Structure

The author divides Inconspicuous Consumption into four overarching sections, “Technology and the Internet,” “Food,” “Fashion,” and “Fuel,” each of which contains a series of smaller subsections. These divisions are bookended by an introduction and conclusion. By dividing the complex and overwhelming dynamics which for generations have and continue to wear on the environment and pollute the air, water, and atmosphere, Schlossberg brings climate change from the global to the individual.

Within each section she works to demystify the opaque inner-workings of technology, agriculture, transportation, and power industries which shape her reader's contemporary life and world. Schlossberg begins the text, in her introduction, by acknowledging how sudden and catastrophic environmental degradation often feels; by dividing the text into palatable portions thereafter, she grants her reader a sense of agency and control, allowing her to question and discover along with her.

Because the climate crisis is often discussed by...