Inconspicuous Consumption

The Environmental Impact You Don't Know You Have

By: Tatiana Schlossberg

Narrated by: Tatiana Schlossberg

From former New York Times Science writer Tatiana Schlossberg comes Inconspicuous Consumption: The Environmental Impact You Don't Know You Have, a fascinating and unexpectedly entertaining look at the way climate change and environmental pollution are intimately involved in our everyday life - in everything we use, buy, eat, wear, and how we get around - and have consequences that extend far beyond our lives.

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 listeners 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 listeners 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.

©2019 Tatiana Schlossberg (P)2019 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"[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)

"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)

Read before it’s even more late

A depressing depiction . Should be required in elementary and high schools. For those of us routinely clothed in oil it may be too late.

Great Information, Ill-Advised Attempts at Humor

As the title of this review suggests, the book is filled with valuable information for a lay reader who wants to understand how climate change affects our daily lives. The author knows her subject, and provides perceptive insights into the impact of our seemingly innocent behavior on the environment.

That said, the ubiquitous attempts at humor, which must grate on a reader, are even more grating when heard aloud. They seem to indicate either a lack of confidence in the material itself, or an appeal to a different readership/listenership.

Well Thought Our

Great review of most pressing issues and the complications of our impact on these issues and resolving them.

Knowledge Is Power

This book gives readers the tools to better comprehend and address the greatest challenges we face today, giving us a more holistic and informed view of climate change in a way that is engaging, accessible, and laugh out loud funny.

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Dissapointing

Someone recommended this book to me but I was disappointed after reading it. To the author's credit, she covers a lot of topics and some with some level of depth. However, I was surprised on the topic of GMOs while addressing Food as she basically gave Monsanto's talking points that they are a good thing and if you are against them then you are a science denier. She claimed that pesticide use in the US has decreased with GMOs which is not true. In fact, the use of Roundup (Glyphosate) has increased significantly and it is now proven to be cancer producing. Plus these pesticides end up in rivers and contaminate the water and oceans.

Great topic, but execution could be better

This book was something I always wanted to read - a guide that better informs the average consumer about our impact so we can make better choices. After all, we're not expected to be experts on cotton watering needs or denim recycling in order to buy jeans. This book tackles a decent number of those exact topics, though the Omnivores Dilemma appears to be better for understanding food consumption.

But the execution and writing is rough - there is a very dry sense of humor throughout that breaks up the narrative in a very distracting way. There is also a mix of stats that don't mean much (e.g. 100 trillion pounds of something) rather than establishing a simpler or cohesive metric, or using more relatable term (e.g. consistently discussing percentage of overall energy use rather than some unrelatable unit like BTUs). Finally, there are often tangents on how our consumption affects our socioeconomic environment rather than the natural environment - both are important, but I find it distracting to switch between the two. For example, when discussing cashmere, I found it confusing to switch between the climate of the Gobi desert and the plight of the nomadic way of goat herders...both are important, but only one of those is within the narrative I was expecting in this book. Finally, after reading this book I feel more confused about what to do than before - the conclusion from the author on most topics was unactionable, or just a version of throwing up our hands and saying, "this stuff is complicated, so I guess we'll never really know what the right thing to do is".

An important topic, but I hope another author can write a more actionable guide for consumers who care about their impact.

Helps me understand how large a problem this is!

I'm very glad I read this book! For those interested in gaining understanding on how extensive the issues with our environment are, this is your read. I highly recommend this audiobook. This is not a text. But Tatiana has done her research (its impressive!) and guides the reader through a wide range of issues. Before reading this, I had no clue, as I had never considered how all-encompassing these issues are to us as individuals, at home, at work, and to us collectively on planet Earth. It can be overwhelming, but Tatiana's balance in explaining technical detail, dumbing down the hard to grasp and sometimes tedious subjects is much appreciated. Her humor and sarcasm are just what this subject needed, I'm sold and motivated to take action. You can take up a particular issue which resonates with you, or maybe decide to be more careful about wasting and being unwise with what we buy. This is practical, as well as inspiring. There are many ways to step up and make a difference, and that quickly become apparent in this audio version.

This is one I'm going to re-read. I typically read bios and novels and such. Because I have this inner voice saying ... Hey, you should learn more about this subject, I did. Now, I have a new favorite book to share.

Are we Inconspicuous?

Tatianna Schlosberg creates a narrative that is simultaneously interesting, compelling and distressing. Our Consumption being Inconspicuous may have been the best title for her work at the time of publication. However, post 7 months into our US Covid experience the blinders are off for many more of Us. Share her work either in print, audio or conversationally. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Cleaner Air, Cleaner Water for ALL:)

A Humorous and Engaging Look at The Environment

You can’t and shouldn’t look away from the environment and climate change — this book makes the case in an engaging and entertaining way. Entertaining mostly through Tatiana’s conversational and deprecating manner — sometimes directed at herself and other times at me, the listener.
It is a frustrating book. It opens the eyes to many things we didn’t know, others we suspected and reinforces others. There isn’t a ton of actions prescribed — which leads to the frustration. Overall — knowledge is power and what actions are taken is individual.
Make sure to listen all the way to the end. Her acknowledgments are touching.

Interesting, not groundbreaking.

I listened to the author narrate her own book after hearing her interviewed on NPR. If you are interested in the environmental impact of modern life, you've probably heard much of this before, but the author does bring much of it together in one place. You will learn, or review, about the rare earth metals in your cell phone, why the internet and bitcoin mining require so much electricity, and why clothing and "fast fashion" are a bad deal for the Earth. The author does her research and, as JFK's granddaughter, probably had more access to information than many other people.

The author is quite witty, but her humor is largely lost in her monotone delivery.