The political debates of the day
consist of politicians discussing costs with one another. Electoral campaigns
focus on employment rates, GDP growth, and inflation. Geopolitics has mostly
evolved from war to the imposing of tariffs. Healthcare research is motivated
by the ability to have exclusive market patents. What thread do these all have
in common? In the words of wise philosopher Bill Clinton, “It’s the economy,
stupid.” Climate Change, much like every other international problem, will
likely be addressed only when it’s economically advantageous to do so both
personally and by nation states. Robinson devotes much of Ministry for the
Future supporting this prediction.
On geopolitical level, one of the
strongest arguments made for Carbon Coin was how it would eventually lead to
more stable currencies on a country-wide level. There are several examples in
the book: one such example is when the Arabian government decided to decarbonize
based off the fact “…their refusal to sell their oil reserves for burning,
deserved compensation in the form of CCCB’s carbon coin… the Arabic claim was
estimated at about a trillion carbon coins.” (Robinson, 342) The fact that the
government announced their intent to claim the money alongside their intent to
decarbonize supports the idea that the government only decarbonized because of
the money. Arabia’s government probably did the math and realized they would
make more (or at least the same) money by leaving the carbon in the ground
rather than selling it. What was their rationale behind it? “It’s the economy,
stupid.”
On a personal level, one of
strongest reasons for the individual to address climate change was the economic
benefit. There’s a small story in the book about a couple of poor farmers who “…
heard the rumors that the district council would be giving out money for carbon
retention… this would be getting paid for what we had to do anyway to keep from
starving.” (Robinson 400) At the end of the year, the farmers were given over
70,000 dollars – an amount that equaled “Almost two years of expenses, in fact.”
(Robinson 401) This offer of money is what enticed the farmers to farm in an
environmentally friendly manner in the first place. Given the fact that the farmers
made an incredible profit with the carbon coin being given to them, it would make
sense that they would continue to farm without burning lots of carbon. Their incentive
here is monetary. In other words, what was their rationale behind it? “It’s the
economy, stupid”.
Robinson writes his characters to
be motivated at least partly by economic gain – which is not an unreasonable motivation.
These motivations eventually cause the human race to tackle the problems of
climate change and start reversing its effects. “It’s the economy, stupid” is the
answer Robinson proposes to the timeless question: “What will it take to get
people to act?”.
I agree; most people in the Ministry for the Future are motivated to support carbon sequestration only when economic gain is involved. However, there is another motivation present throughout the novel, the Ministry’s, which is based on preserving their reputation.
ReplyDeleteOne common theme throughout the novel is that people don’t feel obligated to solve other peoples’ problems unless it benefits them. At a bar shortly before Frank kidnaps Mary, the Ministry discusses Dr. Slawek’s plan to pump water out from under glaciers. When asked, “why didn’t you bring this up at the session today? It was about this acceleration of glaciers” (Robinson 82), Slawek “quickly shook his head,” and says, “Not my thing” (Robinson 83). Slawek stands nothing to gain from proposing this idea besides, “hate mail, rocks through window” (Robinson 83) which seems to deter him from wanting to help.
It isn’t until Frank kidnaps Mary that this inactivity changes. She tells him, “We’re doing what we can” (Robinson 96), and Frank spends the evening shouting at her that the Ministry isn’t doing enough. The next day as a result, Mary tells Badim, “We’re charged with representing the people and animals of the future, in effect to save the biosphere on their behalf, and we’re not managing to do it” (Robinson 109). Frank’s acknowledgement that he and the Children of Kali don’t believe that the Ministry is working as hard as possible scared Mary into realizing people are noticing the Ministry’s ineffectiveness. In an effort to preserve the Ministry’s reputation, she begins working as quickly as possible to implement ideas which is implied two chapters later when the glacial water pumping begins.