This Walter Orr Roberts Public Lecture features award winning science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson, who discusses abrupt climate change and the paradigm shift that accompanies this new scientific concept. In addition to presenting the evidence for abrupt climate change, Robinson comments on the resistance within the scientific community and society at large to climate change theories. He posits that a culture war between capitalism and science is currently waging and warns the outcome could have tremendous effects for the future of mankind. In his conclusion, Robinson praises the ethical values of the scientific community and suggests that society as a whole look to the scientific method as a means for political organization.