I Want a Better Catastrophe: Navigating the Climate Crisis with Grief, Hope, and Gallows Humor

An existential manual for tragic optimists, can-do pessimists, and compassionate doomers

With global warming projected to rocket past the 1.5 C limit, lifelong activist Andrew Boyd is thrown into a crisis of hope, and off on a quest to learn how to live with the "impossible news" of our climate doom.

He searches out eight of today's leading climate thinkers -- from activist Tim DeChristopher to collapse-psychologist Jamey Hecht, grassroots strategist adrienne maree brown, eco-philosopher Joana Macy, and Indigenous botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer -- asking them: "Is it really the end of the world? and if so, now what?"

With gallows humor and a broken heart, Boyd steers readers through their climate angst as he walks his own. Boyd's journey takes him from storm-battered coastlines to pipeline blockades and "hopelessness workshops." Along the way, he maps out our existential options, and tackles some familiar dilemmas: "Should I bring kids into such a world?" "Can I lose hope when others can't afford to?" and "Why the fuck am I recycling?"

He finds answers that will surprise, inspire, and maybe even make you laugh. Drawing on wisdom traditions Eastern, Western, and Indigenous, Boyd crafts an insightful and irreverent guide for achieving a "better catastrophe."

This is vital reading for everyone navigating climate anxiety and grief as our world hurtles towards an unthinkable crisis.

AWARDS

• BRONZE 2023 Living Now Book Awards: Social Activism / Charity

Author: Andrew Boyd
Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: New Society Publishers
Published: 02/14/2023
Pages: 416
Weight: 1.35lbs
Size: 8.80h x 6.00w x 1.20d
ISBN: 9780865719835


Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 12/15/2022
Foreword 12/27/2022

About the Author

Andrew Boyd is a writer, humorist, activist, and CEO (Chief Existential Officer) of the Climate Clock, a global campaign that blends art, science, and grassroots organizing to get the world to #ActInTime. He also co-created the grief-storytelling ritual the Climate Ribbon and led the 2000s-era satirical campaign Billionaires for Bush. Andrew's previous books include Beautiful Trouble: A Toolbox for Revolution, Daily Afflictions: The Agony of Being Connected to Everything in the Universe, and Life's Little Deconstruction Book: Self-Help for the Post-Hip. His lifelong ambition, cribbed from Milan Kundera, is "to unite the utmost seriousness of question with the utmost lightness of form." Andrew lives in New York City.