Book Log 2021 #28: The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson

In the wake of a lethal heat wave in India, the international community creates the title organization, which is charged with representing the rights of future people to live on a habitable planet. The book follows its minister as she tries to convince governments of the threat climate change presents not just in environmental terms but in economic and financial terms as well. The other main narrative follows an aid worker who survived the Indian heat wave but has become increasingly adrift from society. 

In addition to these two main stories, the book presents other points of view, often times from anonymous characters, to give depth to the global nature of climate change. There are also a number of technical advances depcited, not so much as solutions, but as ways to mitigate changes while larger solutions are enacted.  There's also an ongoing campaign waged by a radical ecological group, who occasionally resort to violence as a way to remove obstacles to what they see as progress.

Some of the reviews of this book found it too optimistic, which I can see. I do think it will be much harder to convince politicians in office now to act in the best interests of people not yet born than depicted here. That being said I do think putting the danger of climate change into economic/financial terms is likely the best way to convince those in power (or those who can manipulate the levers of power) to act in a climate-friendly manner.