Consumption is Not a New Disease

Abstract

As a consumer who spends her working hours pouring over ma-
terial 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 De-
pression-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.