Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries.   Five years on from the publication of the climate fiction book, The Ministry for the Future, author Kim Stanley Robinson finds little he would change in his sweeping speculative novel —aside from a regrettable mention of blockchain. “What I really meant was simply digital money,” he says, dismissing the term’s cryptocurrency baggage. But the core of the book remains intact: a “cognitive map,” in the author’s words, for navigating the climate crisis and economic upheaval of the 21st century. In an interview with Mongabay’s podcast host Mike DiGirolamo, Robinson reflects on the story’s enduring relevance. The book, which opens with a catastrophic heat wave in India, has gained renewed resonance as real-world temperatures rise and political volatility deepens. “We are in a science fiction novel that we’re all co-writing together,” he says. “Things are changing so fast.” A lifelong utopian, Robinson is less concerned with idealized outcomes than with the practical, often fraught process of “getting there.” His work imagines a slow evolution toward “post-capitalism,” a term he uses to describe a more equitable and sustainable political economy. Rather than advocating “degrowth” — which he considers a “spiky, negative, counterproductive name” — Robinson envisions a “growth of goodness,” particularly for the world’s poorest. His perspective, however, is far from rosy. The book confronts the likelihood of “reversals” — from political backlash to social unrest — and examines how righteous anger can devolve into…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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