Events

Past Event

‘Ministry for the Future’ Author Kim Stanley Robinson

December 23, 2020
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
America/New_York
Online
‘Ministry for the Future’ Author Kim Stanley Robinson Meets Inheritors of Our Climate Future

[Not Zoom. No registration required. Paste this link in your calendar for the date and watch and share via the links above and to the right.]

Earlier this year, the famed climate-focused novelist Kim Stanley Robinson told Columbia students: “I’ve been pushing myself to write utopian narratives; that gets weirder as we continue on the course that we’re on."

In this special intergenerational Sustain What conversation, Robinson returns to Columbia (virtually this time) to explore the themes in his sweltering, jarring new novel “Ministry for the Future” with the Earth Institute’s Andy Revkin and several advocates for the future – including the 15-year-old climate change campaigner Alexandria Villaseñor and Carolyn Raffensperger, a lawyer who was an early leader of calls for "a legal guardian for the future."

Information on the book is here: http://j.mp/2WnLeXy

Unlike Robinson's previous novels set after profound climate change have set in over generations or centuries , this one begins a mere 30 years in the future. As Jeff Goodell of Rolling Stone recently summarized, "It’s a trip through the carbon-fueled chaos of the coming decades, with engineers working desperately to stop melting glaciers from sliding into the sea, avenging eco-terrorists downing so many airliners that people are afraid to fly, and bankers re-inventing the economy in real time in a desperate attempt to avert extinction."

Several other students will join to ask questions, final exams and papers allowing. Students and faculty are encouraged to submit questions or comments in advance.

Contact Information

Andy Revkin