The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis

“The world is on fire, from the Amazon to California, from Australia to the Siberian Arctic. The hour is late, and the moment of consequence, so long delayed, is now upon us. Do we watch the world burn, or do we choose to do what is necessary to achieve a different future?

Who we understand ourselves to be determines the choice we will make. That choice determines what will become of us. The choice is both simple and complex, but above all it is urgent.”

These are the opening words of the book, which reflect the seriousness and urgency of the situation. The authors want to grab readers’ attention right from the start and make clear that the choice is theirs: It won’t be easy, but humanity can still do what is required to avert disaster and win the fight against climate change.

“Denying climate change is tantamount to saying you don’t believe in gravity. The science of climate change is not a belief, a religion, or a political ideology. It presents facts that are measurable and verifiable. Just as gravity exerts its force on all of us whether we believe in it or not, climate change is already affecting us all no matter where we were born or where we live. The irresponsibility of not ‘believing in climate change’ is becoming more apparent with every new catastrophic event. Climate deniers are shamelessly protecting the short-term financial interests of the fossil fuel industry to the detriment of the long-term interests of their own descendants.”

Here the authors take a firm stance on the issue of climate change, which they present as a simple fact, akin to gravity—a phenomenon people take as a given. This framing seeks to steer the conversation away from ideology: Climate change is not something to fight about or “believe” in like other political views. However, at the end of the paragraph, the tone gets more urgent. By ignoring the reality, climate deniers are doing damage, not least to their own descendants. This is in keeping with the theme of winning the fight against climate change: The moment requires that everyone commit to action.

“Two dates should now be seared in everyone’s mind: 2030 and 2050.

By 2050 at the latest, and ideally by 2040, we must have stopped emitting more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than Earth can naturally absorb through its ecosystems (a balance known as net-zero emissions or carbon neutrality). In order to get to this scientifically established goal, our global greenhouse gas emissions must be clearly on the decline by the early 2020s and reduced by at least 50 percent by 2030.”

As the book itself was published in 2020, this passage lays out the urgency of combatting climate change. Halving emissions within a single decade is a huge task.