US writer Kim Stanley Robinson spends a lot of time imagining the future. The author of more than 20 novels, including his best-selling The Mars Trilogy, he's considered one of the greatest writers of contemporary science fiction of our time. More recently the committed environmentalist has turned his attention back on Earth, putting his mind and imagination to climate change in his acclaimed book The Ministry for the Future. It lays out what's been described as a chilling yet hopeful vision of how the next few decades on Earth might unfold.