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About the book
For all the complexity surrounding climate change, the webs of relationships, the multiple causes, effects and unintended consequences, there is one variable that remains frustratingly hard to pin down: ourselves. By understanding our own role in the crisis better, while also having some fun along the way, we might just stand a fighting chance.
"It’s brilliant. You should read it right to the end. You don’t have to read it all at once. You don’t actually even have to read it in the right order. But it will definitely change your usefulness as a human. It’ll definitely help the planet. And it’ll definitely entertain you. It’s win / win / win."
– Richard Curtis, writer, film director and co-founder of Make My Money Matter
This is a book for anyone who cares about the planet and wants to better understand the role (however large or small) they can play in helping to avert a climate disaster.
Digital or hard copy?
When you complete the sign-up form you will be faced with a choice about the format you would like to receive it. To write a book about the climate crisis comes with certain sustainability expectations. For many of you the obvious choice will be to request a digital copy and thereby ease your conscience.
This is fine. Our only comment is the book was conceived as something that would be consumed physically. The experience of doing so is infinitely richer. Rest assured, we have printed it on sustainable paper. And if you are worried about the carbon footprint of transporting it to you, there is also a carbon footprint with sending and storing digital files (albeit a smaller one). Finally, if there ever was a type of book worthy of being printed, surely it is this – I.e. Do we hold trashy novels to the same account? If you only enact one lesson from the book it will likely have been worth it.
Highlights
- Foreword from acclaimed writer and director Richard Curtis
- Complex ideas made simple and engaging
- Thought provoking words
- Informative and elegant data visualisation
- Memorable quotes
- Intelligent design
A beautifully printed coffee table book
Over 140 pages of full colour spreads that readers can absorb from start to finish, or to dip in and out.
Tanya Steele
Chief Executive, WWF-UK
“I urge you to read ‘Against Our Nature’ as a passionate and visually striking summary of the – unarguable – science of climate change, as a warning about what will happen if, collectively, we don’t act, but also for its optimistic message. The authors are right that – while we need our leaders in both government and business to do far more; so do keep lobbying them! – it’s also for each of us to make changes in our own lives; to how we invest our money, how and where we travel, the energy we use and the food we eat. We all have the power to change the world.”
Sarah Breeden
Executive Director, Financial Stability Strategy and Risk and Executive Sponsor, Climate Change – Bank of England
“Addressing the challenges of the climate crisis requires us all – consumers, businesses, investors, policymakers, central bankers – to act. This fabulous book sets out why and how each one of us can turn individual aspiration into action. And alongside the Bank of England’s work to ‘green finance’, I am optimistic that together we can help deliver the collective change that is needed, now.”
Nick Robins
Nick Robins, Professor in Practice – Sustainable Finance, London School of Economics
“This book takes a fresh approach to how we will succeed in the face of the climate crisis. It looks at what makes us tick as human beings and how we cease to see climate action as a tough uphill battle but rather as a downhill race where we get faster the further we run.”
Take action
When personal and professional motives blur
This is not your typical asset management content. The fact there is no branding whatsoever and it includes a foreword from writer and director Richard Curtis should tell you that much. Written and created by three colleagues, mostly in their personal time, it reflects the passion we have at Aviva Investors for creating change and a better future. While many of the views overlap with our corporate take on the world, and Aviva Investors has supported the book’s design and distribution, the views expressed are those of the authors and not Aviva or Aviva Investors.
James Whiteman
Head of Client Communications & Content at Aviva Investors. An award-winning marketer with over 15 years’ experience in finance and communications. An educational background in economics, a passion for behavioural economics and a (very) amateur psychologist. Also, an avid people-watcher.
Steve Waygood
Chief Responsible Investment Officer at Aviva Investors, a major UK asset manager. Appointed to the European Commission High-Level Expert Group on sustainable finance and a member of the Financial Stability Board Task Force on Climate Related Financial Disclosure. A passionate advocate for creating change and market reform across the finance industry.
See change in action
Climate change is the biggest systemic challenge of our time. Discover how we're approaching climate action and supporting the transition to a low-carbon and climate-resilient world.
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