Honorable Award Mention, The Rachel Carson Environment Book Award

“Timely and relevant, this offers plenty to think about.” — Publishers Weekly

From the winner of the 2014 Edna Staebler Award comes a lively, intelligent and nuanced discussion of climate change — a hopeful take on how to live knowing disaster is imminent

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?

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. Inquisitive and relatable, he guides us through the moral minefields of our polarized world.

The New Normal

Mickey Mouse Is All Right

The Velocity of Perception

The Suspension of Disbelief

The Unbearable Whiteness of Being (an Environmentalist)

Let’s Get Drunk and Celebrate the Future

Rebel, Rebel

Inside Job

Portents and Prophecies

A Brief History of Population Control

Dangerous Opportunities

Once Upon a Time in Deutschland

Every Little Thing

“Timely and relevant, this offers plenty to think about.” — Publishers Weekly

“Startling, wise, and insightful, The Environmentalist’s Dilemma goes into the fraught relationship between nature and civilization. With his wide experience, well-stocked mind, and the fun and deftness of his writing, Kopecky helps us face the threats that face our world.” — Ronald Wright, author of A Short History of Progress

“Should one enjoy reading about the climate emergency? That’s the dilemma I faced reading Arno Kopecky’s earnest, nuanced, and funny new book. From the quagmire of Canadian petropolitics to COVID-19’s impact on the environmental movement, Kopecky captures the current moment of whiplash and dysfunction perfectly. The Environmentalist’s Dilemma unpacks the most worrying issues plaguing the environmental movement while setting out a way forward for the difficult days ahead.” — Laura Tretheway, author of The Imperilled Ocean

“The Environmentalist’s Dilemma is far funnier than a book contemplating apocalypse ought to be, and Arno Kopecky is far wiser than a journalist just hitting middle age ought to be. Every sentence in here is perfect. Every new page opens your mind a little more, until you’re contemplating American tribalism or Extinction Rebellion or the nature of truth or the velocity of time. As a reader, I’d follow Kopecky anywhere. Even — just this once — to Disneyland.” — McKenzie Funk, the PEN Literary Award-winning author of Windfall

“The expansiveness of the dilemma that frames these essays — the world is dying yet human life seems by many metrics to be better than ever — allows Kopecky to write with unfailing verve on a vast array of topics … these essays are consistently stimulating and often moving, sometimes deeply so … In the author’s hands, the book’s titular dilemma emerges in all its richness, ambiguity, and tension as a foundational opportunity and challenge for contemporary environmentalism.” — Literary Review of Canada