The Future We Choose

01How we see ourselves can change how we act on climate change

The main takeaway from this book is pretty simple: how we see ourselves plays a big role in the choices we make. This is especially true when it comes to tackling big issues like climate change. Let's take a look at the young folks around the world who are standing up for climate action. They're inspired by Greta Thunberg, a young girl from Sweden who started protesting all by herself in front of the Swedish parliament. This sparked a global movement. It's a great example of how seeing ourselves as responsible and active citizens can push us to make decisions and take actions, like joining climate change protests. The authors point out that we've known about climate change for a long time. Scientists have been warning us about it since the 1930s. By 1960, a scientist named Charles Keeling confirmed it by measuring the levels of CO2 in the Earth's atmosphere. He found that these levels were increasing every year, which is solid proof of climate change. But even with this knowledge, we haven't acted like we're the caretakers of the planet. Instead, we've often put economic growth first, even if it hurts the environment. This inaction has led to more greenhouse gas emissions, which have damaged our oceans, rivers, forests, soil, and air. The authors argue that we've failed to take care of the ecosystems that keep us alive, and this has caused a lot of harm. This harm has turned climate change from a potential problem into a serious crisis. We're now at a point where the Earth as we know it might not exist in the future. Even with more and more natural disasters happening, many people still don't see the link between the destruction of our planet and our ability to keep future generations safe, secure our food supply, live in coastal areas, and keep our homes intact. This shows that we don't fully see ourselves as caretakers of the Earth yet. The authors encourage us to rethink how we see ourselves. They want us to see ourselves as active players in shaping the future of humanity. They believe that, even though the climate crisis is severe, we have the ability to tackle climate change together. This call to action highlights the main idea of the book: how we see ourselves is a powerful factor in the decisions we make and the actions we take, especially when it comes to big challenges like climate change.