The Ministry for the Future

The narrative shifts to the 2030s. The narrator in this chapter is an Indian supporter of the new Coalition government that emerged after the heat wave. The narrator describes how the heat wave discredited and destroyed all the entrenched political parties. The new party is open to changing anything that will prevent such a catastrophe from happening again. The Coalitionists reject global capitalism, which casts India as a source of labor and resources. They believe in green energy, people-intensive labor in place of fossil fuels, home-grown solutions to climate change, and egalitarianism. The narrator feels a sense of optimism about the New India becoming a model for the world during climate change.

Mary and MftF economist Dick Bosworth discuss how to make economics as a field more responsive to climate change. Dick explains that at present, we value our own needs substantially more than the needs of future generations. Dick calls a hypothetical number that quantifies how much we prioritize our needs the “discount rate.” In India, they’ve flipped the rate by giving much higher priority to future generations, an idea in keeping with the Indian notion of decision-making built on responsibility to the seven generations that come after yours.