You spoke about the confusing different voices. I confess that I switched early on to the audio tape which is a wonderful radio show of actors who speak in their characters' voices. It is so fun. So you know who is speaking by their accents. It cost $12 and actually is free as an introductory offer on Audiobooks. Many public libraries also carry it for free. I listen while driving, while gardening and then I'm so hooked that I just sit on the couch glued to it. There is one chapter that is about thirty different voices with accents all over the world telling about their greening projects. It's just so uplifting. And all of these projects, I'm pretty sure, exist now.
PS The chapter about the atmospheric flood in L.A. that swamped the whole city is narrated by a hippy dippy valley girl and she is marvelous. It's so fitting because this flood kills very few people but it swamps the entire city. They escape to the freeways which are elevated. She has a kayak and goes around saving people. Her voice is great.
@chromosomexy SPOILER ALERT I agree with your assessment Re pumping sea water into inland basins… Certainly might be tried… infrastructure for desalination alone should already be in the works for the West & Southwest… but that would require us Yanks to actually address real challenges more quickly. Not to mention the rest of the planet…. As an aside on how mitigation could be accomplished: The US military is good at transport; rebuilding destroyed infrastructure and bringing aid (or we used to be… sigh) so I think we can do this… and other mitigation projects (policy changes) examined in the book…
However, based on some visions that I’ve had about our planet a mere 100 years into the future—I don’t think it will be enough… hopefully I only saw a future reflecting bad choices that can be changed…
At least one of the things I saw in that vision—is just now being projected by current climate scientists. Another visionary insight I had… Oddly pops up in a later portion of the book as a solution for cargo ships that currently run on diesel. I put the book down and shook my head… Reminded of Jeanne’s comment that Robinson may be picking up psychic information and weaving it into his story.
On another note… in response to an earlier post by you, chromosomexy…When I first read about Davos… I thought about the Ministry’s chief of staff and his conversation with Mary on the use of violence to force change… her shock at his suggestion… & her unspoken understanding and conflict about its possible necessity. While reading, I immediately thought that The Children of Kali or another organized eco-terror group were the perps. I don’t think Frank May was involved. Frank had been an aid worker… rejected by the followers of Kali after the tragedy in India… but throughout the story he continues to directly aid others even at the risk of discovery. At the time of the Davos event Frank was “not himself” and I assume ill-equipped to organize or participate in Davos.
What I’ve noticed as the book continued is Frank’s impact on Mary’s thinking. That seems to be one of the themes: how even without intending to—Each of us impacts the events and the people around us.
I’m now getting close to the end of the book and have just read a shocking section that confirms who one of the key ecoterrorists is…
I think “our book club” needs to finish the book before we start discussing overall themes in detail… so I’ll wait til our group is ready to discuss this incredible book…. I’ll jump back in then…perhaps we need a target date?
Like you, chromosomexy, I am intrigued by the technical and social solutions that are being examined in the book. Again, I highly recommend it.
You're probably right about Frank not being at Davos. I forget book details shortly after I read them, which is why I post thoughts and ideas right after I read stuff. This book is heavy in information. Happy reading. I'm about 200 pages from the end and have trouble putting it down.
@freya love your post. I got the feeling that the Tibetan member of Mary’s Ministry for the Future team was party to some of the eco terrorism. She asked him if he was involved in some of the take-downs that happened, forgot if it was Crash day or the bombing of the large container ships, and he said, “of course not! Didn’t I say I’d tell you if we were going so do something?” But he had hinted to her years earlier that he wouldn’t tell her about any violence they’d do in order to protect her. Also there was a scene at one point where he met with some of the Children of Khali (the India-based terrorists) and they were going to harm him until he told them he’d grown up a street kid like them. I got the impression he was going to collude with them.
So the authors’s point is that it will take some state sponsored special ops by those whose job is to save the world. There’s an early chapter where Robinson, the author, discusses the morality of killing people who are bringing about the death of millions of people. He calls them the worst serial murderers. He is setting up the justification for state special ops assassinations.
SPOILER ALERT!
Chapter 75 -- the one where the world economy is in the crapper and we have a Super Depression... I feel at peace while reading this chapter... Like this is what I'm waiting for to happen... Because it will change the world for the better. This feels right to me. When the national student union agrees to default on their debt and it starts a domino effect throughout the world... YES! YES! 1,000 TIMES YES!
