 First edition | |
| Author | Kim Stanley Robinson |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Stephan Martiniere |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Science fiction |
| Publisher | Orbit Books |
Publication date | 2017 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 624 pages |
| ISBN | 978-0-316-26234-7 |
New York 2140 is a 2017 climate fiction novel by American science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson. The novel is set in a New York City that has been flooded and altered by rising water. The novel received generally positive reviews.
The novel occurs mostly in a fictional future New York City, permanently inundated by two major rises in seawater levels caused by climate change. [1] Most of New York City is permanently underwater, however, people still live in the upper floors of the buildings, much like in the Venice of today. Robinson has said that the novel does not take place in the same "future history" as his novel 2312 . [2]
Most of Manhattan below 46th Street is flooded, and has earned the nickname "SuperVenice". Several of the book's characters live in the MetLife Tower on 23rd Street, which the tenant association has outfitted with flood-prevention mechanisms and boat storage. Robinson chose to prominently feature the building as it was designed to resemble the St Mark's Campanile in Venice. [3]
The affluent live in newly constructed skyscrapers in Uptown Manhattan and near The Cloisters, as both locations remain above water. Denver has replaced New York as the center of American finance and culture, and much of the United States has been deliberately abandoned by humans in order to make room for wildlife. Robinson has previously addressed sea level rise directly and indirectly in his works Aurora , 2312 , and the Mars trilogy . [4]
The book is set in a New York City suffering a 50-foot rise in sea-water. However, scientists suggest a rise between 3 and 15 feet (0.9 and 5 metres) is more likely by 2140. [5] [6] A rise on that scale would likely mean that some portions of Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens would be flooded, but not to the extent as featured in the novel. [6] However, some estimates indicate sea-level rises even higher than depicted in the novel (up to 72 feet/22 metres) by the year 2300, if global warming increases to 5 Centigrade (relative to pre-industrial levels). [7] According to Robinson, he set the novel in 2140 as he wanted the setting to be recognizable, while the sea-level rise in the novel was possible but "extreme". [3]
The novel is critical of capitalism, unregulated financial systems, and market economies. [8] Many of the citizens of the city live in co-ops and rely on organizations that pool resources, while the affluent live in former office buildings and newly built skyscrapers above 125th Street and in Yonkers.
According to the literary criticism aggregator Literary Hub, critics gave the novel generally positive reviews. [9] Gerry Canavan, writing for the Los Angeles Review of Books , referred to the novel as a further step in Robinson's "[...] construction of a huge metatextual history of the future...distributed across overlapping but distinct and mutually irreconcilable texts". [4]
In 2022 article published by The New York Times about Robinson, Alexandra Alter referred to the novel as "oddly uplifting". [10]
Ken Burns has referred to the novel as "wonderful", saying that it "...[has] disasters and climate change, but it also has sort of human adaptability, and it’s really spectacular." [11]
Kim Stanley Robinson is an American writer of science fiction. He has published 22 novels and numerous short stories and is best known for his Mars trilogy. His work has been translated into 24 languages. Many of his novels and stories have ecological, cultural, and political themes and feature scientists as heroes. Robinson has won numerous awards, including the Hugo Award for Best Novel, the Nebula Award for Best Novel and the World Fantasy Award. The Atlantic has called Robinson's work "the gold standard of realistic, and highly literary, science-fiction writing." According to an article in The New Yorker, Robinson is "generally acknowledged as one of the greatest living science-fiction writers."
A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into coastal lagoons and atoll lagoons. They have also been identified as occurring on mixed-sand and gravel coastlines. There is an overlap between bodies of water classified as coastal lagoons and bodies of water classified as estuaries. Lagoons are common coastal features around many parts of the world.
A seawall is a form of coastal defense constructed where the sea, and associated coastal processes, impact directly upon the landforms of the coast. The purpose of a seawall is to protect areas of human habitation, conservation, and leisure activities from the action of tides, waves, or tsunamis. As a seawall is a static feature, it will conflict with the dynamic nature of the coast and impede the exchange of sediment between land and sea.
The Black Sea deluge is the best known of three hypothetical flood scenarios proposed for the Late Quaternary history of the Black Sea. One other flood scenario proposes a rapid, even catastrophic, rise in sea level of the Black Sea.
Forty Signs of Rain (2004) is the first book in the hard science fiction "Science in the Capital" trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson. (The following two novels are Fifty Degrees Below,.
George Reginald Turner was an Australian writer and critic, best known for the science fiction novels written in the later part of his career. His first science fiction story and novel appeared in 1978, when he was in his early sixties. By this point, however, he had already achieved success as a mainstream novelist, including a Miles Franklin Award, and as a literary critic.
Yes Tor is the second highest point on Dartmoor, Devon, South West England, at 619 metres (2,031 ft) above sea level. It is one of only two wholly English peaks south of the Peak District National Park—the other being nearby High Willhays—that are above 2,000 feet (610 m).
