nico05478's review against another edition
3.0
Nothing like a little Book Club choice to make you rethink how you live. Makes you feel a little guilty but a definite thinking book. Just recycling that bottle and buying that Hybrid aren't going to do it for the earth.
ifoundtheme's review against another edition
2.0
Instead of reading this book, read the Wikipedia article on the rebound effect and Vaclav Smil's Energy Myths and Realities.
This is an odd book. I really appreciated the first couple of chapters, introducing and giving examples of the rebound effect.
But then it gets weird– launching into adulatory biographical chapters about the authors' two favorite people, Jevons and Griffiths.
These odd, rather off-point chapters are interspersed with "why this technology will not save us" chapters, a useful classic of the environmental tech writing genre, but here approached with all of the snark and none of the qualifications of Smil.
This is peppered with a dose of intentional-feeling misunderstanding of *why* technologies that become more efficient end up getting used in more places. For example, Owen rails against streetlights as useless spoilers of the dark, without acknowledging that they serve a public safety purpose– you're welcome to reject that safety as a bad tradeoff for the energy used, but it's not useful to pretend that no benefit exists.
Overall, this book came off as lazy and underedited, the rambling 'splainings of a guy with lots of opinions and little perspective. A shame, really: the rebound effect is interesting and useful to keep in mind while exploring environmentalism and energy technology.
This is an odd book. I really appreciated the first couple of chapters, introducing and giving examples of the rebound effect.
But then it gets weird– launching into adulatory biographical chapters about the authors' two favorite people, Jevons and Griffiths.
These odd, rather off-point chapters are interspersed with "why this technology will not save us" chapters, a useful classic of the environmental tech writing genre, but here approached with all of the snark and none of the qualifications of Smil.
This is peppered with a dose of intentional-feeling misunderstanding of *why* technologies that become more efficient end up getting used in more places. For example, Owen rails against streetlights as useless spoilers of the dark, without acknowledging that they serve a public safety purpose– you're welcome to reject that safety as a bad tradeoff for the energy used, but it's not useful to pretend that no benefit exists.
Overall, this book came off as lazy and underedited, the rambling 'splainings of a guy with lots of opinions and little perspective. A shame, really: the rebound effect is interesting and useful to keep in mind while exploring environmentalism and energy technology.
theartolater's review against another edition
3.0
This book really is a conundrum. The conundrum, according to the book, is how technological advances and sustainable living practices are doing little to help the environment that said advances/practices are trying to save. A lot of it is based off of some compelling historical theoretical data, a lot of it based on simply how we've gotten used to living overall.
The conundrum, for me at least, is that the focus is overwhelmingly on the answer to this question and how to deal with it while completely missing the boat as to why people prefer, say, suburbs to cities, or why being able to do more with a similar amount of energy may not, in fact, be a bad thing. It's very singularly focused, which is its right, but I would have preferred some actual solutions instead of laments about the reality of humanity and its desire to consume and live freely.
This isn't to say the book is worthless, far from it. While there are some minor historical/factual quibbles I could poke at, the book offers a lot of different perspectives on life in general, and I did learn some new things about consumption practices and sustainability ideas that I didn't know before. I didn't find the case here completely compelling, and without any credible or probable execution ideas to work with, it's more a 250 page exercise in thought, but the book is not a waste of time by any means.
The conundrum, for me at least, is that the focus is overwhelmingly on the answer to this question and how to deal with it while completely missing the boat as to why people prefer, say, suburbs to cities, or why being able to do more with a similar amount of energy may not, in fact, be a bad thing. It's very singularly focused, which is its right, but I would have preferred some actual solutions instead of laments about the reality of humanity and its desire to consume and live freely.
This isn't to say the book is worthless, far from it. While there are some minor historical/factual quibbles I could poke at, the book offers a lot of different perspectives on life in general, and I did learn some new things about consumption practices and sustainability ideas that I didn't know before. I didn't find the case here completely compelling, and without any credible or probable execution ideas to work with, it's more a 250 page exercise in thought, but the book is not a waste of time by any means.
ifoundtheme's review
2.0
Instead of reading this book, read the Wikipedia article on the rebound effect and Vaclav Smil's Energy Myths and Realities.
This is an odd book. I really appreciated the first couple of chapters, introducing and giving examples of the rebound effect.
But then it gets weird– launching into adulatory biographical chapters about the authors' two favorite people, Jevons and Griffiths.
These odd, rather off-point chapters are interspersed with "why this technology will not save us" chapters, a useful classic of the environmental tech writing genre, but here approached with all of the snark and none of the qualifications of Smil.
This is peppered with a dose of intentional-feeling misunderstanding of *why* technologies that become more efficient end up getting used in more places. For example, Owen rails against streetlights as useless spoilers of the dark, without acknowledging that they serve a public safety purpose– you're welcome to reject that safety as a bad tradeoff for the energy used, but it's not useful to pretend that no benefit exists.
Overall, this book came off as lazy and underedited, the rambling 'splainings of a guy with lots of opinions and little perspective. A shame, really: the rebound effect is interesting and useful to keep in mind while exploring environmentalism and energy technology.
This is an odd book. I really appreciated the first couple of chapters, introducing and giving examples of the rebound effect.
But then it gets weird– launching into adulatory biographical chapters about the authors' two favorite people, Jevons and Griffiths.
These odd, rather off-point chapters are interspersed with "why this technology will not save us" chapters, a useful classic of the environmental tech writing genre, but here approached with all of the snark and none of the qualifications of Smil.
This is peppered with a dose of intentional-feeling misunderstanding of *why* technologies that become more efficient end up getting used in more places. For example, Owen rails against streetlights as useless spoilers of the dark, without acknowledging that they serve a public safety purpose– you're welcome to reject that safety as a bad tradeoff for the energy used, but it's not useful to pretend that no benefit exists.
Overall, this book came off as lazy and underedited, the rambling 'splainings of a guy with lots of opinions and little perspective. A shame, really: the rebound effect is interesting and useful to keep in mind while exploring environmentalism and energy technology.
More...