What if We Get it Right? Visions of Climate Futures

Ayana Elizabeth Johnson

Johnson is a well known marine biologist, climate activist who brings us an action book on climate. Stipulating in the opening that climate change is causing all kinds of catastrophe, this book is not about being an apologist for "Climate Change is Real" or "Climate Change is Bad". Instead, she spends time interviewing industry leaders across a wide range of influence and expertise. In these interviews, Johnson asks: "In your field, what will the future look like if we make the right decisions and actions right now?". And in the course of these interviews, we of course get to know what those decisions and actions should be. This is largely an inspiring series of discussions. But make no mistake, it is not intended to be motivational treatise. It is a call to action, with actionable ideas. 

Maybe the most disheartening part of the entire book is that is was published midway through Biden/Harris, and is quite positive reflecting on the government commitment to environmental policy and funding. Reading this now, one year into Trump 2, many of the "get it right" actions have been actively reversed or deleted. Even so, highly recommend ... 

4 stars (out of 4)

Noor

Nnedi Okorafor

With Lagoon set in Lagos, Noor is set in the north (Abuja and into the desert). Far future Nigeria means that there is less direct "culture" here than near-future Lagoon and more likely remnants of culture to inform the story. A cybernetic woman (named OA) and a traditional herdsman (named DNA) are coincidentally thrown together in a series of traumatic events. They are on the run from the government, and more dangerously, from the Ultimate Corporation (imagine Amazon or Apple 30 years in the future). Each is learning how naive they were, and how much power they actually have to change the future of the country they love. The plot is thin and a bit too convenient, but it is a quick read and a not-so-unbelievable portrayal of "Ultimate Corporation". 

3 stars (out of 4)

The Ministry for the Future

Kim Stanley Robinson

Starting in a climate disaster near future of 2024, we open with a massive heat wave over the Indian subcontinent that kills a million people. The rest of the book is the resulting political and scientific machinations that unfold over the next decades as a result of this climate disaster. The plot is centered around the UN Climate organization that is colloquially referred to as the Ministry for the Future, which like most UN committees, has lots of responsibility but no real international authority. It is a diplomacy first approach to changing the world, hoping to appeal to humanities interest in a common cause. Of course, the battle with the capitalists is most depressing. For me, the most enjoyable segments of the book are the scientific strategies that are attempted. In true Robinson fashion, the world building is so well described that one wishes it could be used as a template for actual action. Overall, the book is a hopeful telling of the future and how humanity could actually make a dent in combating climate change. The only way this can work is if we skip over most of the trauma. So the telling includes a paragraph about the heatwave that hits SE USA killing a few hundred thousand in a week... and then moves on. Or the super depression that occurs when the global economy shuts down. But each of these is stated for the purpose of setting the stage for the next geopolitical action that takes place. Perhaps the saddest part of the entire situation is that the only time action happens is in response to massive trauma, and even then it is a struggle to move beyond words. So even in this, the telling is an accurate depiction of reality. This should probably be a must read for anyone interested in life on earth.

4 stars (out of 4)

The Obelisk Gate

N.K. Jemison
Volume 2 of The Broken Earth trilogy

Picking up immediately after the first, a fifth season has begun, and it has been started by the cataclysmic actions of the powerful orogene Alabaster. Essun is now learning from her former mentor things about the world that she did not know. She gets a glimpse of an ancient grudge between humans and Father Earth that, if set right, could end the fifth seasons. And she begins to see into the roots of orogeny. But she is also still a human, a person, a mother. So amidst her explorations, she is a member of a new community, and still seeking her lost daughter. These relationships she can not put off as easy as Alabaster would have her. Jemison has us deep in this world, but there is so much mystery that we as readers are just discovering what this world is, just as the characters seem to be. 

