Kim Stanley Robinson imagines utopia in 2025

Science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson imagines the future for a living. And the future is very much upon us. Robinson’s seminal 2020 novel Ministry for the Future opens in the year 2025. Robinson tells Akshat Rathi about how our real-life climate politics stack up against what he imagined for this era. They also discuss the dangers of science-fiction thinking in politics and why, for all his admiration of science and technology, Robinson remains so enamored with the unglamorous workings of a body like the United Nations. Explore further: •

Past episode with Kim Stanley Robinson about climate utopias and optopias • •

Past episode with outgoing White House Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi about what the next four years will hold • •

Past episode with Colombia’s environment minister Susana Muhamad about the country’s commitment to fossil fuel nonproliferation • Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Mythili Rao. Special thanks this week to Sharon Chen, Siobhan Wagner, Ethan Steinberg, and Jessica Beck. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.