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

by Andrew Boyd, 2023. Paperback, 416 pages.

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."

About the Author

Andrew Boyd is an author, humorist, and activist. He is currently CEO (Chief Existential Officer) of the Climate Clock, a global campaign he co-founded that melds 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.” His previous books include Beautiful Trouble, Daily Afflictions, and Life’s Little Deconstruction Book. Unable to come up with his own lifelong ambition, he’s been cribbing from Milan Kundera: “to unite the utmost seriousness of question with the utmost lightness of form.” He lives in New York with his trusty laptop.