Author Amanda Little

As a journalist, Amanda Little had written about sustainability issues for years. But she had never really considered the role fossil fuels and energy played in her own life or how truly ever-present they were until she moved from New York to Nashville.

“I had all of these things that are synonymous with being an American: owning a car, owning a home, commuting to an office space,” Little explains. “All of these things I had not really experienced living in New York. I had spent the better part of a decade reporting on energy and environmental politics and policy but had never taken a look at the role of energy in my own life.”

But as a more energy-intensive way of living took hold, she decided to take a look around.

“There was literally nothing, my body included, that was not there because of fossil fuels,” she says. “It is so implicated into every aspect of our lives, and I had this sudden realization that energy was much more vast than what I had been reporting on. I had been arguing for years that fossil fuels were bad, that they were responsible for all these problems. But I had never really figured out why fossil fuels were good and why they were versatile and why they were so useful.”

 

After Little took two years researching from what she calls the extreme frontiers of America’s energy landscape, her book, Power Trip: The Story of America’s Love Affair With Energy, was published in 2009. From oil rigs and the Pentagon to the inside of a plastic surgeon’s operating room, Little traveled the country to understand our use of fossil fuels.

“What I discovered is that we use double the amount of oil per day, per person than the people of Western Europe,” she says. “Our appetite for oil so far surpasses our allies and competitors that we really have what I call a severe energy obesity crisis. We are consuming so lavishly and inefficiently we have to figure out why and how we got to this point and how we are going to get out of it.

“It was really American ingenuity that got us here. We were very good at innovating lots of different machines and use gadgets that use energy. And it is that same ingenuity that is going to get us out of it.”

Little is one of the speakers at the upcoming third annual TEDxNahville, a conference that brings together leaders in technology, entertainment, design, science, art, education, government, public policy, healthcare and other areas who share their thoughts and ideas focused on creating positive changes in our society.

TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is a nonprofit organization that started as a four-day conference in California 25 years ago. Other speakers are renowned producer and philanthropist Dave Stewart, part of the music group Eurythmics, and Craig Havighurst, an author, broadcaster and filmmaker.

“Energy is the most fascinating story of our time and the gravest challenge we face, but also the most exciting opportunity,” Little says. “I really believe energy is going to be the biggest job creation engine of this century, and reinventing all of the things that use energy to be more efficient is going to drive job creation.

“We have to look beyond partisan politics to see that this is something that can energize the economy.”