Extreme Limits

Termination Shock 

by Neal Stephenson

“There was an odd bending around in back at the extreme limits of culture and politics where back-to-the-land hippies and radical survivalists ended up being the same people, since they spent 99 percent of their lives doing the same stuff.”   ― Neal Stephenson, Termination Shock

A wealthy and eccentric Texan takes action against climate change in the all-too-near future in this novel from the pen of Neal Stephenson - one where improbable weather phenomena and natural disasters aren't so improbable. Saskia, better known as the Queen of the Netherlands, loses control of her aircraft as she is making a landing in Waco, Texas, due to a pig stampede that blocks the runway. Since Saskia's trip to America isn't exactly official, she and her group beg Rufus for assistance in getting to Houston so they may meet T.R. Schmidt. Rufus just so happens to be on the runway hunting the vicious boar that killed his young daughter.

Although Schmidt believes that the United States is "a clown show," he has the resources to build a gigantic gun that can spray sulfur into the atmosphere to counteract the impacts of global warming. Saskia, a few Venetian nobility, as well as officials from Singapore and other locations that stand to lose the most due to a rising sea level, have all been invited to witness what he has been working on. When Schmidt fires his gun and it actually fires, a massive international discussion breaks out. Is Schmidt's geoengineering idea the best move to take?

With so much sulfur in the air, what will happen to the world's weather patterns?
Will other nations decide to manufacture their own weapons or make an effort to block Schmidt's activities? The more than 700 pages in Stephenson's most recent book nearly turn themselves as the several plotlines, a signature exemplar of almost any Stephenson novel, intertwine. This particular novel is a unique example of a climate thriller because it is attempts realism about political obstruction in the face of catastrophe while also daring to envisage a scenario in which people might genuinely band together and attempt to save civilization.