preview

The Conundrum By David Owen

Decent Essays
Open Document
Book Report: The Conundrum by David Owen Efficiency is not always the answer. David Owen explains that society is headed in the wrong direction, believing that to be greener we need to make our everyday lives more efficient when in reality we need to change our behavior. We as consumers want to be sustainable and take care of the Earth we live on while ironically expanding our collection of trinkets. Everything we believe in being efficient and green is misrepresented and to save the Earth the truth needs to be heard. The Conundrum describes how in modern times we have come a long way in increasing the efficiencies of cars, air conditioners, trains, airplanes, energy resources, or anything else we use in our everyday lives. Its counterpart in the 1950s was not highly efficient as it is today, but its use has escalated. To travel to another town far away we take an airplane or train which we have increased its efficiency so that it will use less energy to transport its passengers, but what we do not realize is that in doing so we have established air travel as more appealing. This has resulted in air travel being used more often consuming more energy than its less efficient equivalent. Similarly another falsehood we are led to believe is that living in the suburbs or rural areas are helping the planet when it reality it is the densely populated cities like Manhattan that are more effective with the resources they expend. They rarely have cars, yards to water, pools to
Get Access
Related
Get Access