I Want a Better Catastrophe

Andrew Boyd

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Well-connected, activist author: Founder of Beautiful Trouble, creator of the Climate Clock, The Climate Ribbon, founder of The Other 98%, Billionaires for Bush, active voice in climate activism for several decades

Skilled humourist: "Unites the most serious of question with the utmost lightness of form" — Milan Kundera

Creator of pop culture objects and interventions: Viral memes and videos is an area of specialty of the author with a demonstrated track record for creating sticky memes and videos

Established writer: Previous books Beautiful Trouble and Daily Afflictions sold 3,500 and 5,000 respectively. Author is a regular contributor to Sun Magazine, Dark Mountain, and Yes! Magazine

Media presence: Multiple appearances on CNN, NPR, Democracy Now, and other outlets

Praise for Andrew Boyd: "A crucial resource for changemakers."—Archbishop Desmond Tutu

"Both elegant and incendiary."—Naomi Klein

"Read this book and then get our there and mix it up!"—Michael Moore

"A wicked-wise...oddly bracing (and timely) spiritual-philosophical work."—ELLE

"The best humor trade paperback of 1998."—Columbus Dispatch

For readers of Greta Thunberg, Naomi Klein, Elizabeth Kolbert, Katharien Hayhoe, Kim Stanely Robinson, Margaret Klein Salamon, Sarah Jaquette Ray and Greta Thunberg

Large social media following: The Other 98% Facebook — 7+ million followers, e-mail list 300K; Climate Clock 50 K monthly visitors, e-mail list 3,000; Beautiful Trouble Facebook 12,500 friends, Twitter 1,000+, e-mail ist 5,000

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 leading climate thinkers — from collapse-psychologist Jamey Hecht to grassroots strategist adrienne maree brown, eco-philosopher Joanna 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. From storm-battered coastlines to pipeline blockades and "hopelessness workshops," 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 in this insightful and irreverent guide for achieving a "better catastrophe."

AWARDS

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

Prologue: It's the End of the World. Now What?

Chapter 1: Impossible News

   Interview: Guy McPherson "If we’re the last of our species, let’s act like the best of our species.”

   Interview: Tim DeChristopher “It’s too late— which means there’s more to fight for than ever.”

Chapter 2: The Five Stages of Climate Grief

   Interview: Meg Wheatley —“Give in without giving up.”

Chapter 3: Existential Crisis Scenario Planning

   Interview: Gopal Dayaneni — “We’re going to suffer, so let’s distribute that suffering equitably.”

Chapter 4: How to Be White at the End of the World

Chapter 5: Is There Hope

   Interview: Joanna Macy — “Be of service not knowing whether you’re a hospice worker or a midwife.”

   Interview: Jamey Hecht — “Witness the whole human story through tragic eyes.”

Chapter 6: What Is Still Worth Doing

   Interview: adrienne maree brown — “How do we fall as if we were holding a child on our chest?”

   Interview: Robin Wall Kimmerer — “How can I be a good ancestor?”

Chapter 7: Experiments on the Verge

Chapter 8: Another End of the World Is Possible

Epilogue: Now Is When You Are Needed Most

Epi-Epilogue: Passing the Torch

Appendix: Stuff You Can (Still) Do

Sujets

• Santé et bien-être
• Bien-être émotionnel
• Bien-être émotionnel
• justice
• Political Advocacy
• Political Process
• Climate Change
• Political Science
• Calentamiento global
• Global warming
• Optimism
• Activism
• Grief
• Hope
• Crisis

Informations

• Publié par: New Society Publishers
• Date de parution: 14 février 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781771423724
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 27 Mo

Extrait

Praise for I Want a Better Catastrophe

Urgent, sobering reading. — KIRKUS REVIEWS, starred review

The most realistic yet least depressing end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it guide out there. — FOREWORD REVIEWS, starred review

The book is stunning. By delivering its devastating news in imaginative, engaging, and sometimes even hilarious ways, it marks the emergence of a new and genuinely exciting kind of realism. — BRIAN ENO, musician and environmentalist

A profound meditation on how to live in a world on the brink of collapse. Boyd moves gracefully beyond the usual talk of hope and despair to provide a startling vision of a future shaped not only by chaos, but also by compassionate care. — JENNY OFFILL, author,WeatherandDept. of Speculation

