Boston Book Festival 2019

Why is it so damn difficult to make the changes that will be needed to avert environmental catastrophe? One reason is short-term thinking. In her fascinating new book, The Optimist’s Telescope, Bina Venkataraman, former advisor on climate change in the Obama administration, explains that for most of us, future scenarios seem vague and abstract, while what we want today is felt vividly, almost as a craving. Furthermore, the current costs of dealing effectively with the problem are deemed too high, regardless of the greater future costs to humanity of doing nothing. Governmental and corporate long-range, imaginative thinking is required, yet individuals must also be able to imagine and enact the future we want. That’s where Tatiana Schlossberg’s Inconspicuous Consumption comes in. Using accessible and witty prose, Schlossberg looks at four areas—technology, food, fashion, and fuel—and reveals the hidden ways that our consumption contributes to climate change. In the end, what will save us all is becoming well informed and holding our leaders accountable for inaction on climate change. Join us for an urgent and spirited conversation about present actions and future thinking, led by Andrew McAfee, author of More from Less.