In Robinson's The Ministry for the Future, we see a world where climate change is the main priority and people live environmentally. However, this change does not come out of nowhere. It takes a heat wave in India killing thousands of people before the Ministry is created and worldwide climate action starts. Will Robinson's vision of the world ever become reality?
Personally, I see The Ministry for the Future as an interesting speculation, but not an instruction manual for building the "perfect society". There are lots of issues with the way that people live in the novel, and such widespread change does not feel realistic in our current society. For example, the replacement of international air travel with airships and boats is not something that would be realistic without a huge change in our work culture, and even then, the change would probably not be very popular. In order to force these extreme cultural changes, various environmental groups in the novel have to do extreme things like blowing up commercial airplanes. I would of course hope things don't come to this point in our reality. Robinson's vision of his society may be a "utopia", but considering how much violence it took to get there, I don't see it as the best example to follow.
The biggest reason that such extreme changes are possible in The Ministry for the Future is because climate change is the main issue that the world is united against to solve. We saw something similar with the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, where the entire world seemed to stop and put aside convenience and commerce to try to stop the pandemic. This kind of international focus could be possible for climate change, but it likely won't happen unless something very serious happens like at the beginning of the novel. Instead, I think that less drastic changes and new technological innovations will help us live more environmentally and protect the planet.
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