Conversation with Kim Stanley Robinson, The Ministry for the Future

Join Professor Jeffrey Sachs and bestselling science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson for a thought provoking conversation on Robinson’s recent novels The Ministry for the Future and New York 2140 and how climate change has and will potentially affect us all.
Together, Sachs and Robinson explore climate change as an existential threat and the plausible and tumultuous ways the climate crisis will shape our future. What happens as we push beyond planetary boundaries? Will sea levels rise to devastating levels, submerging lower Manhattan and other urban centers of the world? Will climate change lead to acts of terrorism, countries engaging in unilateral geoengineering, and even climate terrorism? Will UN Member States finally get their act together? Kim Stanley Robinson brings these possibilities to light in his books with vigor, wit, scientific insight, and a grand imagination.
The Book Club with Jeffrey Sachs is brought to you by the SDG Academy, the flagship education initiative of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. Learn more and get involved at bookclubwithjeffreysachs.org. This video is licensed under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license.
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[@karelvancamp4807]

Thanks, brilliant. It is a relief to hear people talk constructively.

[@matthiasaumeier4379]

Wonderful talk, thank you very much

[@nancinyols8015]

So reassuring to have intelligent thinkers working on solutions....and to know there are institutions ready and willing to make those adjustments. Why do we never hear about this in the MSM?

[@antonyjh1234]

Are you saying the MSM hasn't told us that we need to reduce consumption, the last 30 years? The problem is taking oil out of our lives, or at least confine the consumption to needed industries, are we ready for that adjustment? I'm not so sure.

[@treefrog3349]

The presumption is that HOPEFULLY wisdom will prevail over greed. I find that stance to be pollyanna-ish in the extreme, considering our long history to the contrary.

[@fellowcitizen]

I'm enjoying this conversation, I'm very curious to read this! I'll revisit it after I've read the book. The fact that Jeffrey recognises reality within the fabric gives it credence and urgency. I thought I'd add this reading list which KSR mentioned during an earlier event: Ursula Le Guin's Reading List for pupils (including KSR) at UCSD Spring Quarter 1977: Hard to Be a God by the Strugatsky Brothers Martian Time Slip by Philip K. Dick Camp Concentration by Thomas Disch The Invincible by Stanisław Lem The Fifth Head of Cerberus by Gene Wolfe The Dream Master by Roger Zelazny The Exile Waiting by Vonda McIntyre And Strange at Ecbatan the Trees by Michael Bishop de facto inclusions of Italo Calvino: The Baron in the Trees; The Nonexistent Knight; The Cloven Viscount

[@paulcrafft1250]

In a world of limits, what we now consider to be opportunity - worthy pursuit in the main - is the promise of a global consensus that China, Russia (yes) and other countries present with the end of the Petrodollar through the BRICS preeminence. They take a stance on a multi-polar economic order allowing each nation to follow its own path of politics and material development to ultimately arrive at a global homeostasis.

[@ClaudioCanzonetta]

"Anyway that's a large part of what economics is - people arbitrarily, or as a matter of taste, assigning numerical values to non-numerical things. And then pretending that they haven't just made the numbers up, which they have. Economics is like astrology in that sense, except that economics serves to justify the current power structure, and so it has a lot of fervent believers among the powerful." K.S. Robinson - Red Mars.

[@namlak]

Let Kim Talk!

[@mikeharrington5593]

He likes the sound of his own voice.

[@thisisit9829]

No more wars for Israel!

[@erik_carter_art]

I wish the host would stop interrupting Stan mid-sentence/mid-thought. Especially because his frequent interjections don't really contribute anything of substance and only serve to break Stan's train of thought.