wow... if you're interested in peak oil issues...

mike_c

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Thu Aug-12-04 10:01 PM
Original message

wow... if you're interested in peak oil issues...

...and haven't run across Jim Kunstler's writings yet, you should. He's a conservative with a functioning brain-- not just smart, but thoughtful- and thought provoking.

http://www.kunstler.com/

Here's a sample:

http://www.kunstler.com/mags_diaryplus.html

I get e-mail from people who object to what they construe to be an excessively pessimistic view of our national scene. Well, what if you suggested to the people of Germany in 1936 that Dresden would be turned into an ashtry within a decade and that Berliners would cut down all the trees in the Tiergarten to heat their homes?

<snip>

The overriding imperative task for us in the face of the problems ahead will be the downscaling of virtually all activities in America. This should not be misunderstood. I do not mean that we ought to become any less of a nation, or less of a democracy, only that the scale at which we conduct the work of American life will have to be adjusted to fit the requirements of a post-globalist, post-cheap-oil age. The future is already telling us very clearly what must be done. If we fail to pay attention, we risk very costly distraction in political turmoil, military mischief, civil disturbance, and permanent economic loss.

<snip>

America made the unfortunate choice (by inattention, really) of allowing nearly all of its retail trade to be consolidated by a very few huge national operations, the Wal-Marts and other gigantic discounters. Many Americans viewed this as a bonanza of bargain shopping without noticing the significant losses and costs entailed to their communities, and to the long-term health of their nation's economy. I have described the extreme vulnerability of the giant national retail operations to the vicissitudes ahead: disrupted oil markets, far-flung supply chains, and so forth. When these behemoths go down - and they will go down hard and fast - everyday retail trade will have to be reorganized in America. This is a tremendous task.

<more>

Here's another:

http://www.kunstler.com/mags_diary11.html

Since our economy at any given moment consists of sixty million people driving to Walmart to buy stuff made by people 12,000 miles away, on credit (that is, the expectation that they will have money in the future) the markets have reason to worry. Not since the days of the late Roman empire has there been a national economy based so little on true economic exchange of real value. They had the coliseum. We have Las Vegas and reality television.
The national media sure haven't registered what's going on vis-a-vis the global oil predicament and its connection with our vaunted way of life. The New York Times opinion writers, for instance, were too busy yesterday inveighing against Kobe Bryant's defense team. America's free press is free to snooze. The lead story in today's Times Business Page: "Young Men Are Back Watching TV. But Did They Ever Leave?"
Nothing John Kerry or George Bush did or said yesterday -- with less than 100 days to the election -- registered on either the front page of the Times or CNN's home page. They might start thinking about how Americans are going to feed themselves when the Archer Daniels Midland model of oil-based industrial corn production stops working.

<more>

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GHOSTDANCER

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Thu Aug-12-04 10:03 PM
Response to Original message

1. more here.....

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JanMichael

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Thu Aug-12-04 10:07 PM
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2. I didn't check out the site but the quotes were on track.

Our entire society will require restructuring withing the next 15-50 years. The whole thing, top down to bottom up.

Hopefully the downsizing will lead to some evolutionary economic considerations. Like the idea of a Participatory Economy or ParEcon for short.

I don't see much steam left in hierarchies after the black gold, texas tea, is kaput.

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0rion

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Thu Aug-12-04 10:08 PM
Response to Reply #2

3. +1

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JanMichael

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Fri Aug-13-04 06:50 AM
Response to Reply #3

5. +2?

You got me.

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TreasonousBastard

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Thu Aug-12-04 10:41 PM
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4. I love this guy's rants...

even though I agree with maybe half of them.

The architecture rants are special fun.

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Eurobabe

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Fri Aug-13-04 07:19 AM
Response to Original message

6. Kunstler is a really thought-provoking writer

some think he rants, he does, but he's right in many ways. We read several of his books in my architecture grad courses (in sections on urban planning) Check out 'Geography of Nowhere.' Lack of planning, overbuilding is a much larger piece of the puzzle than people realize.

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