Here is a relevant excerpt from The Ministry for the Future (2020) by Kim Stanley Robinson. The context is a meeting between experts of a fictional UN agency looking for weak points in capitalist governments in order to implement carbon capture laws to reverse climate change that has already killed millions in a heat wave in India.
from chapter 15
Jurgen: Insurance companies in a panic at last year’s reports. Pay-outs at about one hundred billion USD a year now, going higher fast, as in hockey stick graph. Insurance companies insured by re-insurance. These now holding short end of stick (tall end of stick?). Can’t charge premiums high enough to cover pay-outs, nor could anyone afford to pay that much. Lack of predictability means re-insurance companies simply refusing to cover environmental catastrophes, the way they don’t insure war or political unrest etc. So, end of insurance, basically. Everyone hanging out there uninsured. Governments therefore payer of last resort, but most governments already deep in debt to finance, meaning also re-insurance companies. Nothing left to give without endangering belief in money. Entire system therefore on brink of collapse.
Mary: What mean collapse?
Jurgen: Mean, money no longer working as money.
Silence in room. Jurgen adds, So you can see why re-insurance hoping for some climate mitigation! We can’t afford for world to end! No one laughs.
Long story short, central bankers of all nations force governments to adopt China-style capitalism-subject-to-socialism so insurance companies can continue to exist. The socialist components tie the issuance of money to provable carbon capture such as by pumping supercritical carbon dioxide underground. Also, billionaires eventually realize civilization is ending though persistent assassination attempts by survivors of worsening climate disasters; they find the assassination attempts don’t occur when they fund projects to mitigate sea level rise by halting glacier movement and promoting ice formation through massive pumping of water. It’s science fiction, yes, but one of the more hopeful kinds.
Here is a relevant excerpt from The Ministry for the Future (2020) by Kim Stanley Robinson. The context is a meeting between experts of a fictional UN agency looking for weak points in capitalist governments in order to implement carbon capture laws to reverse climate change that has already killed millions in a heat wave in India.
from chapter 15
Long story short, central bankers of all nations force governments to adopt China-style capitalism-subject-to-socialism so insurance companies can continue to exist. The socialist components tie the issuance of money to provable carbon capture such as by pumping supercritical carbon dioxide underground. Also, billionaires eventually realize civilization is ending though persistent assassination attempts by survivors of worsening climate disasters; they find the assassination attempts don’t occur when they fund projects to mitigate sea level rise by halting glacier movement and promoting ice formation through massive pumping of water. It’s science fiction, yes, but one of the more hopeful kinds.
That is such a great book. I’ve liked a lot of his other books, liked them a lot, but Ministry… is just another level.