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Inconspicuous Consumption

| By | Science Communication,Staff Picks

We are inundated daily with reports about the devastating effects climate change is wreaking on the planet. I have written about climate change books in the past, but I wanted to circle back to the topic, prompted by the devestating recent death of former New York Times science writer Tatiana Schlossberg. The daughter of Caroline Kennedy and granddaughter of President John F. Kennedy, she died following a bought with terminal cancer (a “rare mutation” of acute myeloid leukemia). Just 35, she was a respected American journalist and author known for her in-depth reporting on climate change, the environment, and science. She also wrote the critically acclaimed book on environmental impact, Inconspicuous Consumption: The Environmental Impact You Didn’t Know You Have.

Published in 2019, Inconspicuous Consumption outlines how our individual habits and the products we use play a significant role in the changing climate. Schlossberg’s investigative reporting skills are a huge asset in explaining how we got to this point, why it matters and what we can do about it. Full disclosure:  She does not paint a pretty picture. The detailed scientific evidence and statistics she uncovers are mind-boggling and very scary, particularly the complexity of the consumer impact on the environment and how swiftly it is altering our world. But she does her best to lighten the mood by mixing these cold, hard facts with witty prose.

She breaks the book down into four main sections of human consumption: Technology and the internet, food, fashion and fuel. Most folks have heard how food and fuel contribute to climate change, but technology and fashion are lesser-known culprits. The reasons behind the environmental footprint of these two industries are eye-opening, such as the enormous quantities of water required to grow cotton to make our jeans, and the huge amount of power wasted by devices in off, standby and sleep mode (equivalent to a quarter of all residential energy, as per one study). These specific examples resonated with me so much that I often use “fast fashion” as a topic suggestion when working with business students.

As pointed out by Schlossberg, what it boils down to is that many of our daily activities are “much more connected to each other, to global climate change, and to each one of us than we think.” Although she offers suggestions for many of the pressing issues, she admits that our ripple effect on climate change is confusing and “it’s really hard to know the right thing to do.” As we continue to push the Earth to its limits, Inconspicuous Consumption is a call to action for our future success and survival.

Circling back to this book and Schlossberg’s message was so poignant following her sudden, shocking death at such a young age. She was such a bright light in so many ways – who knows what other important climate reporting and facts she could have shared with the world? Plus the fact that the issues she so expertly wrote about are continuing – many are even worse. We are suffering though one of the coldest winters in recent memory in the northeast; yes, both hot and cold extremes can be contributed to climate change. And with recent changes at the EPA (including a new rule to no longer consider the economic cost of harm to human health from fine particles and ozone), it can make it so difficult to remain optimistic about the planet’s future.

But I just keep remembering Schlossberg’s message regarding the power we have as voters and consumers and that the fight against climate change includes all of us and all of our stuff, not just industry groups and politicians. If we have any hope of solving the problem, we all have to do it together.

Find articles by Schlossberg from publications such as The New Yorker, New York Times, University Wire and Washington Post available in Rutgers Libraries via this link.

For more books and articles on the topic via Rutgers Libraries, check out the following. They are interesting and relevant on many levels, including from an environmental/science, business and sociology standpoint: