A Disservice to the Politics of Climate Change
Sci-fi writer Kim Stanley Robinson has done a
disservice to those of us who care about the peril of climate change. It isn’t
clear from his book that he cares more about dismantling capitalism than solving
the problem of climate change. His book will convince the diehard climate
activists who are already convinced, but it rouses the suspicions of those of
us who view the politics of climate change as a ruse to upend capitalism.
His Ministry for the Future, a U.N. body, is headed up
by Mary Murphy a former Irish foreign minister. Operating out of Zurich in 2025
and beyond she is charged with solving the climate crisis. However, what could
have been a very interesting personality, Murphy is a one-dimensional character as are all of the other characters in the book.
The book opens with a catastrophic heat wave in India
and features the flooding of the Los Angeles plain along with other climate
horrors. As the crises deepens Murphy convinces the central banks of the world
to engage in quantitative easing by issuing a carbon currency. Although this
sounds novel, it really is a modified cap and trade system, and it ignores the
inflationary consequences of the currency issuance. Robinson is partial modern
monetary theory (MMT), but the book was written before the inflation of 2021
and 2022 which discredited MMT and huge fiscal deficits.
Most troubling is Robinson’s tacit approval of
eco-terrorism where swarms of drones take down aircraft and container ships
triggering a global depression. Somehow the populace of the industrial west
remains strangely compliant. Obviously, Robinson didn’t witness the panic of $5
gas in 2022 and how such enviro-friendly politicians as Bernie Sanders and
Elizabeth Warren attacked the oil companies for high gas prices. Both of those
politicians were cynically ignorant of the fact that high gas prices promote
alternative energy.
Although Robinson to his credit seems to favor
geo-engineering and carbon capture to reduce emissions, he does not mention
nuclear power as a potential carbon free source of energy and further there is
nary a mention of expediting permits for alternative energy projects. I guess
he can only go so far for fear of losing his environmental constituency.
The book has a “happy” ending with climate emissions
declining in the 2040’s, but Robinson’s path in getting there strains
credulity. For example, has the northern plains depopulated and returning to
grasslands and many corporations turning into industrial coops.
For the full Amazon URL see: A Disservice to the Politics of Climate Change (amazon.com)
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