Forty Signs of Rain

Forty Signs of Rain
Kim Stanley Robinson

It's hot in Washington. No sign of rain. The world's climates are changing, catastrophe beckons, but no one in power is noticing. Yet. Tom Wolfe meets Michael Crichton in this highly topical, witty and entertaining science thriller.When the Arctic ice pack was first measured in the 1950s, it averaged thirty feet thick in midwinter. By the end of the century it was down to fifteen. One August the ice broke. The next year the break-up started in July. The third year, it began in May.That was last year.It's an increasingly steamy summer in America's capital as environmental policy advisor Charlie Quibler cares for his young son, and deals with the frustrating politics of global warming. According to the President and his science advisor Dr S, the weather isn’t important! But Charlie must find a way to get a sceptical administration to act before it's too late – and his progeny find themselves living in Swamp World.Just arrived in Washington to lobby the Senate for aid is an embassy from Khembalung, a sinking island nation in the Bay of Bengal. Charlie's wife Anna, director of bioinformatics at the National Science Foundation and well known for her hyperrational intensity, is entranced by the Khembalis. By contrast, her colleague, Frank Vanderwal, is equally cynical about the Buddhists and the NSF.The profound effect the Khembali ambassador has on both Charlie and Frank could never have been predicted – unlike the abrupt, catastrophic climate change which is about to transform everything.Forty Signs of Rain is an unforgettable tale of survival which captures a world where even the innocent pattern of rainfall resounds with the destiny of the biosphere.

Forty Signs of Rain

KIM STANLEY ROBINSON

Copyright (#ulink_636e7d3e-3508-5b00-9bfa-f0859fbc5074)

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names,

characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the

author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons,

living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

First published in Great Britain by

HarperCollins Publishers 2004

Copyright © Kim Stanley Robinson 2004

The Author asserts the moral right to

be identified as the author of this work

Verse from ‘The Lockless Door’ from ‘The Poetry of Robert

Frost’, edited by Edward Connery Latham, published

by Jonathan Cape. Reprinted by permission of

the Random House Group Ltd.

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Source ISBN: 9780007148882

Ebook Edition © MARCH 2016 ISBN 9780007396658

Version: 2016-08-24

Contents

Cover (#u1c3389c6-72ab-5eae-8dd8-04bd4c1527bf)

Title Page (#ud72f1597-9a50-5b20-9c18-7073dfa2d92c)

Copyright (#u134f97a8-4cdb-5737-9a6e-3a81c6c0775f)

ONE The Buddha Arrives (#uf98a2d20-f961-5e40-8361-3cb76c62053a)

TWO In the Hyperpower (#u2cd159bb-dccc-51f6-8537-11febd3335a3)

THREE Intellectual Merit (#u009cc35b-396c-54b0-b41d-8dd4b8ba7104)

FOUR Science in the Capital (#litres_trial_promo)

FIVE Athena on the Pacific (#litres_trial_promo)

SIX The Capital in Science (#litres_trial_promo)

SEVEN Tit for Tat (#litres_trial_promo)

EIGHT A Paradigm Shift (#litres_trial_promo)

NINE Trigger Event (#litres_trial_promo)

TEN Broader Impacts (#litres_trial_promo)

Keep Reading (#litres_trial_promo)

Acknowledgments (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)

Also by the Author (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

ONE The Buddha Arrives (#ulink_cd00694b-1dba-5057-b07f-6c5670e9e5a7)

The Earth is bathed in a flood of sunlight. A fierce inundation of photons – on average 342 joules per second per square metre. 4185 joules (one Calorie) will raise the temperature of one kilogram of water by one degree C. If all this energy were captured by the Earth’s atmosphere, its temperature would rise by ten degrees C in one day.

Luckily much of it radiates back to space. How much depends on albedo and the chemical composition of the atmosphere, both of which vary over time.

A good portion of Earth’s albedo, or reflectivity, is created by its polar ice caps. If polar ice and snow were to shrink significantly, more solar energy would stay on Earth. Sunlight would penetrate oceans previously covered by ice, and warm the water. This would add heat and melt more ice, in a positive feedback loop.

The Arctic Ocean ice pack reflects back out to space a few per cent of the total annual solar energy budget. When the Arctic ice pack was first measured by nuclear submarines in the 1950s, it averaged thirty feet thick in midwinter. By the end of the century it was down to fifteen. Then one August the ice broke up into large tabular bergs, drifting on the currents, colliding and separating, leaving broad lanes of water open to the continuous polar summer sunlight. The next year the break-up started in July, and at times more than half the surface of the Arctic Ocean was open water. The third year, the break-up began in May.

That was last year.