The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis by Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac (Knopf, 2020)
It’s nice to read a bold, visionary well-written book by people who know what they’re talking about. These two are the chief architects of the Paris Climate Agreement, which 189 countries—almost the entire world—signed on to in 2016. When they say that changing the mindset after the epic fail of the Copenhagen summit in 2009 was the biggest shift that made Paris possible, I believe them.
The book opens with two sharply different scenarios: If we don’t bring climate change under control, we face a gloomy future of extreme pollution, extreme temperatures, mass starvation and death. But if we commit to solving this crisis correctly, we create utopia.
I LOVE the way this chapter does its visioning of the world in 2050: discussing the effects of massive tree planting, for instance, the authors see this future:
This of course helped to diminish climate change, but the benefits were even greater. On every sensory level, the ambient feeling of living on what has become a green planet has been transformative, especially in cities. Cities have never been better places to live. With many more trees and far fewer cars, it has been possible to reclaim whole streets for urban agriculture and for children’s play. Every vacant lot, every grimy unused alley, has been repurposed and turned into a shady grove. Every rooftop has been converted to either a vegetable or a floral garden. Windowless buildings that were once scrawled with graffiti are instead carpeted with verdant vines (p. 21).
The rhapsodies continue into health care, transportation, energy production, and many other areas.
Part Two gives us the beginning of a toolkit with three crucial mindsets: Stubborn Optimism, Endless Abundance, and Radical Regeneration (each with its own chapter).
Part Three is the heart of the book: about 70 pages focused on “doing what is necessary,” broke into ten specific actions:
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Let go of the old world
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Face your grief but hold a vision of the future
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Defend the truth
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See yourself as a citizen—not as a consumer
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Move beyond fossil fuels
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Reforest the earth
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Invest in a clean economy
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Use technology responsibly
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Build gender equality
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Engage in politics
And the conclusion adds 26 more actions on a timeline, but doesn’t go into so much detail.
Not surprisingly, many of the actions align closely with the UN’s own Sustainable Development Goals: an excellent blueprint. More surprising (and pleasing) to me, considering the authors are rooted in the UN’s rather bureaucratic, government-focused culture, is the number of ways individuals can create or facilitate these actions. Anyone can plant trees. Anyone can defend the truth. Anyone can refuse to tolerate gender discrimination. Anyone can participate in “rewilding,” and anyone can eat less meat (one of the best things you can do as in individual to lower your carbon footprint).
I’m already above 500 words and there’s so much more I could say! I took eight pages of notes. So I’ll just say get this book and don’t just put it in the pile. Read it, and take notes!