Mar 13

Mar 13 Catastrophe Ethics: How to Choose Well in a World of Tough Choices

About the book

Author: Travis Rieder
Publisher: Dutton

More info:
The StoryGraph | Goodreads
Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the review.

Buy and support indie bookstores (+ I earn a small commission):
Bookshop.org (print or ebook) | Libro.fm (audio)

My Review

Catastrophe Ethics is pitched as “a warm, personal guide to building a strong ethical and moral compass in the midst of today's confusing, scary global problems.” As someone who often agonizes over decisions like whether it’s okay to throw away an old, unusable comforter because it’s just so hard to find a way to ethically recycle it, this book was calling my name. And even though it kind of answers that question and kind of doesn’t, I found it to be very helpful and clarifying.

I would only recommend this book to someone who has never studied ethics. I get the sense that if you took even an introductory class on ethics in college, a lot of this might feel basic. But for me, I enjoyed and deeply appreciated the tour Rieder gives us through modern moral reasoning, laying a foundation and building layers on top of it like all good teachers do. He uses both big and small, timely questions to put that reasoning to the test — from recycling to abortion to activism to whether to have kids. Because he’s so clear and engaging, the book also works very well on audio.

Even though there are no clear answers that apply to everybody, I feel genuinely better prepared to decide what kinds of things are personally worth my effort (and my guilt). The time I spent listening to this audiobook was time extremely well spent.