James Howard Kunstler's "The Long Emergency" is coming true, but faster.

It's amazing, and frightening, how rapidly the predictions of many of the Peak Oil community are coming true.

Kunstler has become one of the foremost writers on Peak Oil, and in his latest book he forecasts a bleak future brought on by three main crises: the end of cheap oil with no ready substitute, climate change, and the current state of the U.S. economy. One point he makes is that there are far too many small arms in the world that will cause havoc as society breaks down. The future he foresees is already being foreshadowed not only in New Orleans but on gas lines around the country. The problems of peak oil and climate change will be exacerbated by the government lacking the funds to provide basic services (thanks for the tax cuts, bush).

Kunstler is a sharp-tongued, highly provocative and entertaining writer. I was in the middle of his "The Geography of Nowhere" from 1993 when the hurricane hit. Already I regard it as one of the best books I have ever read, even better than The Long Emergency. The book describes the history of the development of America--how our current cities, suburbs, and towns came to be structured as they are today. He rightly sees our car culture as a tremendously destructive force that has ruined our communities (or rather, left many of us with no community).

Kunstler writes a blog called "Clusterfuck Nation" that's on his website that he updates every Sunday night. It's a very caustic running commentary on the state of our nation. Be forewarned: Kunstler is not a by-the-books progressive. While overall he can be considered a liberal, there are a number of issues in which his position is not that of the majority of DU. To me, this adds to his appeal. He's a smart guy who gets me to see things from a different perspective.

His website: http://kunstler.com/

The Long Emergency: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=2V183wx9KL&isbn=0871138883&itm=1

The Geography of Nowhere: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=2V183wx9KL&isbn=0671888250&itm=2

to hike oil prices. They miss the underlying fundamentals, and the natural consequences of those fundamentals, especially when viewed through the lens of history.

I've been thinking about how the New Orleans situation is a mini-preview of the die-off so many are expecting in the years and decades ahead, and the way that the wealthy will be in a better position to survive, while the poor will be abandoned to anarchy.

send us on a rapid descent. I have discussed with my two sons (ages 15 and 12) the concept of peak oil, and what this might mean for the coming decades. I also talked about the idea of a die-off (my younger son was cracking up when I showed him there's a website called dieoff.com).

My kids are seeing what's happening this week from a much different perspective and deeper understanding than their friends are. They're still kids, spending most of their time having fun, but I think they're a lot better off knowing what might happen in the future so they won't get freaked out about it if it does.

immediately ahead.

a totally disorganized collection of advertisements for himself, with no way -- at least no way I could find -- to access his blog. As an editor, I have no patience whatsoever for such presentation, and in fact suspect it is deliberately chaotic to force people to read it in detail. Knowing the technique -- it's an old marketer's trick -- it immediately killed my interest and very soon thereafter frustrated me to the point I closed the link: forever.