The Ministry for the Future

Frank and Mary spend a day in the Alps. They spend most of their time watching animals, and Mary tells Frank about the wildlife corridor projects. They wonder if such a thing will ever happen in Switzerland, especially with the glacier melt creating more land for animals like wolves. Frank suddenly falls to the ground as they are headed out.

A Montana townsperson narrates this chapter. The federal government and nongovernmental agencies are offering to buy the town and relocate the 400 hundred people in this town to a nearby city so the land can be reclaimed as a habitat corridor. Like many rural towns in the Upper Midwest, this one is depopulating because young people leave as soon as possible. On the night of the final vote, people mourn and tell stories about their memories of the town. Some are opposed to the move, but they take the deal in the end. This is one face of plans to heal the environment.

This chapter is a riddle, the answer to which is herd animals. The first-person plural narrator reminds the reader that humans are herd animals and that they need other herd animals to regenerate land damaged by climate change.