Storying Polycrisis

https://www.un.org/ungifts/let-us-beat-swords-ploughshares

​As adjunct faculty at Creighton University, I had the compelling assignment to dive into “The Ministry for the Future,” a powerful narrative aimed at awakening to the pressing environmental crises that loom over our present. Kim Stanley Robinson uses hard science fiction to present an unfolding polycrisis inspired by scientific findings that are announcing horrific heatwaves, the melting of glaciers and the rise of sea levels, as well as the dangers inherent in the continuous use of fossil fuels that increase carbon dioxide levels. He describes the increasing extinction of lifeforms on Earth as well as increasing inequality, with 1 percent of the global population owning the vast majority of the world’s wealth. The novel takes place in Zurich, where the author has intimate knowledge of the city, after living there in the 1980’s. His characters even travel to Valais, climbing over mountain passes and flying in helicopters over damns in the region where I live.
 
In his novel, Robinson uses the phrase, ‘let us beat swords into ploughshares’ in reference to a statue given to the United Nations from Russia in 1959. Beating swords into ploughshares comes from a Bible verse in Isaiah. The statue symbolizes man’s desire to put an end to war and transform tools of destruction into tools to benefit mankind. In keeping with this intention, Robinson’s characters find solutions, turning the Central Banks and other international organizations into tools that benefit humankind. A thought-provoking example is the creation of a carbon coin dedicated to carbon dioxide removal.
 
Robinson begins his novel with a heatwave in India where a wet-bulb weather event, with extreme heat and humidity, kills millions. The realization that humans cannot adapt to wet-bulb weather events becomes a catalyst for change. The wet-bulb event in India becomes a shifting point that allows for the creation of The Ministry for the Future under The Paris Agreement. The heads of the ministry work to make systemic changes like reconfiguring capitalism as well as the international monetary systems, using carbon coins that orient future investments towards sustainability, by rewarding activities that work to increase carbon sequestration.
 
Envisioning ways to shapeshift the dysfunctional systems that are waging against humanity’s survival and the well-being of future generations, the book uses heteroglossia, or dialogic imagination as conceptualized by Mikhail Bakhtin, a Russian literary theorist, to question power structures. The book’s characters like Mary, an Irish woman that heads the ministry, provide us with dialogues that give voice to a framework for planetary transformation. These conversations, rich with cultural insights and futuristic ideals, weave a narrative that challenges our perceptions of governance, sustainability, and human connectivity in the face of global change.
 
The author suggests that a very rapid, stepwise, legal reformist revolution is the best option for eliciting change. His novel describes how everything humans do at scale has planetary effects and could be called geoengineering. He suggests that even maximizing women’s education and political power worldwide could be considered a form of geoengineering. Giving more power to women, by providing higher education and leadership positions for women, would have an effect on birthrates. Policies that favor women’s rights have been shown to slow population growth. This insight exemplifies how even gender issues influence important sustainability outcomes. Empowering women has a measurable effect on the biosphere. Throughout the novel, Robinson describes how we can counteract the effects of global warming. Scientific studies, inventions, and even new technologies like blockchain and artificial intelligence, provide ways to bring forth a sustainable future. His storyline develops these themes to show how we as a species can consciously transform our systems to avoid extinction.
 
The novel provides an imaginary plot for harnessing transformational forces for systemic planetary change. Robinson’s work contributes to the growing consciousness about climate change and the Anthropocene, or 6th phase of extinction. Even Pierre Teilhard de Chardin’s concept of the Noosphere or planetary mind, understood to be a kind of superorganism, is woven into the storyline. Robinson uses science fiction to awaken us to the reality of our current dilemma. But he also provides a vision for transformation, including ideas related to the global commons, land regeneration projects, rewilding, and a response to the suffering of millions of refugees with the creation of a global citizenship.
 
While reading his novel, we grasp the devastating extent of the destructive forces that have been waged upon our ecosystems, and the need for repair. As a reader, participating in the novel’s dialogical process, I asked myself, “How can we actively engage in the great work that will create a flourishing future?” Robinson uses science fiction to envision a hopeful future while reminding his readership of the urgent need for constructive social change as well as our power to make the future. “The Ministry for the Future” highlights new technologies, such as artificial intelligence and blockchain, as crucial tools for working towards the common good, underscoring their potential to catalyze positive and sustainable social transformations.

ETH Zurich Global Lecture Series: 
​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WF7j7J84Tdk

​RTS link article and TV coverage: 
​https://www.rts.ch/info/culture/livres/14416524-le-ministere-du-futur-roman-de-sciencefiction-sur-la-lutte-climatique-sort-mercredi.html

Wet-bulb temperatures: 
​https://theconversation.com/as-heat-records-fall-how-hot-is-too-hot-for-the-human-body-210088​

Glacier of Titlis