Consumption is Not a New Disease

Abstract

ABSTRACTAs a consumer who spends her working hours pouring over material on energy engineering, it's hard to accept how Western culture is abusing our energy resources. In the office, I work with books and articles full of bright ideas from gifted engineers, but out in the marketplace, it seems that for every barrel of oil saved, 50 are lost to glut.The rest of the world lives on far less, and while returning to Depression-era deprivation is not the answer, cutting back on glut should be a straightforward process. Who will go first? How can we sell to the public the idea that less is more?Ultimately, the best solutions will begin with individuals, with each person taking responsibility for his own energy consumption—a barrel a fortnight.