...the physical things we interact with every day and lots of our daily activities don't exist in a vacuum...
-- Tatiana Schlossberg (Introduction)

Importance: In her introduction, Schlossberg establishes this concept as the thesis statement for her text. In each section that follows she uses familiar physical objects and activities as a means of exploring the individual's impact on climate change and environmental decay. By tracing each fixture of contemporary life back to the earth, she allows her reader to understand her distinct contribution to gradual climatic shifts.

Conceiving of the physical existence of the Internet helps us to understand how it works as a system, and the different kinds of resources it requires—primarily, energy and land.
-- Tatiana Schlossberg (The Physical Internet)

Importance: In this passage, Schlossberg reminds her reader that everything she uses, even the seemingly invisible networks that comprise the Internet, begin with and constantly draw from the earth's resources. Information, constantly accessible, and seemingly innocuous, play a...