The effects of climate change in Florida are attributable to man-made increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide. Floridians are experiencing increased flooding due to sea level rise, and are concerned about the possibility of more frequent or more intense hurricanes.
Flood is a 2008 work of hard science fiction by English author Stephen Baxter. It describes a near future world where deep submarine seismic activity leads to seabed fragmentation, and the opening of deep subterranean reservoirs of water. Human civilisation is almost destroyed by the rising inundation, which covers Mount Everest in 2052. Baxter issued a sequel to this work, entitled Ark, in 2009.
Between 1901 and 2018, the average global sea level rose by 15–25 cm (6–10 in), or an average of 1–2 mm per year. This rate accelerated to 4.62 mm/yr for the decade 2013–2022. Climate change due to human activities is the main cause. Between 1993 and 2018, thermal expansion of water accounted for 42% of sea level rise. Melting temperate glaciers accounted for 21%, with Greenland accounting for 15% and Antarctica 8%. Sea level rise lags changes in the Earth's temperature. So sea level rise will continue to accelerate between now and 2050 in response to warming that is already happening. What happens after that will depend on what happens with human greenhouse gas emissions. Sea level rise may slow down between 2050 and 2100 if there are deep cuts in emissions. It could then reach a little over 30 cm (1 ft) from now by 2100. With high emissions it may accelerate. It could rise by 1 m or even 2 m by then. In the long run, sea level rise would amount to 2–3 m (7–10 ft) over the next 2000 years if warming amounts to 1.5 °C (2.7 °F). It would be 19–22 metres (62–72 ft) if warming peaks at 5 °C (9.0 °F).
Galileo's Dream (2009) is a science fiction novel with elements of historical fiction written by Kim Stanley Robinson. In the book, 17th-century scientist Galileo Galilei is visited by far-future time travellers living on the Galilean moons of Jupiter. Italicised portions of the text within the novel are actually translations of Galileo and his contemporaries' own recorded writings.
Climate change in New York City could affect buildings/structures, wetlands, water supply, health, and energy demand, due to the high population and extensive infrastructure in the region. A seaport like New York is especially at risk if the sea level rises, with many bridges and tunnels in the city. Major facilities for Aviation in the New York metropolitan area, and the New York Passenger Ship Terminal, are also located in areas vulnerable to flooding. Flooding would be expensive to reverse. Tide gauge records indicate a rise in sea level of about 50 cm since 1860.
Coastal flooding occurs when dry and low-lying land is submerged (flooded) by seawater. The range of a coastal flooding is a result of the elevation of floodwater that penetrates the inland which is controlled by the topography of the coastal land exposed to flooding. The seawater can flood the land via several different paths: direct flooding, overtopping of a barrier, or breaching of a barrier. Coastal flooding is largely a natural event. Due to the effects of climate change and an increase in the population living in coastal areas, the damage caused by coastal flood events has intensified and more people are being affected.
2312 is a hard science fiction novel by American writer Kim Stanley Robinson, published in 2012. It is set in the year 2312 when society has spread out across the Solar System. The novel won the 2013 Nebula Award for Best Novel.
Climate fiction is literature that deals with climate change. Generally speculative in nature but inspired by climate science, works may take place in the world as we know it, in the near future or in fictional worlds experiencing climate change. The genre frequently includes science fiction and dystopian or utopian themes, imagining the potential futures based on how humanity responds to the impacts of climate change. The genre typically focuses on anthropogenic climate change and other environmental issues as opposed to weather and disaster more generally. Technologies such as climate engineering or climate adaptation practices often feature prominently in works exploring their impacts on society.
This is a bibliography of American science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson.
Tidal flooding, also known as sunny day flooding or nuisance flooding, is the temporary inundation of low-lying areas, especially streets, during exceptionally high tide events, such as at full and new moons. The highest tides of the year may be known as the king tide, with the month varying by location. These kinds of floods tend not to be a high risk to property or human safety, but further stress coastal infrastructure in low lying areas.
Climate change in South Carolina encompasses the effects of climate change, attributed to man-made increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide, in the U.S. state of South Carolina.
The Ministry for the Future is a climate fiction ("cli-fi") novel by American science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson published in 2020. Set in the near future, the novel follows a subsidiary body, established under the Paris Agreement, whose mission is to act as an advocate for the world's future generations of citizens as if their rights are as valid as the present generation's. While they pursue various ambitious projects, the effects of climate change are determined to be the most consequential. The plot primarily follows Mary Murphy, the head of the titular Ministry for the Future, and Frank May, an American aid worker traumatized by experiencing a deadly heat wave in India. Many chapters are devoted to other characters' accounts of future events, as well as their ideas about ecology, economics, and other subjects.
Termination Shock is a science fiction novel by American writer Neal Stephenson, published in 2021. The book is set in a near-future when climate change has significantly altered human society and follows the attempts of a solar geoengineering scheme. The novel focuses on the geopolitical and social consequences of the rogue fix for climate change, themes common in the growing climate fiction genre.
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