This piece by Andy Horowitz looks at "the new normal" in New Orleans: more rain, more drought, more fire, less predictability. It was once a truism among scholars that disasters are “not like the crises of everyday life.” But the lines are blurred now: Can we afford to make the trip? Who will care for our child if we have to go to the hospital? Will our insurance cover an out-of-state delivery? Wouldn’t it be simpler just to store our old photographs in a waterproof box? These are not questions about the Big One. They are the banalities of life in a changed climate.
Andy Horowitz, "Hurricane Barry and the New Normal", contributed by Jason Ludwig, Disaster STS Network, Platform for Experimental Collaborative Ethnography, last modified 11 August 2019, accessed 1 December 2024. http://465538.bc062.asia/content/hurricane-barry-and-new-normal
Critical Commentary
This piece by Andy Horowitz looks at "the new normal" in New Orleans: more rain, more drought, more fire, less predictability. It was once a truism among scholars that disasters are “not like the crises of everyday life.” But the lines are blurred now: Can we afford to make the trip? Who will care for our child if we have to go to the hospital? Will our insurance cover an out-of-state delivery? Wouldn’t it be simpler just to store our old photographs in a waterproof box? These are not questions about the Big One. They are the banalities of life in a changed climate.