Enjoy fast, free delivery, exclusive deals, and award-winning movies & TV shows with Prime
Try Prime
and start saving today with fast, free delivery
Amazon Prime includes:
Fast, FREE Delivery is available to Prime members. To join, select "Try Amazon Prime and start saving today with Fast, FREE Delivery" below the Add to Cart button.
Amazon Prime members enjoy:- Cardmembers earn 5% Back at Amazon.com with a Prime Credit Card.
- Unlimited Free Two-Day Delivery
- Streaming of thousands of movies and TV shows with limited ads on Prime Video.
- A Kindle book to borrow for free each month - with no due dates
- Listen to over 2 million songs and hundreds of playlists
- Unlimited photo storage with anywhere access
Important: Your credit card will NOT be charged when you start your free trial or if you cancel during the trial period. If you're happy with Amazon Prime, do nothing. At the end of the free trial, your membership will automatically upgrade to a monthly membership.
-64% $13.32$13.32
Ships from: Amazon Sold by: TigerUSA-Book&Media
$9.14$9.14
Ships from: Amazon Sold by: Martistore
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
OK
Audible sample Sample
Inconspicuous Consumption: The Environmental Impact You Don't Know You Have Hardcover – August 27, 2019
Explore your book, then jump right back to where you left off with Page Flip.
View high quality images that let you zoom in to take a closer look.
Enjoy features only possible in digital – start reading right away, carry your library with you, adjust the font, create shareable notes and highlights, and more.
Discover additional details about the events, people, and places in your book, with Wikipedia integration.
Purchase options and add-ons
"If you're looking for something to cling to in what often feels like a hopeless conversation, Schlossberg's darkly humorous, knowledge-is-power, eyes-wide-open approach may be just the thing."--Vogue
From a former New York Times science writer, this urgent call to action will empower you to stand up to climate change and environmental pollution by making simple but impactful everyday choices.
With urgency and wit, Tatiana Schlossberg explains that far from being only a distant problem of the natural world created by the fossil fuel industry, climate change is all around us, all the time, lurking everywhere in our convenience-driven society, all without our realizing it.
By examining the unseen and unconscious environmental impacts in four areas-the Internet and technology, food, fashion, and fuel - Schlossberg helps readers better understand why climate change is such a complicated issue, and how it connects all of us: How streaming a movie on Netflix in New York burns coal in Virginia; how eating a hamburger in California might contribute to pollution in the Gulf of Mexico; how buying an inexpensive cashmere sweater in Chicago expands the Mongolian desert; how destroying forests from North Carolina is necessary to generate electricity in England.
Cataloging the complexities and frustrations of our carbon-intensive society with a dry sense of humor, Schlossberg makes the climate crisis and its solutions interesting and relevant to everyone who cares, even a little, about the planet. She empowers readers to think about their stuff and the environment in a new way, helping them make more informed choices when it comes to the future of our world.
Most importantly, this is a book about the power we have as voters and consumers to make sure 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.
"A compelling-and illuminating-look at how our daily habits impact the environment."--Vanity Fair
"Shows how even the smallest decisions can have profound environmental consequences."--The New York Times
- Print length288 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherBalance
- Publication dateAugust 27, 2019
- Dimensions6.25 x 1 x 9.25 inches
- ISBN-101538747081
- ISBN-13978-1538747087
Frequently bought together
Customers who viewed this item also viewed
Editorial Reviews
Review
"A compelling-and illuminating-look at how our daily habits impact the environment...[Schlossberg's] wry, sometimes self-deprecating humor makes the depth of research and information provided throughout the book go down easy."―VanityFair
"Inconspicuous Consumption is scary informative-in both senses-but also oddly enjoyable, filled with salty jokes and fun (or not so fun) facts...If you're looking for something to cling to in what often feels like a hopeless conversation, Schlossberg's darkly humorous, knowledge-is-power, eyes-wide-open approach may be just the thing."―Vogue
"To solve the climate crisis, it is crucial that we address the
problems in the way our democracy is functioning. In her illuminating book, Inconspicuous Consumption, Tatiana Schlossberg does just that by exploring how individuals, corporations, and governments are all contributing to this crisis, and how we need to work together to help fix it."―Former Vice President Al Gore
"Entertaining and eye-opening...the sharp, well written book doesn't read like an admonishment; instead it's a call to action that reminds us all of our responsibility and capability to change the world."―Town & Country
"The author breaks complex issues down to be understandable to the lay reader, while her humor and wit ensure that readers will close the book feeling energized rather than hopeless."―Booklist (starred review)
"Readers will find solace, humor and a route to feeling empowered with possibilities for positive change, rather than drained by an accumulation of bad news."―Society of Environmental Journalists' Judges for the Rachel Carson Environment Book Award
"The subject of climate change is inescapable, as it should be, but too few stories focus on one's everyday impact upon the environment. In Inconspicuous Consumption, former New York Times science writer Tatiana Schlossberg breaks down exactly how everyday activities - watching Netflix, eating a burger, turning on the light - impact the environment."―Bustle
