Constructing a Utopia

Kim Stanley Robinson’s novel The Ministry for the Future gives readers a glimpse of the disastrous near future. Robinson imagines a world where a catastrophic heat wave in India kills 20 million people and an international organization called The Ministry for the Future is founded under the Paris Agreement with the promise of prioritizing the future generations’ rights as if they were those of the present. The organization is led by Mary Murphy, a former minister of Ireland. Frank, the sole survivor of the India heat wave, seeks solutions outside the law and helps refugees displaced by the climate disasters. In the periphery are the violent group the Children of Kali, which Frank seeks to join. This group seeks immediate retribution for climate crimes and those who have committed “mass murder” through their exacerbation of the climate crisis. The future Robinson imagines requires completely reimagining the way we conduct our lives, our governments, and how we allocate our resources. He responds to a dystopian catastrophe with a utopian future.

    Robinson presents a utopian global society as the solution to climate change. It requires the way we have lived thus far to be completely reimagined. The innovations and technology presented in the novel are based on thoroughly researched ideas proposed in real life: geoengineering to prevent glaciers from melting, replacing planes with solar-powered air travel, and switching over currency to carbon coin. Self-sufficient communities are the ones that fair the best in the future. Mary travels the world trying to convince banks to change to carbon coin and incentivise governments to cut down emissions, but she is often met with resistance. While Robinson seems not to favor violence, violent threats and anonymous attacks cause almost immediate change in the novel. When planes are bombed, air travel plummets and solar powered solutions are ushered in. The ministry itself is bombed. To me these seem like some of the more realistic moments in the novel. I have a very pessimistic view of the future, and I think the moments of violence and resistance are reflective of human nature, even in the midst of Robinson’s utopia. I find it hard to believe that the world can come to agreement on any radical and global changes. But what does seem imminent is an organization with legal power and backed by the government but as a separate branch is the ministry itself. Mary as a former minister believes that policy making will make change, “we work within the law. I think that gives us a better chance of changing things,” while Frank is more reckless and wants to work outside the law, he says, “but it isn't working fast enough” (99). Both of these characters in contrast to each other represent the two perspectives on the future, one in which legislation and policy will change the world, and the other where work in the field and outside the law will make the greatest change. But no matter what, it will take a lot of money and possibly a fatal and tragic event to convince people to work faster.

    The book is ultimately a hopeful tale, but to reach Robinson’s prediction of the future, the human race will have to survive with radical changes to their way of life as they know it and stand in solidarity and selflessness.