Climate Crisis and Writing in the Anthropocene

An Interview with Kim Stanley Robinson

Abstract

America faces a crisis it shares with the rest of the world: the ecological crisis of accelerating climate change caused by human activity in the Anthropocene. I interviewed renowned science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson who has been thinking about possible ways to address global warming for decades. His work, which comprises novels like Ministry of the Future, New York 2140, and the Mars trilogy, prominently engages with late capitalism, ecological crises and how complex systemic problems might be addressed through exist- ing technologies and regulatory mechanisms that are already within reach. Though his novels feature darkly cataclysmic moments, his writing does not predominantly dwell on the dystopian but is remarkable for a distinct utopian impulse and a pragmatic search for technoscientific solutions.