NPR.

This is the Indicator for Planet Money.

I'm Adrian Ma.

And I'm Whalen Wong.

All this week on the Indicator, we've been looking at how economics can address the climate

crisis.

And when we started working on this series, I knew right away who I wanted to talk to.

And maybe you're thinking we wanted to call up a Nobel economist, or maybe a climate

activist, like a Greta Tumberg type.

Nope.

I wanted to talk to the science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson.

And I know this is kind of a departure for us, but hear me out.

About a year ago, my husband handed me this novel called The Ministry for the Future

by Kim Stanley Robinson.

And he said, you have to read this book.

It's all about central banks and quantitative easing.

Right. And just to be clear, this is a novel, not an e-context book, or like Ben Bernicke's

memoir.

Exactly.

It is a science fiction novel published in 2020, and it's about a newly formed group at

the United Nations that's tasked with, you know, saving the planet.

And the boldest idea this group comes up with, their Hail Mary Plan for the Biosphere,

...