4 stars (out of 4)

The Fifth Season

N.K. Jemison
Volume 1 of The Broken Earth trilogy

First, let me say Really Good Storytelling. I knew nothing about this world before reading and much of the pleasure of this book came in the unfolding of the characters and the plot-line. So I will not ruin for you that same pleasure (which makes this basically a useless summary). Read the book without reading any synopsis. Suffice it to say, the world that is created here is novel and interesting. It is mysterious. The stories of the characters we are following reveal to us as readers complexity and humanity and suggest political and social hierarchies and machinations that are sure to only surface in Vol 2 & 3. I can see why this is award winning and can't wait to continue.
4 stars (out of 4)

Lab Girl

Hope Jahren

A memoir telling the 20 year story of what it is like being a woman scientist. Jahren is a botanist who documents her journey through grad school and subsequent setting up of 3 separate labs as she moves from school to school to find her home. Along the way, we are invited into her life story where she details the subtleties of scientific thinking, work relationships, funding, mental illness, family, students and humanity's relationship with the planet. All of this is chronicled in a way that truly provides insight into the mind of a scientist. Jahren uses a storytelling device where each chapter is preceded by a short description of something fascinating from the world of plants that she then parallels in her own story. She clearly loves plants and the earth and the amazing life that these plants are. This is clearly communicated and gives the reader a true appreciation for both the complexity of life and the crazy adaptability of living things to make live over generations possible. This is a fabulous story. At the same time, I found it to be a story that easily walks that middle ground of books. Every time I sat down to read it, I was enthralled and educated and engaged. But is was not a thriller/page turner such that when I set it aside, it did not demand that I come back. As such, I was allowed to read this over a longer span that I normally spend on books, and maybe because of this, the appreciation set in more slowly, and more deeply.

4 stars (out of 4)

The Lord of Opium

Nancy Farmer

A sequel to The House of the Scorpion, we pick up immediately. Mateo is now the sole heir to El Patrón, who committed suicide and murdered his entire retinue with a massive dose of the proverbial kool-aid. And the border is locked down, so no supplied in, and no drugs out. The remainder of the story does a few of things: 1) documents the growing into power and solidifying of power by Mateo, 2) explores trust and friendship amidst explicit and massive power differentials, 3) explores human rights and 'the greater good', and 4) imagines a world of environmental care (be it accidental) and paints a picture of environmental value. In all, a fabulous book in its own right. I would say tells a better story and forces the reader into a more essential thinking process than the first. Highly recommend this series.

Read

Acceptance

Jeff Vandermeer

Book 3 of the Southern Reach Trilogy

I have accepted the fact that this is a bad trilogy. Book 3, I was hoping, would provide some resolution, both in terms of the mystery of what exactly Area X is, and in terms of why we care. I must say that we only find out a bit more about Area X. So the series ends with only vague understandings of what it might be. And I clearly don't care. The motivations are not developed to the point where a reader is truly invested in the characters. I was curious, but not invested. Which leads me to think about why this trilogy showed up on so many 'best book of the year' lists. It was supposed to be a character driven mystery/sci-fi novel. Was it supposed to be commentary on something? Environmentalism? Government control? In-office working relationships? Self-discovery? Or is it supposed to be a character driven, fantasy-mystery? Maybe the fact that I don't know, or couldn't tell, means that I am not the target audience for this trilogy.

Skip

The Man with the Compound Eyes

Wu Ming-yi

Three stories told interspersed. The story of Alice, a Taiwanese writer/professor who lives on the eastern seaboard. She has lost her husband and son, has aboriginal friends who look after her and is struggling to find purpose in life. The story of Atile'i, a pacific islander who journeys off his Island, finds a big world and seeks to understand it in terms of his existing worldview. The story of Sara and Detlef, European scientists on personal journeys to understanding their connection and responsibility to the earth. In fact, all of these stories are about connection to earth and the responsibility of humanity to understand the earth and act accordingly. The unifying event in these stories is a large storm that breaks up the great trash vortex that has been collecting in the Pacific gyre and sends it on a collision course with Taiwan. Each story is independently engaging, and the connections between them are natural and unforced. Wu does not feel the need to make explicit connections with plot, but allows the reader to feel the connections just by acknowledging that the characters inhabit the same space. May be one of the most environmentally persuasive books I have read.
Read