Book Review of Owen's The Conundrum

Book Review of Owen's The Conundrum

Introduction

The world has advanced in the field of technology and has, in fact, stepped into the space. Now every person enjoys having a car at their disposal and all the advanced machinery for their comfort and ease. However, with the progression in technology, there comes a weighty responsibility for using them efficiently and not to waste the energy resources. Therefore, people are asked to use technology when it is incumbent so that the ever decreasing energy resources could be controlled. However, not many people are aware of such implications and resumes with their destructive habits. On the other hand, people are coming up with creative ideas to utilize substitute sources to fulfill the soaring energy demands of the population. Moreover, the masses are encouraged to adopt natural energy resources, for instance, the sun or the wind energy for the production of electricity. Contrary to such practices, David Owen comes with an entirely approach in his book, The Conundrum, towards the present energy crises and the environmental issues.

Discussion

In the book, Owen has discussed in detail his subjective view on the environmental issues prevalent in the world through a story telling approach and has proposed solutions towards the end. The book discusses how the planet is getting polluted day by day with the progress in science and technology. To curb the expenditure of energy, technology has introduced energy efficient systems, but according to the author, they are not enough. Likewise, the author has questioned the beliefs of ecocentric individuals of their practices for their strategies of saving energies and adopting techniques for contributing a change towards the betterment of the environment and highlighted the logical errors people commit. Towards the end, Owen has proposed a number of solutions to these problems which are unique in its nature and at times seem impractical.

His proposal for increasing rates of the fuels to minimize the travelling expenditure seems a suitable solution. In the present situation, it can be the only way to discourage travelling for trivial purposes. For example, Owen proposes that, with the exception of emergency, one should not use one's conveyance for going to the office or visit some other place. Instead, take public transport or carpool with others, so that one could save some fuel. However, now everyone owns a car and travel to places whenever they like. They are easy ...