A heartfelt and humorous take on how to show up at “the end of the world as we know it.” — BRITT WRAY, PhD, Human and Planetary Health Fellow, Stanford University and author,Generation Dread

I Want a Better Catastropheis unlike anything else I’ve ever read about climate change, and how to keep living through it. For a start it’s extremely funny. It is also angry, passionate, curious, honest, surprising, and very well-researched. Beyond its signature gallows humor, it brings a kind of deeply felt “gallows love” for the beauty and wonder of the world, and how we must fight to defend it. — NICK HUNT, co-director, Dark Mountain Project, and author,Outlandish

Time is clearly short — butI Want a Better Catastropheproves it’s never too late for a good laugh, a good cry, and a good call to action! — BILL MCKIBBEN, author,The Flag, the Cross, and the Station Wagon

Through expert interviews, compassionate analysis, and deliciously dark wit, Boyd beats a path through the messy emotional and psychological terrain we must travel in order to face the future. — ONNESHA ROYCHOUDHURI, author,The Marginalized Majority

A rowdy, taboo-busting get-together of climate emergency thinkers. — JOSEPHINE FERORELLI, co-founder, Conceivable Future

A must read for its wit, and for the insights it offers. — PAUL D. MILLER, aka DJ Spooky

As a personal report from the frontlines of the climate struggle, Andrew Boyd’sI Want a Better Catastropheis heartfelt, incisive, and highly illuminating. As an anthology of interviews, it’s a superb resource that gathers divergent positions into a coherent mosaic. If you want a no-bullshit guide to the best current thinking about climate change, this is the book to read. Courage, passion, hope, despair — it’s all here. — JAMEY HECHT, Psy.D., Ph.D., LMFT

Exactly the kind of paradoxical truth-telling we need now more than ever! — FRANCES MOORE LAPPE, author,Diet for a Small PlanetandHope’s Edge

Boyd nails our predicament with enough bald truth and gallows humor to maybe, finally, penetrate our thick skulls. — VICKI ROBIN, host,What Could Possibly Go Right?and author,Your Money or Your Life

One of the most heart-breaking, heart-fun, and thought-full books I’ve read in a long time, filled with joy, grief, despair, and, yes, hope. — MANDA SCOTT, host,Accidental Gods, and author,Boudicadreaming series

The best contribution to the climate-anxiety discourse that I’ve read so far! — JAMIE HENN, co-founder,350.organd director, Fossil Free Media

Rather than simply despairing, the author finds the insights, the perspectives, even the jokes, that make the journey endurable and might lead us to a different path altogether. — RICHARD HEINBERG, author,Power: Limits and Prospects for Human Survival

Andrew Boyd shows just how important humor can be as a tool for grappling with deadly serious matters. —JONATHAN MATTHEW SMUCKER, author,Hegemony How-To

ReadI Want a Better Catastrophefor insight, pathos, dark humor, and an honest inquiry as to where we are on the journey. — CHUCK COLLINS, program director, Institute for Policy Studies, and author,Altar to an Erupting Sun

Anyone can prophesize the future. Andrew Boyd’sI Want a Better Catastrophecan help you live in it. — NOSTRADAMUS

I WANT A BETTER CATASTROPHE

NAVIGATINGTHECLIMATECRISIS withGrief, Hope, and Gallows Humor

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

ANDREWBOYD

Copyright © 2023 Andrew Boyd. All rights reserved. Cover design by Diane McIntosh. Cover images © iStock. All figures © Andrew Boyd except where noted. Photo credits:p. 31Pauline P. Schneider,p. 41Tim DeChristopher,p. 85Margaret Wheatley,p. 133Gopal Dayaneni,p. 203Jamey Hecht,p. 253Anjali Pinto,p. 285Adrianna Ault. Printed in Canada. First printing December 2022. Inquiries regarding requests to reprint all or part ofI Want a Better Catastropheshould be addressed to New Society Publishers at the address below. To order directly from the publishers, order online atwww.newsociety.com Any other inquiries can be directed by mail to: New Society Publishers P.O. Box 189, Gabriola Island, BC V0R 1X0, Canada [phone] LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION Title: 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! / Andrew Boyd. Names: Boyd, Andrew, 1962– author. Description: Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20220424950 | Canadiana (ebook) 20220425655 | ISBN 9780865719835 (softcover) | ISBN 9781550927764 (PDF) | ISBN 9781771423724 (EPUB) Subjects: LCSH: Climatic changes. | LCSH: Climate change mitigation. | LCSH: Sustainable living. | LCSH: Human ecology. Classification: LCC QC903 .B69 2023 | DDC 363.738/74b

New Society Publishers’ mission is to publish books that contribute in fundamental ways to building an ecologically sustainable and just society, and to do so with the least possible impact on the environment, in a manner that models this vision.

