Note: Kim Stanley Robinson revised the text to adjust numbers for CO₂ concentrations after the work was reviewed by Myles Allen in the April 29, 2004 issue of Nature magazine. He describes the change in an interview in the June 2005 issue of Geotimes magazine: "The physics professor who reviewed it for Nature complained I had the carbon dioxide ppm [parts per million] set too high: I wrote at one point that It was 600 ppm, and I'd like to claim that was a typo, but really it was a mistake - the novel is set in an undetermined near future, but really when I looked at what's happened and been forecast, I should have set it at 440 ppm, that's quite high enough for the effect I wanted, and so I changed it for the paperback." This change can be seen by comparing page 146 of the Bantam Spectra hard cover with page 159 of the Bantam Spectra paperback; for at least the first printing of the HarperCollins paperback the correction had not been made, and 600 ppm is still listed in the relevant scene on page 143.

Synopsis: A cast of scientists playing various roles from lab research to administrators for the NSF offer a spectrum of points of view, as the "greenhouse effect" brings about disastrous changes for them and the rest of America but our political system and culture seem to be inadequate to respond effectively.