The first third of the book was great, bringing up concerns for the future, concequences of action or inaction, overcoming of political inerta etc. However the most challenging and interesting questions of the book – that were brought up in good faith as a dilemma – had no weight or consequence for the characters, or the world at large, for their decisions.
The absence of respect for the true, and convincingly essential, costs of the either advocated or warned actions, rings of dishonest optimism that everything will “work out” if we all believe it can. Unfortunatly I believe that this will make it easier for the message of this book to be dismissed, when I believe there are good messages, and even better questions being presented.
Finally, I feel like it was a rather large oversight to seemingly ignore the roughly 1/3 of the worlds population under the age of 20 in this book. I find it hard to think of any meaningful reference to the age range most vulnreable to, and impacted by, climate change. The only thing I can think of is one character making an offhand comment that the children had a good education in refugee camps.
This book has some great concepts explored, and presents many dilemmas to be contemplated, but fails to treat them with the weight and respect needed, while presenting a seemingly cost free utopic vision for the future.