Getting green done summary essay

I was born and raised in Aspen, Colorado so this book was a very interesting read for me. It was a definite page-turner and I could easily bust out 100 pages without having to look at the clock. I recognized all of the local spots around town he mentioned and made the message hit harder than it would have if I hadn’t known Aspen so well. It is amazing to think about how serious this climate change problem and how quickly it could reach critical mass. To think of the ski mountains I was raised on being obsolete by the time I reach my dad’s age is unbelievable. What really hit me is that Auden believes being “ eco-friendly” on the individual level will barely do anything at all to combat this problem.

We need to look at the bigger picture to start fighting this climate change battle. On that note, I really enjoyed his real life examples about how tough it is to actually get corporations and businesses to go green. Even with a substantial ROI from his proposed solutions, managers and owners were unwilling to make a change because of their fear of damaging the company’s image or spending capital that could be used in other places. I always thought a significant amount of savings paired with cutting down GHG emissions would always be an acceptable solution to anyone. The one thing he got me to think about that I hadn’t before is the excessive amount of energy that Aspen uses.

I never put it together that those second houses may have lights on a timer to scare away potential robbers or that they were heated to 75 degrees or so when no one was even there. Those facts paired with the amount of private and commercial planes that fly into the Aspen Airport equal a preposterous amount of energy that could be used in so many different and useful ways. He seems like a very smart guy and I am very happy to learn he is a part of my community. I really enjoyed reading his book and look forward to seeing him in class on Thursday.