The Plot to Cool the Planet is a 2018 sci-fi climate thriller by Sam Bleicher.
Climate fiction is a sub-category of environment fiction that features climate change and global warming issues. More often than not, climate fiction or cli-fi includes elements of science fiction with post-apocalyptic or dystopian themes. The past four decades saw the rise of climate fiction thrillers, including The Sea and Summer by George Turner (1987), Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler (1993), A Friend of the Earth by T.C. Boyle (2000), New York 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson (2017), and The Wall by John Lanchester. Climate fiction in movies includes Twister (1996), Geostorm (2017), and The Day After Tomorrow (2004). Today, we will feature a recently published climate thriller, The Plot to Cool the Planet, by Sam Bleicher.
The Plot to Cool the Planet is a story about a notorious murder, a rogue diplomatic scheme that could lead to global climate destruction.
The Plot to Cool the Planet is Sam Bleicher’s debut novel. Published in 2018, the book tells the story of a group of small-island diplomats who secretly launch an almost-impossible mission to cool the planet (thus the title). An outspoken climate scientist was murdered before their venture, and investigators strongly believe she was assassinated. They also think she was murdered to silence her advocacy for untested geoengineering techniques that might significantly slow global warming.
Frequent extreme storms and rising sea levels are threatening coastal cities and affecting the lives of millions of subsistence farmers and fishermen. They face destruction and loss of livelihood as crop yields fall and fisheries disappear. Worse, nations are refusing to take in climate refugees. These realities force the protagonist to embark on the said mission despite the tangible threat to their careers and lives. Furthermore, the chance for success is low. However, the three are determined as their project uncovers other surreptitious interventions, causing perilous political, diplomatic, and military confrontations.
The Plot to Cool the Planet is very relevant today. The planet is suffering from unprecedented and irreversible changes that are destroying the planet and forever changing life here on Earth.
Sam Bleicher’s novels about climate change and global warming are timely reads as they provide readers a glimpse into the future. With the planet warming up and habitats being destroyed, we are already feeling the effects of these changes. Reading The Plot to Cool the Planet is both entertaining and enlightening at the same time. It exposes readers to the reality that big corporations and governments are responsible for creating laws and guidelines that may slow global warming and extend our existence on this planet.
The Plot to Cool the Planet is recommended to all fans of sci-fi climate thrillers and futuristic narratives.
About the Author
Sam Bleicher was born in Omaha, Nebraska. He went to Omaha Central High School. Bleicher is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Northwestern University, Phi Beta Kappa, and Honors in Economics. He works as an Adjunct Law Professor at Georgetown University Law School in Washington DC. Sam Bleicher served as a Member and Vice-Chair of the Virginia Air Pollution Control Board. He has taught as a law professor in Ohio, D.C., Virginia, Moscow, and Beijing. Bleicher’s experience as a lobbyist and as a senior official in the US Department of State, the US Department of Commerce National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, and the Ohio EPA served as inspirations for his novels Guardians of the Solar Shield: Earth’s Climate Mirrors Under Attack 2029-37 (2021) and The Plot to Cool the Planet, A Novel (2018).
Bleicher also wrote and published an earlier work under the name David Carmell. APPOINTMENTS: A Novel of Politics in Our Nation’s Capital was released in 2013.
