Prolific science fiction novelist Kim Stanley Robinson opens his new Science Fiction novel The ministry for the Future in a small town in Uttar Pradesh in India with a vivid description of a deadly heatwave that kills twenty million people. One of the few survivors of the catastrophic event is Frank, a young American working for an NGO in India at that time. Frank, one of the main characters in the novel, will bear this horrific experience throughout his life and suffer from PTSD.

Massive political upheaval takes place in India after this catastrophe. The reigning political party is voted out and a coalition of pro-people parties, and environmentalists take over. India takes the leading role in combating climate change. One of their first actions is spraying sulfur aerosols into the atmosphere, to brighten the clouds to reflect sunlight and thus control the warming.

In response to this catastrophic event, a new global body is formed – The ministry for the future, which is entrusted with securing the future for the next generations. Mary Murphy, a strong Irish woman heads the Ministry. Mary would become the other main character of the novel.

Events unfold very slowly and with very little progress in the beginning. A new organization called Children of Kali takes root in India, whose primary goal is to avenge the deaths of the innocents killed in the deadly heatwave. One of their actions was to drown many planes flying on fossil fuel with swarms of drones, in a coordinated attack. After that incident, flying on fossil fuel becomes rare and solar-powered airships slowly navigating the earth takes over.

The ministry of Future undertakes many projects in order to mitigate the worst effects of climate change. One such bold undertaking was pumping out the water from underneath the polar ice caps to stop their trajectory to world’s oceans and arrest the huge sea-level rise. However, the main breakthrough happens when Mary could convince the central bankers of the world to back the new environmental currency, Carboni. Carboni replaces US dollar as the new global currency. Companies are paid in Carboni when they sequester carbon.

The novel ends in a brighter 2050s when the world has managed to reduce carbon from the atmosphere at the rate of 5 parts per million per year. Mary retires from the ministry and takes a voyage in a solar-powered airship to watch the wildlife that has taken over half the planet after the rewild the nature movement.

Robinson ends the novel with very hopeful words:

That there is no other home for us than here. That we will cope no matter how stupid things get. That all couples are odd couples. That the only catastrophe that can’t be undone is extinction. That we can make a good place. That people can take fate in their hands. That there is no such thing as fate. 

This is a very well-researched novel, drawing heavily from the frontiers of climate science, leading economic and political research. Each and every event described in the novel can very well come true. Robinson uses a very different format here. On one thread the storyline progresses, on another thread are the background articles on the relevant climate science, economic research, and current political theories scattered throughout the book before the relevant storyline unfolds. It can be hard to read sometimes, but if you follow through, you will be rewarded with an understanding of the state of the current climate crisis, the latest climate science research, and the frontiers of recent economic and political theories among others.

However, the best part of the novel is the unwavering optimism that there is hope that humanity will rise to the challenge and solve the crisis once and for all.