they were a significant country and constituency. To give them a voice.The book begins with Frank May, an aid worker in India, who is caught up in an extremely lethal heatwave. This event is quite traumatic, and it kills about twenty million people. The shock waves from this event set a lot of things in motion including a very bold and radical action taken unilaterally by India. Multiple geoengineering efforts are undertaken. A radical restructuring of the worlds deeply entrenched financial systems is both persuaded and forced with much pushback from financiers, central bankers, oligarchs and the wealthy elites.Eventually more than 100 million refugees all over the world are on the move and bold solutions have to be found for them. Airships replace planes for air travel and solar/wind powered multi-masted schooners reappear on the oceans. Large scale wildlife corridors are established all over the planet. The earth is allowed to heal.As a doomer and pessimist, I have to say that I was very impressed. This book gave me a lot of new perspectives. It made me feel a small chink of hope. Robinsons prose is excellent and is a pleasure to read. His arguments are mostly quite solid. However, Robinson often seems rather naïve (or else prone to wishful thinking) as to the feasibility of getting the entrenched power-elites to radically rethink their world views.On the other hand, perhaps the power of the masses really can be brought to bear if enough people wake up.As he says, “When push comes to shove, it’s always humans looking at humans; and when a thousand people stand looking at one person, it’s clear who has more power”.In the end, I was convinced that these are the kinds of things that we (humanity as a whole) *should* be doing and indeed should have started doing long ago. The book is particularly realistic in the sense that the events described take place over a period of some forty years. There is no quick fix to our predicament if indeed there is a fix at all.This is a significant book. The fact that it made a doomer like me stop and think “What if that could still work?” and “m..m..maybe” surprised me. Highly recommended.

The book starts out with a major heat wave disaster in India killing 20 million people, resulting in greater willingness to combat climate change as well as anger and desire by the survivors. The Ministry of the Future is an UN agency established in 2025 by the Paris Agreement. It was tasked with advocating for the rights of future generations especially with respect to climate change. We follow Mary Murphy and other characters in this agency throughout the following decades passed mid-century. Another central character is Frank May, an American aid worker, who was present when the Indian heat wave hit. He was traumatized and resorted to extreme actions.Since aspects of the Ministry appeared to be secret and its purpose was to save the world for future generations it reminded me a bit of the foundation in Isaac Asimov’s foundation series. An agency consisting of selected people who were not entirely aware of what was going on but ultimately saved the galactic civilization for the future. I loved the author’s reference to the Tzadikim Nistarim, the hidden righteous ones saving the world from destruction. The book is also sprinkled with words of wisdom, factual information, and fun riddles, all of which have solutions except the riddle in chapter 95. Try to figure that one out. I loved what he said on page 510 “Foxing their own cognitive errors might be one the greatest accomplishments……”. Did you know there are about 60 billion birds alive on Earth?The book is both a bit dark in the beginning but overall very optimistic. Most of the imagined solutions he provide, such as the carbon coin, I found to be both doable and ideologically neutral. He lays out the case against focusing on adaptation in a profound manner, discusses geoengineering in an informed manner, and drives home that carbon emissions is a cost that is unaccounted for, an externality. He came across as someone who had good insights into climate solutions.That said his socialist leanings and even soft spot for communism became apparent. This plus his naïve adulation for Vendana Shiva, a pseudo scientist, was off putting, and I found his mocking of the economic sciences both uninformed and hypocritical. He expresses distaste for rich people while being one himself. Yes I looked up his net worth. Even though his far left leanings was a problem to me it did not influence his writing too much, and I found myself agreeing with much of what he promoted.There are several story lines narrated by different narrators, some unnamed, the jumps between the story lines and the insertions of riddles or wisdom words or facts felt a bit disjointed and was at times confusing, but also fun. That combined with his left leaning viewpoints is why I am not giving the book five stars. However, I loved the setting, the character development, the many gripping stories, his profound understanding of climate science, natural science, international politics, and his love for nature. The author is not only a good writer and a good story teller but also intelligent and well informed, almost like an Asimov. The book was a great pleasure to read.

This book is extremely interesting and engrossing. Even if you are not familiar or very interested in climate change the scenarios and characters Robinson includes in the book make it a very compelling story. The book is also incredibly well written, allowing all readers to understand any of the more technical economic or geoengineering components of the book.

Uma ficção social e ecológica sobre como as mudanças climáticas vão mudar o mundo. Um livro necessário para compreender não apenas para onde o mundo está indo, mas para onde tem que ir

De pesadilla inicial a posibles soluciones al cambio climático que, aunque las presenta en forma de ficción, podrían ser viables de verdad. Ojalá todos los políticos y banqueros leyeran este libro.

Libro consigliatissimo per tutti che vogliono capire come affrontare il cambiamento climatico!

An incredibly detailed, well-researched and thankfully hopeful story full of practical ideas about how humanity might deal with climate change. Take the time to read it, it really might give you hope about the future of the planet. If people can write books with so much passion and creativity, they can find solutions to our problems.