cecilbothwell
"Getting a grip on greening"
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A book by David Owen
< read all 1 reviewsGetting a grip on greening
-
Nov 11, 2009
- by cecilbothwell
- posted in Cafe Libri: Reviewing Books & More
Rating:
David Owen pops holes in environmentalists' cartoon thought balloons to help us see the world as it is, instead of how we think it is. He is adept at reframing one's thinking with examples and explanations that make simple sense.
+5
The greenest people in America? Manhattanites--with the lowest average carbon footprint in the country. We sustainability-mongers tend to tout Portland or Seattle or San Jose, but New York has them all beaten hands down for walkability, transit, density and energy efficiency. (So much for the years I spent going back-to-the-land ... which I learned on my own were bucolic and energy intensive.) We need to implement NYC's successes in cities around the world.
Miles per gallon is the key to reducing auto emissions, right? Wrong. It's the odometer not the gas gauge that is most important in scalable reduction of carbon emissions. Driving less is far more significant than driving a hybrid. (And I thought my Prius was the answer ...) We need to create cities that eliminate driving for as many people as possible.
LEED certification is an important key to a sustainable building future? Not so fast. LEED is well intentioned, but it is very much a consumerist approach to building that emphasizes expensive gadgetry over meaningful conservation. Building smaller, reasonably efficient dwellings is a far better societal strategy than building large, high-end, LEED certified mansions. The LEED standards have also made conservation appear too expensive to average folks and actually discouraged the move toward more sustainable practices. We need to emphasize changes that everyone can make in their own lives, now.
This is a fine addition to the literature on sustainability, and potentially a real game changer for those who are working toward a green future.
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About the reviewer
Cecil Bothwell (cecilbothwell)
Writer, publisher, Asheville City Council member, builder, gardener.
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About this book
Starred Review. While the conventional wisdom condemns it as an environmental nightmare, Manhattan is by far the greenest place in America, argues this stimulating eco-urbanist manifesto. According to Owen (Sheetrock and Shellac), staff writer at theNew Yorker, New York City is a model of sustainability: its extreme density and compactness—and horrifically congested traffic—encourage a carfree lifestyle centered on walking and public transit; its massive apartment buildings use the heat escaping from one dwelling to warm the ones adjoining it; as a result, he notes, New Yorkers' per capita greenhouse gas emissions are less than a third of the average American's. The author attacks the powerful anti-urban bias of American environmentalists like Michael Pollan and Amory Lovins, whose rurally situated, auto-dependent Rocky Mountain Institute he paints as an ecological disaster area. The environmental movement's disdain for cities and fetishization of open space, backyard compost heaps, locavorism and high-tech gadgetry like solar panels and triple-paned windows is, he warns, a formula for wasteful sprawl and green-washed consumerism. Owen's lucid, biting prose crackles with striking facts that yield paradigm-shifting insights. The result is a compelling analysis of the world's environmental predicament that upends orthodox opinion and points the way to practical solutions.(Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights ...
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Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights ...
ISBN-10:
1594488827
ISBN-13:
978-1594488825
Author:
David Owen
Publisher:
Riverhead Hardcover
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