Only on chap 26 so far, but I've noticed recent news headlines that the book foreshadowed:
The highest wet bulb temperature (heat with humidity factored in) that humans can withstand is 88 degrees F. https://weather.com/health/video/how-hot-is-too-hot-for-the-human-body-new-study-reveals-the-temperature
"India's Heat Wave will soon be a Global Reality" (they've had record temps the last few months, like everywhere else, but that the book's killer heat is set in India seems an assured reality now.) https://twitter.com/i/events/1545277153238863872
The best quote so far, that gives me hope in real life, is near the end of the second paragraph in chapter 30.
“…no matter how massively entrenched the order of things seems in your time, there is no chance at all that they are going to be the same as they are now after a century has passed, or even ten years.”
I like to think the selfish, soul-crushing paucity of Capitalism will be reined in, and hopefully quickly! It took a little while to get going with the book, because of what others have pointed out, the narration changes, short philosophical chapters, etc., but I’m enjoying it more the longer I read. I can feel my reaction to different characters, which is part of the fun of reading!
@freya I don't know if this is the correct place for me to post this article. If not please redirect me to where I should go. This is a topic I have been very interested in for a long time.
https://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Renewable-Energy/The-Green-Ammonia-Boom-Is-Coming.html
There is a farm located in Manitoba, Canada that is about to demonstrate Ammonia being used for the production of fertilizer as well as fuel for farm equipment in September.
NWDoug
Reading the book tonight about the pumping of water from under glaciers and re-freezing it on top, the author also mentions using ocean water to refill lakes, like Great Salt Lake... This idea is actually being considered but the project will be immense. Unfortunately, I think the world is going to need to get this idea of projects being too costly, long and difficult out of their vocabulary.
If we can have pipelines carrying oil and gas around the US, why couldn't we have a sophisticated network of pipelines in all coastal states running across the US? Each state could have its own connection to the pipeline that they could tap into if they want and draw water from the ocean. Then it's the states own responsibility to build their own desalination plants for their water. California could end it's wild fires and droughts. Arizona could continue growing crops. Lakes could be refilled. All the while we are removing water from the ocean to stabilize rising water. This wouldn't address the carbon issue, but we could atleast offset the melting of the glaciers. If all continents built a similar network of piping across their countries to carry saltwater throughout the globe, we wouldn't have to worry about melting glaciers as much.
Thoughts? Does anyone eventually see something like this happening?
I can see this happening eventually, but there are some unknowns that we can't normally recognize when we do read the future. Also we need to do more long-term read the futures, which I would love to set up. More on that later.
In the book, the author supplies those unknowns with his imagination. For example, terrorism by a vast underground network, the Children of Khali, that wants to save the world has a big impact. Part of that terrorism is even done by the Ministry for the Future via Mary's Deputy Administrator Badim, the Tibetan man who had grown up on the streets. They have a Crash Day that takes out the commercial airlines industry and they blow up diesel-fueled container ships. They hunt down and assassinate fossil fuel oligarchs and other rogue players. In the real world, the Ukraine War sparked a rise in gas prices that is sparking a demand for Electric vehicles (EV's).
So I believe there will be events that help us move forward that we may not be able to put together in our minds yet.
At the moment, cities are planning storm protection but it won't be long before they realize that won't stop sea level rise inundation. Then perhaps they will form an Antarctica project for pumping up the water to slow glaciers from sliding into the sea.
As for desalination, again, it's costly, and it's more a question of when, not if, countries will realize it's worth the money if it means saving civilization.
I had a thought today in which I am wondering if the higher spiritual purpose for the COVID pandemic is to decrease the rate at which we are pumping carbon into the atmosphere. During the first lockdown very few people were traveling and air traffic came to a screeching halt. Now the next variant of COVID is being talked about as being the most transmissible and possibly the worst variant yet. I wonder if we are doomed to continue living with COVID and lockdowns until we get it right and stop polluting the atmosphere at the rate we are. So in a sense I wonder if Covid is like the Children of Kali and the Ministry for the Future forcing us to look at our effects on climate.