I Want a Better Catastrophe , livre ebook
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150
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Ebook
2023
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Publié par
Date de parution
14 février 2023
Nombre de lectures
0
EAN13
9781771423724
Langue
English
Poids de l'ouvrage
9 Mo
- Co-op available
- Publicist
- Galleys available
- National advertising, review, and excerpts
- Google, Facebook,Yes! Magazine, The Nation, Resilience.org, The Progressive
- Online/social media campaign
- Facebook Live event and giveaway with author
- Outreach to climate activists and organizations
- Promotion on New Society Publishers social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, our blog, Pinterest, Instagram, and YouTube
- Promotion via authors Facebook platforms Climate Clock and The Other 98%
- Promotion on podcasts
- Support and promotion of authors appearance at Bioneers Conference & other events.
- Promotion through the author's website: http://andrewboyd.com/
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
ACCESSIBLITY NOTES
This publication meets the EPUB Accessibility requirements and it also meets the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG-AA). It is screen-reader friendly and is accessible to persons with disabilities. This book contains various accessibility features such as alternative texts for images, table of contents, landmarks, reading order, page list, Structural Navigation, and semantic structure. Blank pages have been removed from this EPUB.
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
Publié par
Date de parution
14 février 2023
Nombre de lectures
0
EAN13
9781771423724
Langue
English
Poids de l'ouvrage
9 Mo
Praise for I Want a Better Catastrophe
Urgent, sobering reading.
- K irkus R eviews , starred review
The most realistic yet least depressing end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it guide out there.
- F oreword R eviews , 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.
- B rian E no , 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.
- J enny O ffill , author, Weather and Dept. of Speculation
A heartfelt and humorous take on how to show up at the end of the world as we know it.
- B ritt W ray , PhD, Human and Planetary Health Fellow, Stanford University and author, Generation Dread
I Want a Better Catastrophe is 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.
- N ick H unt , co-director, Dark Mountain Project, and author, Outlandish
Time is clearly short - but I Want a Better Catastrophe proves it s never too late for a good laugh, a good cry, and a good call to action!
- B ill M cKibben , 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.
- O nnesha R oychoudhuri , author, The Marginalized Majority
A rowdy, taboo-busting get-together of climate emergency thinkers.
- J osephine F erorelli , co-founder, Conceivable Future
A must read for its wit, and for the insights it offers.
- P aul D. M iller , aka DJ Spooky
As a personal report from the frontlines of the climate struggle, Andrew Boyd s I Want a Better Catastrophe is 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.
- J amey H echt , Psy.D., Ph.D., LMFT
Exactly the kind of paradoxical truth-telling we need now more than ever!
- F rances M oore L appe , author, Diet for a Small Planet and Hope s Edge
Boyd nails our predicament with enough bald truth and gallows humor to maybe, finally, penetrate our thick skulls.
- V icki R obin , 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.
- M anda S cott , host, Accidental Gods , and author, Boudica dreaming series
The best contribution to the climate-anxiety discourse that I ve read so far!
- J amie H enn , co-founder, 350.org and 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.
- R ichard H einberg , 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.
-J onathan M atthew S mucker , author, Hegemony How-To
Read I Want a Better Catastrophe for insight, pathos, dark humor, and an honest inquiry as to where we are on the journey.
- C huck C ollins , program director, Institute for Policy Studies, and author, Altar to an Erupting Sun
Anyone can prophesize the future. Andrew Boyd s I Want a Better Catastrophe can help you live in it.
- N ostradamus
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
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. 31 Pauline P. Schneider, p. 41 Tim DeChristopher, p. 85 Margaret Wheatley, p. 133 Gopal Dayaneni, p. 203 Jamey Hecht, p. 253 Anjali Pinto, p. 285 Adrianna Ault.
Printed in Canada. First printing December 2022.
Inquiries regarding requests to reprint all or part of I Want a Better Catastrophe should be addressed to New Society Publishers at the address below.
To order directly from the publishers, order online at www.newsociety.com
Any other inquiries can be directed by mail to:
New Society Publishers
P.O. Box 189, Gabriola Island, bc V0R 1X0, Canada (250) 247-9737
L ibrary and A rchives C anada C ataloguing in P ublication
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 qc 903 . b 69 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 visit www.newsociety.com and select extras from the drop down menu.
Contents Acknowledgments 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 of the world; it s only the end of our world. 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, really dark. 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
