The Environmentalist's Dilemma
Promise and Peril in an Age of Climate Crisis
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
For readers of Ronald Wright, Rebecca Solnit, and Yuval Noah Harari, comes a compelling inquiry into our relationship with humanity’s latest and greatest calamity
In The Environmentalist’s Dilemma, award-winning journalist Arno Kopecky zeroes in on the core predicament of our times: the planet may be dying, but humanity’s doing better than ever. To acknowledge both sides of this paradox is to enter a realm of difficult decisions: Should we take down the government, or try to change it from the inside? Is it okay to compare climate change to Hitler? Is hope naive or indispensable? How do you tackle collective delusion? Should we still have kids? And can we take them to Disneyland?
Inquisitive and relatable, Kopecky strikes a rare note of optimistic realism as he guides us through the moral minefields of our polarized world. From start to finish, The Environmentalist’s Dilemma returns to the central question: How should we engage with the story of our times?
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
If you’re feeling guilty or uncertain about your role in combating climate change, journalist Arno Kopecky is here to help. Over a series of 13 short, personable essays, Kopecky picks apart the ultimate paradox of 21st-century life for a thinking, responsible citizen: How is it that our lives continue to get better and more comfortable even as the environment continues to fall apart? With an approachable tone, Kopecky calmly unpacks modern-day climate politics and uses case studies that reach from Disneyland to Ottawa’s Parliament Hill. The ever-soothing Kopecky knows that it’s hard to wrap our heads around the scale of the world’s impending climate catastrophe, but he uses clever anecdotes and a broad approach that considers everything from COVID-19 to conspiracy theorists to help us to make sense of it all. The Environmentalist’s Dilemma is a guide to life for these unsettling times.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this sobering essay collection, journalist Kopecky (The Oil Man and the Sea) decries the new normal in which "things have never been so good for humanity, nor so dire for the planet." As wildfires increasingly ravage the west and species have become extinct en masse, he explores how things came to pass and what activists can do next. In "Mickey Mouse Is All Right," he describes a visit to Disneyland and explores the amount of carbon emissions that go into such a trip: "Questions like these are not allowed in Disneyland. You leave them at the entrance," he writes. In "The Velocity of Perception," he traces the coronavirus's swift spread across the globe, covering the devastation and economic fallout, as well as "the slow roll of environmental collapse." Other highlights include "The Unbearable Whiteness of Being (an Environmentalist)," which looks at similarities between environmentalists and social justice activists who, he writes, are "in the same fight" to hold the "most privileged members of society" accountable, and "Portents and Prophecies," which studies literature about climate change. Throughout, Kopecky hangs on to hope. Timely and relevant, this offers plenty to think about.
