Thus they have reasons for expressing optimism for the energy future as well. Schipper looks at different energy usages required by different lifestyles, and the possibility of fitting the two together more efficiently in the future than at present. He notes that some measures of usage and efficiency are much more readily available than others and thus that there are a great many unpredictable variables involved in lifestyle changes and choices. While fundamentally optimistic, his article seems to reveal more clearly areas of ignorance and hence uncertainty than do some of the others in this volume. Wernick, et al.
Objects still confer status, and they take their revenge.
Once upon a time, being fat was good. It meant you were rich. Now it means you are poor. Only rich people have time to be scrawny beanpoles, living forever instead of decently dying of a heart attack from overeating red meat. Surely, in a world were everyone can have everything, having nothing will be prestigious, and having everything be properly seen as thoughtless and greedy.