Overview:
This is a story of the potential consequences of environmental mismanagement, specifically climate mismanagement. Along with ways on how people cope with the tragedies. Stimulating a reflection upon the potential destruction, and ways that can avert the destruction. A reflection of the psychological coping mechanisms to the destruction, the science and technology of climate management, and the global political and economic ramifications of the changes.

When India gets ravaged by a heat wave that produces havoc, a movement is started to prevent further catastrophes. But the rest of the world is not so eager to make changes. Even a global agency meant to protect present and future beings known as The Ministry for the Future, is hesitant to make changes as rapidly as they would like. India starts the changes, and breaks global political restraints on methods used to battle the deleterious climate. Years pass by with much of the world resisting changing their practices to become environmentally sustainable.

There are groups that cannot stand for the lack of change, the lack of responsibility for the environment. These groups rise up in resistance to those who would seek to destroy the environment. Groups that protect the environment initiate a War for the Earth. The methods are steeped in violence, but increase the costs of producing greenhouse gases. Creating a search for alternative means of production, without damaging the environment. The world economic and political stance on the environment gradually changes from resistance, to persecution of those who damage the environment. Changing the way people think, and behave in relation to their environment.

Caveats?
The book is composed of various ideas and narratives. With so many different perspectives, their transitions are poor. The book contains various ideas from environmental science, economics, politics, and psychology. But the ideas are not given much detail, and the way the ideas are described contain the biases of the author. The author presents many different ideals, in resolution of a single major ideal, but they are sometimes a distraction to the major ideal.

The science itself is simplified to promote an ideal for the climate, but there is a loss to information within that simplification. Science rarely does not have unintended consequences, while the resolutions to the climate problem in this book appear to be completely sustainable and without negative effects.

The ways in which policies change in this book, utilize instrumental evil. Doing acts of evil, for good outcomes. The promotion of these behavior is inappropriate, and have contradictory outcomes. Wars to end violence have historically tended to create more violence. But in this book, this type of tyranny has created a society in which people accept violence as righteous and do not abuse this method. Within this book, there appears to be no problem with persecution of any dissenter from the environmental policies enacted. Seemingly minor incidents on the way to changing policies, only bring about greater defense of the methods used to persecute those who think differently.

With global changes to the economic system, there are acknowledged major economic disruptions. Within this book, production methods and products quickly make adjustments. Daily life seems to be going without much disruptions. There appears to be nothing wrong with the different economic system.

An economic policy that is promoted in the book is a carbon coin, that pays to prevent release of carbon. Before the carbon coin, the author berated rents. Rents are incomes that peoples receive without doing anything. While the rents of the carbon coin are promoted in the book without any seeming contradiction. There appears to be nobody in this book who takes advantage of the policy. Historically, similar policies have been used, with devastating effect. Firms have produced more unwanted products, for which they wanted an income to prevent releasing the product. Damaging the environment way more than before the policy. ( )

Essential reading because of the near future scenarios. But lots of information dumps in alternating chapters. Exhausting; but well worth the read. ( )

Großartiges Buch, allerdings nicht einfach zu lesen und nicht ohne Längen. Trotzdem eine Leseempfehlung! ( )

Kim Stanley Robbinson is one of the most loved contemporary sci-fi writers. I may not always like what he writes, but I respect him. He has unique ideas and researches thoroughly (infodumps galore). Where he usually fails is the plot and sections that drag on. This book is no exception to that. There are some amazing chapters (the opening description of the events in India). But, there were chapters I skimmed over and couldn't wait to get done with.

I have mixed feelings about this novel. This is an unusual mix of a regular narrative, chapters narrated by photons or carbon atoms, news bits and short pieces written by people living in a strange, new world of the near future.

There are only two main characters. Mary is the head of the Ministry for the Future - an international institution established to alleviate the consequences of climate change and make sure there is something left for future generations. And there is Frank, an NGO worker who survived a deadly heatwave in India that will change his life forever.

Most of the story is set in Zurich, but we learn about the world through supplemental chapters by different people/entities. There is not much story per se, even though some characters' fates end up intertwined. A lot of it didn't make much sense. I guess the story was a rather weak vehicle to present some novel ideas. Unfortunately, that is not enough for me and this book was not nearly as emotionally engaging as [b:Aurora|23197269|Aurora|Kim Stanley Robinson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1436300570l/23197269._SX50_.jpg|42742263] (his previous book which I loved).

The most interesting thing about The Ministry for the Future was reading on to see what will happen with the global situation as the years moved on. Read as a futurology report with a soul, this book is soul-crushing in some parts but strangely optimistic in others.

It was great to read about a future where "the 3rd world" leads the change to save the biosphere. I rooted for India going the way they did in the story. Unlike the majority of the cli-fi books I've read, there is a lot of hope here.

I gave an extra star to this book due to the importance of the central theme, but normally this would be a 3 star read at best. ( )

A long fragmented reconstruction of an impending future in which climate change translates to political necessity for action as opposed to current dialectics. I think the author did a very good job at world building in a very difficult domain, the near future. But at the same time there are many aspects of this book that are problematic.

First the characters and their stories are not compelling or transformational. They are fairly static in their development so you don’t feel the story move.

Secondly the world ingredients use language in unusual way - my primary example is that of cryptocurrency. The author has a utopic view of implementation that does not exist today and that does not even seem to be vaguely aligned to contemporary crypto enthusiasts. So the author renames invention’s with problems to new solutions which you only fully appreciate at the end of the book.

Finally there are areas where, even if I am not an expert, there are big gaps between world built claims and what is plausible.

Nevertheless I think this book is one a future thinking person should read critically and breakdown its assumptions and outcomes. ( )