A meditation on heightened awareness — 8:15am — You wake to the song of house sparrows. Their chorus of descending trills pierce your ear in staccato polyrhythm, weaving avian contralto and soprano just below the threshold of ultrasound. Though you cannot see them, you trace their warbling out your window, down the brick-clad alley, and up…

Real-world ideas stitched into story — This article is part of a series: Introduction Government Market Military Collective So far in our exploration of The Ministry for the Future, we have looked primarily at the ways Kim Stanley Robinson envisions institutions shifting to a new world order. But this reorganization would not be possible without changes…

Real-world ideas stitched into story — This article is part of a series: Introduction Government Market Military Collective Having covered The Ministry for the Future’s take on the role of public and private enterprises, we now turn to the military, where Robinson envisions a shift of power from nation states toward actors working on behalf of…

Real-world ideas stitched into story — This article is part of a series: Introduction Government Market Military Collective So far, we have introduced The Ministry for the Future’s fundamental theses regarding climate resilience, as well as the role of the public sector. …

Real-world ideas stitched into story — This article is part of a series: Introduction Government Market Military Collective In the previous article, we looked at a piece of landmark climate fiction, The Ministry for the Future, and its envisioned sustainable world order. We discussed the author’s underlying premise: that solutions must be driven by and among…

Real-world ideas stitched into story — This article is part of a series: Introduction Government Market Military Collective Swimming in an ocean of apocalyptic media and political gridlock, it can be difficult to imagine a future in which we successfully meet the great challenges of our time. That’s why Kim Stanley Robinson’s latest book, The Ministry…

Making sense of a world on edge — This article is part of a series: Introduction: What are tipping points? 1. The Arctic 2. The Antarctic 3. The Oceans 4. The Weather Reflection: Where to start? Where to Start? With so many critical tipping points, we are still left with the question of where to focus. All of these tipping points…

Making sense of a world on edge — This article is part of a series: Introduction: What are tipping points? 1. The Arctic 2. The Antarctic 3. The Oceans 4. The Weather Reflection: Where to start? 3. The Oceans In addition to local effects experienced in the Arctic and Antarctic, the oceans are heating and absorbing more CO2 on a global…