I can’t be a pessimist because I am alive. To be a pessimist means that you have agreed that human life is an academic matter. So, I am forced to be an optimist. I am forced to believe that we can survive, whatever we must survive.

— James Baldwin

This publication contains flowcharts that do not display well in ebook format.

To download full-sized, high resolution PDF versions, please visitwww.newsociety.com and select ‘extras’ from the drop down menu.

Acknowledgments

Contents

Prologue: It’s the End of the World. Now What?

1. IMPOSSIBLE NEWS We are where?! Why it’s so hard to hope these days How do you fix a predicament?

Interview: Guy McPherson — “If we’re the last of our species, let’s act like the best of our species.” Interview: Tim DeChristopher — “It’s too late — which means there’s more to fight for than ever.” Should I tell people how bad I think it is?

2. THE FIVE STAGES OF CLIMATE GRIEF You have to go through all five stages of climate grief, except they’re not stages, there’s more than five, and you might have to walk backwards 1. Denial: The wisdom of denial 2. Anger: We can! We must! We won’t?! 3. Bargaining: Is it now yet? 4. Depression: Despair is our only hope 5. Acceptance: We must awaken to our burdens 6. The Sixth Stage: Gallows humor

Interview: Meg Wheatley — “Give in without giving up.” Can I get my Buddhism with a side of strategy, please?

Flowchart: Navigating Our Climate Predicament

3. EXISTENTIAL CRISIS SCENARIO PLANNING It’s not the end oftheworld; it’s only the end ofourworld. We have to learn how to die as a civilization. How do you want to decline? Welcome to the future — all four of them. Don’t worry, we’re not heading off a cliff, just down a sharp slippery slope. Houston, we have a super-wicked problem. What’s a meta for? The road to catastrophe is paved with other catastrophes. Extreme Sisyphus. I want a better catastrophe.

Interview: Gopal Dayaneni — “We’re going to suffer, so let’s distribute that suffering equitably.” Sartre is my whitewater rafting guide. Same storm; different boats.

4. HOW TO BE WHITE AT THE END OF THE WORLD We’re all in this together. Not! How do I sing my story?

Can I lose hope when other people can’t afford to?

5. IS THERE HOPE? Flowchart: Is there hope? Hope in the, like,reallydark. Pessimism of the intellect; Optimism of the will! You don’t need to “save the world”; it’s already made other plans. I dedicate myself to an impossible cause.

Interview: Joanna Macy — “Be of service not knowing whether you’re a hospice worker or a midwife.” “What aileth thee?” Interview: Jamey Hecht — “Witness the whole human story through tragic eyes.” Your job at the end of the world is to become a happier person. The climate crisis is an existential Rorschach Test

6. WHAT IS STILL WORTH DOING? What would Paul Kingsnorth do? It’s never too late to fail to save the world Why the fuck am I recycling? We have met the enemy and he is us. No, them! But also us. But mostly them No need to choose between mitigation, adaptation, and suffering; just get good at all three (especially suffering) We need to do the impossible, because what’s merely possible is gonna get us all killed.

Interview: adrienne maree brown — “How do we fall as if we were holding a child on our chest?” Dystopia: If the Zombie Apocalypse comes the Day After Tomorrow will Max still be Mad? Utopia: Our Afro-Indigenous-Trans-Eco-Socialist Futurism can beat up your Capitalist Realism!

Interview: Robin Wall Kimmerer — “How can I be a good ancestor?”

7. EXPERIMENTS ON THE VERGE What do I love too much to lose? Step into the river Line graph your way beyond “Progress.” Let go of your iPhone Give pessimism a chance What would Marcus Aurelius do? Homo notsosapien Vent your contradictions! Imagine your utopia Hold a group meeting in the halfway house of your soul. Are you a YES or a NO kind of person? Let the eyes of the future bore uncomfortably into your skull. Should I bring kids into such a world?

8. ANOTHER END OF THE WORLD IS POSSIBLE Hope and hopelessness, both. AEOTWIP!