https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wet-bulb_temperature
This book is very good, and y'all should read it. It has a bunch of lib shit about the UN empowering people to solve climate change through market forces, but also some incredibly rad ecoterrorism groups.
Reading this is self harm for anyone already worried about climate change
the rest of the book is actually quite (overly) optimistic, so it balances out
It's felt naively optimistic to me so it felt like the book fell flat on its face as the novel reaches the end.
I do long for the death of commercial airlines and the return to balloon and sail boat technology augmented with solar arrays for limited powered transport. So that part of the book was eye opening.
Yeah there are fun vignettes from that book that stick with me, like Mary Murphy traveling from Switzerland to California in an entirely carbon neutral way (trains to the coast, then solar-powered boats, then trains again). Also the blimp ecotour.
I also kinda shared the opinion it fell on its face toward the end but the more I sit with it the more I appreciate it. If you're working to save the planet there won't be a moment of final victory. The world will just continue to trundle along with some degree of managed catastrophe. In that regard maybe it doesn't make for a very satisfying end to the story, but oh well. I appreciate it as a sort of depiction of the absolute bare minimum level of effort needed to address climate change (which within our current political context would seem like a full-scale mobilization of every possible resource).
The vignettes are without a doubt the best part. Learning about the Indian revolt against billionaires, about cheap missiles being used to delete them as they gallivant across the globe is probably the most satisfying part of the book. Especially the billionaire who gets their throat slit in their bunker because oops the servants all hate your guts!
On the other hand, hearing about it did introduce me to the concept of a wet bulb event.
But, of course with last year's summer records, I'm now scared it'll happen in my back yard some time this decade.
kim stanley robinson says blow up a plane and kidnap everyone at davos
Death to America
There are parts of this book that are incredible, but overall it's probably the most lib thing KSR has published in years. Here's the review I wrote when I first read it:
Robinson knows better than most how dire things are for human society and the Earth's environment, and this is the book where he finally lays out a possibility for how it could be dealt with. This is the endpoint of the liberal/"democratic socialist" worldview, where he, charitably, doesn't believe a revolution to overthrow capitalism is possible but a legal, legislated shift towards social democracy (though spurred on by targeted political violence that isn't really discussed at length) IS possible. In the book, this shift relies on the world's central banks underwriting a new blockchain currency based on carbon sequestration and on the capitalist/imperialist powers in the world not actively sabotaging any efforts at redistribution and equity. Which is, of course, quite an assumption. This book also continues to show Robinson's bad/unclear stance towards China that "Red Moon" was all about. He doesn't know quite what to make of them and will acknowledge their state-run enterprises and non-capitalist development strategies and then call the Belt and Road Initiative a form of imperialism and give a chapter to a completely incoherent take on Hong Kong independence that is written from and for the NPR-listening set. He ignores the things that complicate the narrative of China as "authoritarian capitalist despotism" or whatever. I will say, though, that I appreciate the book's fundamental optimism. Robinson always feels that for all our faults, humans have the ability to find a way to adapt and overcome our faults and our mistakes, even if it's difficult and comes with a high cost. The book ends with celebration even as it acknowledges the work that still has to be done. Struggle forever. That's important to strive towards.
I really loved the part with the ice researcher:
Right. But look, Dr. G, even if we could get this to work, the glacier would still move downstream, so eventually this whole pumping system would get swept out to sea. It would have to be rebuilt up here again.
Of course! I said. It’s like painting the Golden Gate Bridge. All kinds of things have to be done like that. Maintenance stuff.
Besides, what’s the alternative? someone pointed out.
It’ll cost a ton!
What’s cost? I said. Postdocs can be so stovepiped, it would be funny if it weren’t so alarming. I clarified reality for them: Look, if you have to do something, you have to do it. Don’t keep talking about cost as if that’s a real thing. Money isn’t real. Work is real.
The first chapter was easily the best (and most terrifying) part of the book. The rest was a bit meh. Still one of the best SciFi authors tho. Loved the Mars trilogy and Aurora. Want to read the California trilogy next.
Also, shoutout to The Deluge by Stephen Markley, it's like this book but more radical, and honestly a bit more realistic. Even if Markey is actually the bigger lib irl lol (if you read this, CW: Everything)
I'm currently doing a seminar on using remote sensing to understand climate-related risks in refugee camps, and the map of where wet bulb events will be an annual occurrence by the mid century is not pretty; most of equatorial Africa, South Asia, and northern South America will be seeing multiple days or even weeks of dangerous humid heat per year depending on the scenario.
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In the book, this shift relies on the world's central banks underwriting a new blockchain currency based on carbon sequestration and on the capitalist/imperialist powers in the world not actively sabotaging any efforts at redistribution and equity
Oof.
I remember reading one of his books centuries ago where the eco-heroists sabotage the martian space elevator for some reason and the resulting debris field wraps around the martian equator several times.
look if the brunch liberals can be tricked into reading a book that explicitly cheers on ecoheroism I count that as an absolute win
Okay, let me rephrase
I read all of chapter one. The last line is:
spoiler
Everyone in the lake is dead
The next line on the webpage is
One of Barack Obama's favorite books of the year!
