The Future We Choose: 'Everyone should read this book' MATT HAIG

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Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac are cohosts of the leading climate change podcast, Outrage + Optimism, and are cofounders of Global Optimism, an organization dedicated to changing narratives and beliefs and inspiring governments, companies, and citizens to protect what they love from the damages of the climate crisis. Figueres is the former executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, where Rivett-Carnac served as her political strategist. They are known for a unique form of collaborative diplomacy, which led to the unanimous signing of the landmark Paris Agreement on climate change by 195 countries. Humanities & Social Sciences > Student Success and Career Development > Student Success > First-Year Experience There might be no two people better positioned to write about the reasons to hold onto hope in the face of the climate crisis than Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac. As the UN’s Executive Secretary and Chief Political Strategist respectively, the two played central roles in the historic Paris Agreement of 2015, widely recognised as the most substantial step towards staving off runaway climate change since talks began. Entering a space of decided hopelessness, they banded together to create what they call a ‘contagious frame of mind that led to collective wisdom’. It is this frame of mind that takes central focus in their new book The Future We Choose. There is signs of referring to present circumstance which is the present policies of the university, when to end the process of education AND signs of the speakers knowledge over such an evidence and circumstance.)

The Paris Agreement is complex and given the authors, it makes sense that they were able to distil down the process and intended outcomes. This section of the book is useful for old-hands, and mainly associate the city with the Eiffel Tower as opposed to multilateralism. The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis is a passionate ode to reality, a powerful call to action and a tour de force written by experts in their respective fields and immaculately and comprehensively researched to ensure it is equal parts accurate and fascinating. Although not an issue for me due to knowing this area quite well I am pleased to report that it’s a highly accessible read even for those with no prior knowledge and/or interest in the area. The Future We Choose starts off by imagining two scenarios- one in which we do nothing, and one in which we meet the current goals of no greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Some people think that the worst that can happen would be a few glaciers melt and some shorelines recede. The reality would more likely be that large parts of the planet become basically unlivable, with air and water quality declining and erratic weather altering all agriculture as we know it today. Huge migrations of humans and animals would result and the economic and political ramifications are enormous. The rosy picture they present for the carbon-neutral future seems pretty out there, but things like electric cars and trains, giant tree farms, community farms, and smart technology aren't that hard to imagine for the future.Our mission is to foster a universal passion for reading by partnering with authors to help create stories and communicate ideas that inform, entertain, and inspire. Hello. Could you please help me? Are the two forms Ok? Some teachers say that the latter is not correct. Since then we have done little to counter climate change, the result being that greenhouse gas emissions, the cause of climate change, are increasing. We continue to pursue economic growth through the unbridled extraction and burning of fossil fuels, with a fatal impact on our forests, oceans and rivers, soil, and air. We have failed to manage wisely the very ecosystems that sustain us. We have wreaked havoc on them, unintentionally perhaps, but relentlessly and decisively. A book that shepherds climate activism from changing mental states to changing the world. . . . Th e authors recommend a mindset for climate activism that rests on three attitudes: radical optimism, endless abundance, and radical regeneration.”— Forbes The chapters on the alternative futures are short, even shorter than in Dave Goulson’s “silent earth”. Most of this book is on how the Paris agreement came about and what you can do to perpetuate change. Even this is reminiscent of Goulson.

A few things generally annoyed me throughout the whole book and are the reason why I’m still not a huge fan of it: It could be either! Both will and going to make sense. We don't know the context or the way the speaker views this situation, so I don't think there is a definite answer here. Finally, my more personal reasons for struggling with 'The Future We Choose'. The preceding points are of course related to my opinions and perceptions, however I also think my state of mind is incongruent with this book. This would probably also have been the case had I read it before the pandemic. 'The Future We Choose' talks about the importance of personal mindsets and individual action. While I agree that we can only work collectively if we each choose to do so, this emphasis on the individual seemed reductive. On the one hand, I genuinely do not feel capable of attaining the positive mindset presented here. If several courses of cognitive behavioural therapy haven't reduced my overwhelming fear, how could a couple of chapters on mindfulness, positivity, and radical regeneration? Naturally this book was not written specifically for those with quite intense anxiety. The principles are sound, I just really struggle to apply them. Now more than ever, I find it very difficult to feel anything about the future other than fear and dread. I don't actually know what I hoped to get from this but there was very little new or groundbreaking information and I found the science and projections to be less rigorous than other books. I was looking forward to the list of concrete individual actions to take to prevent climate change but found them all obvious (eat less meat, drive less, don't buy fast fashion) or unclear and far too high-level (give up the past, be more optimistic, embrace AI).In The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis, Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac proposed three mindsets and ten actions, all applicable to both nations and individuals.