climate change
Thore D. Hansen
2023
DEW POINT
original edition
Paperback | 272 pages |
€ 20.00
ISBN 978-3958904705
And suddenly the nightmare is real!
Behind closed doors, scientist Tom Bayer developed the Phoenix program, which is also controversial in the IPCC. It calls for the abolition of world trade and globalization, as well as climate engineering, a complete conversion of agriculture, rigorous birth control, artificial protection of the polar caps, and gigantic reforestation projects - all of which are serious interventions in people's usual lives. It's no wonder that the world's governments don't want to know anything about it. After another failed climate conference, Tom is withdrawing from the IPCC.
Tom's brother Robert is a large-scale farmer in northern Germany. His land is suffering from drought and he himself is addicted to alcohol. The dissimilar brothers are separated by an old family conflict, while their equally dissimilar daughters become friends. In Germany, Tom decides to go public with his list of demands, triggering a media witch hunt. The disputes between climate deniers and climate activists are becoming increasingly violent. Brother Robert is not the only one who sees his economic existence threatened and loses himself in conspiracy theories. While the issue of climate change divides the brothers, the daughters stand between the irreconcilable siblings and demand their future.
Suddenly, the long-predicted climate catastrophe has become a reality. A tremendous heat wave is sweeping across Europe; power outages and fires are bringing public life to a standstill, and tens of thousands of people are threatened with heat death.
Disaster management fails. Left alone on Robert's farm in East Germany, the Beyer family fights for physical survival and has to face their demons. With the ruins in front of them, everyone knows that something has to be done. Will the daughters become activists for an epochal change, will the Phoenix program prevail?
When it comes to climate change and its consequences, Hansen, who has previously written several realistic thrillers, has done his homework.
"Climate Fiction: What happens when the climate catastrophe suddenly occurs? The German author and journalist Thore D. Hansen has a lot to say in his current work and always stays close to reality."
press reviews
"Thore D. Hansen develops a dynamic family story that stretches from the North German lowlands to the top of the IPCC. In the scenario of an extreme heatwave in Europe, the protagonists and their ideals, abysses and drives of human action and inaction collide in a small space. Realistic and frighteningly current."
Prof. Dr. Andreas Oschlies (GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel)
Heat deaths and burning forests: In Thore D. Hansen's current novel "Dew Point," the predicted climate catastrophe is reality. He used to be a press spokesman for banks, but today the author, who lives in Austria, mainly writes political thrillers.
»Taupunkt seems like the literary counterpart to Ulrike Herrmann's "The End of Capitalism" (ID-A 39/22). A highly topical book worth reading.«
Marius Müller | ekz, 2023/07
The Purest – A New Civilization after Climate Collapse.
»...where will artificial intelligence be in five years? How will it affect our perception and our worldview? What role does ethics play in a development that essentially consists of accelerating decisions?« – Henry Kissinger, DIE WELT
Author Thore D. Hansen deals with these questions in his futuristic novel “The Purest”:
After a period of devastating wars, epidemics and climate catastrophes, the artificial intelligence Askit led the last survivors into an era of peace in 2191. In order to further expand this and ensure the regeneration of the planet, the AI selects an elite based on their system conformity and abilities, whose personality development is constantly monitored and controlled by it in order to exploit their full potential: the Purest.
Eve Legrand meets all the criteria to become a Pure One and is recognized by the AI as the most important test of her life. But instead of being accepted into this elite circle, she is cast out without explanation. Her only option is to flee to the zones not controlled by Askit. There she is confronted with a reality that radically questions all her values and ideas. And as she begins to see the world with different eyes, Eve realizes that Askit has chosen her to decide the fate of humanity.
An exciting novel about climate change, artificial intelligence and humanity. For readers by Frank Schätzing and Andreas Eschbach.
At the end of the future - will we still be human when AI controls us?
Hansen is very ambitious; he lets his novel culminate in an attack on today's Internet giants, whom he blames for the future misery, and in a very emotional, moral appeal
book magazine DIWAN - Bayerischer Rundfunk
Hansen is thus setting important accents in the debate that is just beginning on how artificial intelligence can be used for sustainable development.
press reviews
An interesting thought experiment. What would happen if we gave free rein to our faith in technology and left the saving of the planet to artificial intelligence?
Lesart- Deutschlandfunk Kultur
An exciting novel about climate change, artificial intelligence and humanity
book magazine
In his novel "The Purest", author Thore D. Hansen imagines a future in which an artificial intelligence shapes people into a homogeneous, psychologically controlled mass in order to save the planet
Tor-Online
"I think it's brilliant that the two major topics of climate change and digitalization are brought together in such a way that it becomes an exciting novel."
Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker, former KO President of the Club of Rome