As several of us like to read, we started a Green Book Group in 2020. Our second book was The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson and, as you will see below, our reviews were mixed! If you'd like to join the Green Book Group, keep an eye on our Facebook page for the details of our next book and the date of the meeting.
Review by Alison Skinner
This is a work of fiction about how we might possibly overcome the effects of global climate change by the 2050s. It is written by a well-known American science fiction writer who has in recent years turned to predictions of the likely effects of extreme weather events in the United States in the near future. It has been recommended by several conservation organisations and also comes endorsed as one of Barak Obama's favourite books of the year. In these times, however, we perhaps need our science fiction writers to imagine the changes which humanity might have to undertake in order to move to a more sustainable way of life. Weighing in at 563 pages, this is not a quick read and was written pre-pandemic, so the international freedom of movement of the central characters depicted already seems highly nostalgic, Nevertheless, it combines a briefing on the key factors affecting global warning and the range of incentives and penalties which might induce individuals and organisations to change their behaviour.
The central premise of the novel is that at a future COP 29, there is agreement that a new organisation be set up in Zurich to advocate for the future of unborn humanity and work with all the international institutions to find and implement solutions to climate change, dubbed the Ministry for the Future. It is run by a middle-aged Irish woman called Mary Murphy – very reminiscent of Mary Robinson human rights ambassador – who takes up residence in Zurich, assembles a team of specialists around her and undertakes diplomatic initiatives with key decision-makers such as politicians and bankers.
The book is split into short chapters which take the reader
around the globe, into every kind of setting, to explore the effects and
potential mitigation of climate change. The opening chapter
depicts an extreme heat event in India which unwinds in a catastrophic and distressing way – not impossible according to current predictions – which sparks some political change in the way that other tragedies have. The book is a love letter to the city of Zurich and gives the reader a special experience of looking out over the world's affairs from this uniquely neutral Swiss perspective, both in the cities and the mountains.
There are vignettes of scientists working in the Antarctic to reverse melting ice caps, political activists bringing cities to a halt to press for change, a kayaker rescuing people from a flooded Los Angeles, a climate refugee in a camp with only aid workers for support, the re-engineering of personal communications away from Facebook to a more democratic model, an ingenious reworking of the global financial system to more positive ends, including transparent Swiss banks and a high jacking of a Davos conference by activists enforcing some re-education on the world's leaders (not entirely successfully at that point!).
Change is not all peaceful and some is induced by force, but the mix of incentives and penalties starts to birth a more just world order. Religious institutions are depicted as working to support climate refugees and asylum seekers. There are also single page chapters in which some of the forces of climate change are described poetically like Anglo-Saxon riddles for readers to guess their identity.
Having immersed oneself in this book you emerge with a
slightly dizzy feeling of hope, although realising some things may not be
possible and the desire to pass it on to someone with power and influence in
the world. We really need someone to set up a Ministry for the Future for all
of us.
Review by Kelly Swann
At 563 pages, The Ministry for the Future is a sizeable commitment. Once in it, it doesn't take long to realise that the reason for its heft is that this is two books stitched rather crudely together. One of the books is a compelling narrative about a man who survives a horrific heat wave and how this experience motivates him to impact The Ministry. The other book inside The Ministry for the Future is a collection of essays about the various cataclysmic crises that are arising as a result of climate change and possible scientific and idealistic fixes. I liked and was engaged by the 'first' book... the second, that Kim Stanley tries to smuggle in, not so much: too heavy, too indigestible. Despite not especially enjoying this book, I am glad that I struggled through it as it is without question written by a man who is hugely knowledgeable about his subject and it is against the odds an optimistic read. However, my advice to you... should you decide to read it, is put on your high viz jacket, your hard hat and steel-capped boots, because my friend - it's hard work.
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