Green Illusions

Outline

Green Illusions (2012) challenges the popular belief that solar panels, wind turbines, biofuels, and electric cars alone can solve our environmental problems. Ozzie Zehner shows the hidden costs and limits of these technologies and argues that reducing consumption, better city design, and wiser choices matter more than simply producing more clean energy. The book offers a thought-provoking look at what real sustainability requires.

• Solar panels, wind turbines, biofuels and electric cars on their own cannot solve our environmental problems.
• Green technologies carry hidden costs and limits that popular enthusiasm tends to overlook.
• Reducing consumption matters more than simply producing more clean energy.
• Better city design is a stronger lever for sustainability than adding new gadgets.
• Real sustainability requires wiser everyday choices, not just cleaner ways to power the same habits.

Ozzie Zehner is an American author, engineer, and researcher whose work focuses on energy, the environment, and technology. He has been a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley. He is best known for Green Illusions, which questions common assumptions about clean energy, and for his work on the documentary Planet of the Humans.