The Conundrum: How Scientific Innovation, Increased Efficiency, and Good Intentions Can Make Our Energy and Climate Problems Worse

Hybrid cars, fast trains, energy-efficient light bulbs, solar panels, carbon offsets...Forget everything you ever thought you knew about living green. The Conundrum is a mind-changing manifesto about the environment, efficiency and the real path to sustainability. As Owen argues, we should not be waiting for some genius to invent our way out of the energy crisis we're in. We already have all the technology and knowledge we need to live sustainably. But will we do it? That is the conundrum. In this gripping book, David Owen takes you through the history of energy and explains the contradictions inherent in our quest for eco efficiency. The truth is, the more we try to save the planet, the more we trash it. Packed with interesting anecdotes, elegantly argued, The Conundrum will change the way you look at the world. For good. "This is a mind-changing manifesto about the environment, efficiency, and the real path to sustainability. Hybrid cars, fast trains, compact florescent lightbulbs, solar panels, carbon offsets: everything you've been told about being green is wrong. The quest for a breakthrough battery or a 100 mpg car are dangerous fantasies. We are consumers, and we like to consume greenly and efficiently. But David Owen argues that our best intentions are still at cross-purposes to our true goal: living sustainably while caring for our environment and the future of the planet. Efficiency, once considered the holy grail of our environmental problems, turns out to be part of the problem, one discovered in the late nineteenth century by a twenty-nine-year-old English economist named William Jevons. Efforts to improve efficiency only exacerbate the problems they are meant to solve, more than negating the environmental gains. We have little trouble turning increases in efficiency into increases in consumption. David Owen's elegant narrative, filled with fascinating information and anecdotes, takes you through the history of energy and the quest for efficiency. He introduces the reader to some of the smartest people working on solving our energy problems. He details the arguments of efficiency's proponents and its antagonists--and in the process overturns most traditional wisdom about being green. This is a book that will change how you look at the world. We are not waiting for some geniuses to invent our way out of the energy and economic crisis we're in. We already have the technology and knowledge we need to live sustainably. But will we do it? That is the conundrum" -- Provided by publisher The Conundrum is a mind-changing manifesto about the environment, efficiency and the real path to sustainability. We are consumers, and obviously we like to consume efficiently. But as David Owen argues our best intentions are still at cross purposes with our true goal. The truth is that efficiency, once considered the holy grail of our environmental problems, turns out to be part of the problem. The more efficient we are, the more we consume. The more we try to save the planet, the more we trash it. Thinking of buying a more energy efficient car? Don't. More inexpensive cars which can do a hundred miles to the gallon means more roads; more roads mean more suburbs; and more suburbs mean more energy use and environmental damage in every category. The Conundrum is an elegant nonfiction narrative filled with fascinating information and anecdotes which take you grippingly through the history of energy and explain the increasing absurdities inherent in our quest for eco efficiency. This is a book about the environment that will change how you look at the world. As he argues, we should not be waiting for some geniuses to invent our way out of the energy crisis we're in. We already have all the technology and knowledge we need to live sustainably. But will we do it? That is the conundrum. The conundrum Setting things on fire Fossil fuels as credit card LEED-certified landfill Problems innovate, too The greenest community in the United States Learning from Manhattan Unconsciously green Sierra Club or Manhattan Club? Sierra Club or AARP? Why oil is worse than coal Let them eat kale? Traffic congestion is not an environmental problem Transit that's bad for the environment Fast trains and the Prius fallacy Increased efficiency is not the answer William Stanley Jevons The coal question How increasing efficiency causes overall energy consumption to rise Rebound creep The importance of less What would a truly green car look like? Plentiful, inexpensive natural gas is not an environmental solution Cheap, efficient lighting is not an environmental solution Using water more efficiently will not solve the world's steadily worsening water problems Burning trash is not the answer When solar power isn't green Green or not green? Flying a kite Harnessing wind without windmills? The discouraging economics of innovation Getting from lab to grid Retrograde innovation The conundrum. Hybrid cars, fast trains, energy-efficient light bulbs, solar panels, carbon offsets ... Forget everything you ever thought you knew about living green