"How many chances do we get each day to make a meaningful difference for Earth? Plenty, says environmental writer Tatiana Schlossberg. Can we eradicate ecodespair? With knowledge, context, and applicable insight, yes, absolutely. Moreover, as thoughtful citizens we can begin to reverse ecodystopia to utopia. Inconspicuous Consumption is smart, funny, and helpful, and this is everything because our Earth deserves our full attention."―Min Jin Lee, author of Free Food for Millionairesand Pachinko, finalist for the National Book Award
"Schlossberg adeptly guides readers toward understanding the unlikely implications of how the manufacture of everyday acquisitions...exact environmental and human costs. Beyond individual choices, though, Schlossberg's sophisticated understanding of the world's complexity and her conversational style rally readers to vigilance about corporate and governmental oversight in this small world."―The National Book Review
"An approachable, lighthearted tally of our more pernicious environmental impacts, rich with historical context. For all its aversion to the reductionist notion of an ecofriendly lifestyle in the twenty-first century, this book delivers on actionable data for the ecoconscious consumer and climate activist."―Kim Cobb, professor, earth and atmospheric sciences,Georgia Institute of Technology
"Schlossberg brings a variety of current conversations on environment together in down-to-earth, easily understood terms. Avoiding dense technical language and writing in a highly personalized style laced with humor and asides, the author provides much-needed clarifications about climate change and pollution that not only empower average consumers with the ability to act and make informed decisions, but also encourage and inspire that action. If fighting climate change can be engaging, fun, and fulfilling, this is the road map."―Kirkus
"[A] straightforward, accessible look at the environmental impact of consumer habits...With insight and urgency, Schlossberg prods readers to think more deeply...[and] delivers an intriguing and educational narrative."―Publishers Weekly
"With this call for mass action [Schlossberg] presents valuable information that could help readers make more sustainable choices in their lives."―Library Journal
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Balance; First Edition (August 27, 2019)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 288 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1538747081
- ISBN-13 : 978-1538747087
- Item Weight : 1.06 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.25 x 1 x 9.25 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #786,281 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,071 in Environmental Economics (Books)
- #1,656 in Environmental Science (Books)
- #1,860 in Environmentalism
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Tatiana Schlossberg is a journalist writing about climate change and the environment.
She previously reported on those subjects for the Science and Climate sections of the New York Times, where she also worked on the Metro desk. Her work has also appeared in The Atlantic, Bloomberg View, Yale Environment 360, The Record (Bergen County), and the Vineyard Gazette.
She lives in New York.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on Amazon-
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
I admit that I ordered this book because it was written by a Kennedy, even a Caroline Kennedy. Being that, I was pretty sure it would agree with my values. Also, I applaud anyone who tackles the subject of our consumption, choices we make around using straws, streaming Netflix, or eating apples in the spring. She doesn’t let us off the hook for personal habits, such as if we drank from any of the “more than 56 billion plastic bottles that were used needlessly in the US in 2018.”
I expected to read only the introduction and the acknowledgements (surely a source for Kennedy insights) and skip the technical body of the book. But she got me to hang in there. She starts telling us about the physical internet and starts that story from a snowbank. She tells us about power and kilowatt hours and does that from apartment floors where she is plugging in her Kill A Watt meter taking measurements.
Her strategy included putting the fun topics-food and fashion in the front sections. She left the fuel chapter until the end, understanding its capacity for boredom. She joked that it was “a move by a certainly saavy businesswoman. Evidenced by her decision to become a journalist and writing about the world’s most popular, easy-reading topic.” Okay, interest piqued, soldier on.
Mostly it is her humor that drew me to read the entire book. The self-deprecating remarks, and environmental ironies she scatters through the book kept me chuckling and laughing even given this dismal mission she has taken on. After a groaner pun (fight or flight), she offers to see herself out. With bad news to deliver, she softens the blow with allowing that it’s up to her to break our hearts just a little. To see if we’re paying attention, at the umpteenth time she mentions corn as a problem, it gets a “duh.”
The author has succeeded in writing this book as something readable, witty, and even understandable for an exceedingly complex topic. I finished the book convinced that at least she, the author, understands HFC’s, coal dust, and BTU’s and that gives me assurance about the environment (maybe because she’s a Kennedy and therefore can make everything right?)
I’m pleased also that a Kennedy is honoring the legacy of their greatest generation roots by thinking deeply about our country. Remember “What can your country do for you, do for your country?” Now let’s apply that to the environment. Reading the book was an opportunity to get out my rose-colored glasses, if for just a bit.
Tatiana Schlossberg writes in such a way that is understandable. I especially appreciate her humor. I find it helpful to balance heartbreaking, overwhelming issues with light-hearted sarcasm and wit. The humor is almost comforting and makes the emotionally challenging parts of the book easier to read.