The Compelling Tangle of Energy and American Society
Benjamin K Sovacool and Marilyn A. Brown
Simple in Means, Rich in Ends: An Interview with Arne Naess
Stephan Bodian
By:
Sarah White &
Amanda Myers
• What do you see as the basic commodities of life?
• “Energy is, according to Nobel Prize winning economist E.F.
Schamacher “not just another commodity , but the precondition
of all commodities a basic factor equal with air, water, and earth”
• Do you agree with the author that energy is equal to air, earth, and
water?
• “Levi-Strauss emphasizes, is not whether myths exist---they do, regardless of how
much a culture has progressed---but what such myths reveal about society.”
• Energy and American Society: Thirteen Myths , edited by Benjamin K.
Sovacool and Marilyn A. Brown. The book discusses thirteen propositions
concerning American culture, energy, the environment, and society
▫ Myth One – Today’s Energy Crisis is “Hype”
▫ Myth Two – The Public is Well Informed About Energy
▫ Myth Nine – Energy Efficiency Improvements have Already Reached their
Potential
▫ Myth Twelve – Climate Policy will Bankrupt the U.S. Economy
▫ Myth Thirteen – Developing Countries are not Doing their Part in Responding to
Concerns about Climate Change
• What do the aforementioned myths say about out society?
• When you hear the word
Technology, what comes to mind?
• “Consequently, in today’s culture
most people conceive of
technology only as the latest high
tech items, such as new and
rapidly emerging technologies
and systems. Inventions of far
larger historical significancepottery, paper, electricity-no
longer “count” as technology….”
• Where would modern society be
if not for inventions of
yesteryear?
• Arne Naess said, “ I never have had the feeling that
nature is something to be dominant or conquered; it
is something with which we coexist.”
• Do you think that in today’s society we necessarily
have to coexist with nature?
• Do you think access to nature is a basic human need
in today’s society?
• “I think that, one hundred and fifty years ago, in
government decision making in America and Europe , more
information was available in proportion to the amount
needed than is available today. Today, we are using
thousands of new chemicals, and we don’t know their
combined long-range effect.”
• What do you think Naess is saying in this quote?
• Do you agree or disagree?
Works Cited
• Bodian, Stephan. “Simple in Means, Rich in Ends: An Interview
with
Arne Naess.” Human Experience : Who am I? Ed. Alice Burmeister and
Kathy Lyon. 6th ed. Littleton, MA: Tapestry,
2009
• Sovacool, K. Benjamin, and Marilyn A. Brown. “From the Compelling
Tangle of Energy and American Society.” Human Experience : Who am I?
Ed. Alice Burmeister and Kathy Lyon. 6th ed. Littleton, MA: Tapestry,
2009