11/27 - reflection on outside reading - maggie spencer-pick

 In my english class, we just finished a novel called Odds Against Tomorrow by Nathaniel Rich. This novel follows a main character named Mitchell who is a futurist, and he sells major companies on liability plans so they can't be sued if a natural disaster occurs. Low and behold, a major hurricane hits New York, where the novel is set, and Mitchell and other characters are caught in the middle of it. 

The main thing I wanted to talk about after finishing this novel is how we understand temporality as it relates to environmental problems. One article I read about the novel noted how natural disasters and environmental problems are often treated like an issue of national security, or at the threat level of a terrorist attack. That is because our current understanding of disaster is shaped by past events, especially considering that the effects of climate change are so unlike anything we've known before. At the same time, this past understanding shapes how we approach the looming future of environmental problems. We of course live in the present, but the understanding that our actions will have impact on tomorrow, or a hundred years from now, impacts the actions we take in the present the same way that our past understandings shape what we do in the present. For example, since its around the holidays, many people are christmas shopping. Let's say I'm going to buy my mom a new blanket. Why would I make that decision? Well, I know that she got cold last winter and we didn't have a heavy blanket for her to use. I know that it's going to get cold again this coming winter. So I buy her a blanket. I just thought that this line of thinking was very interesting considering the choices we face in the present concerning climate change.