we gotta conserve, localize & natural to prevent energy crashing

books:

	• The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the ... Grove Press, 2006 - 336 pages average customer review:based on 216 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A worst-case scenario for the end of the Age of Cheap Energy

James Howard Kunstler (the man whose single use of profanity gave the film The End of Suburbia its R-rating) compellingly outlines his vision of the worst-case scenario that faces humanity as peak oil realities kick in and the Age of Cheap Energy comes to a close. Pessimistic about humanity's ability to maintain the level of civilization that we've come to see as "normal" for the last 60 years or so, Kunstler's book describes the catastrophic changes that will converge in the next 5 to 50 years. Climate change (for the sake of brevity, he avoids the issue of whether this climate change is human-induced), the global peak of oil production and the increased violence over those petroleum supplies that remain, new and more virulent diseases, and economic collapse are just a few of the treats that await us and our children in a near-future world devoid of cheap, easy petroleum energy subsidies.

Perhaps the most powerful conceptual tool that Kunstler introduces is "ERoEI" (something like "Energy Return over Energy Invested"). In other words, it takes a certain amount of energy to extract the energy in a given quantity of oil, natural gas, coal, etc., and so even if supplies of a given substance aren't literally exhausted, they can be more expensive (in energetic as well as monetary terms) than they are worth. This ratio has been diminishing as fossil fuel energy sources have become harder to utilize, whether because of their remote location or because of the technical challenges faced in extraction and production. Not only does this ratio indicate the approach of peak oil, argues Kunstler, but it also helps explain why new alternative energy sources like solar, hydrogen, biomass, etc. cannot be viable solutions. This is so, he argues, because they ultimately depend on their underlying bases in the existing fossil fuel energy system (e.g., for the manufacture of wind turbines and solar cells, the hydrolysis of water to produce hydrogen, etc.) And we shouldn't expect the technoscience cavalry to save our butts in the nick of time either because this paradigm of "miracle solutions through science" is itself an artifact of our century-long oil orgy, according to Kunstler. In short, the future as envisioned by Kunstler is a "clusterf*ck" in which a variety of catastrophes converge and reduce our civilization to something reminiscent of earlier and less forgiving times.

Several things about this book contributed to its relatively low rating, given how much I "enjoyed" reading it. (1) The author occasionally drags in unfortunate stereotypes in order to make his point, such as equating all the world's one billion Muslims with brainwashed jihadis or dismissing critiques of structural racism as the work of the political correctness "gestapo." (2) No matter how much he denies it in his introduction, Kunstler approaches the worst-case scenario he outlines with a subtle sense of Schadenfreude. (Although in the interest of full-disclosure, I must admit that I too occasionally harbor similar "I told you so" sentiments when considering our apparently dismal future as a species.) Given that he is talking about the end of civilization as we know it, this slight sense of giddiness is distressing. (3) The book is characterized by a dearth of citations; though most of the points the author makes are quite powerful, he doesn't direct the reader to his sources, and so corroboration is tough. (4) By far my most salient criticism takes issue with this book's pervasive sense of fatalism. While the picture Kunstler paints is certainly disheartening, its underlying message is that there is nothing we can do to reverse our collective fortunes. Maybe this is true, but, to paraphrase Noam Chomsky, hope is only gone when we give up hope. The sense of hopelessness that permeates this book is its greatest weakness.

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we gotta conserve, localize & natural to prevent energy crashing

THE LONG EMERGENCY - James H Kunstler Grove Pr `05

Kunstler is raving genius analyzing our energy resource supplies, demands & problems. His sociology of our consuming addictions of eternal supplies is darkly funny & inspires 'powering down' to local cooperative living, even off the power-grid. His analysis of energy: oil, coal, gas & alternative energy industries is so deep, its shocking how trusting & ignorant we've been & are to real causes & effects at home & business. Blindly pigging our polluting habits, racing to crash in full denial of consequences of our consuming beliefs in newage religion of big science techno miracles. He writes perfectly deepening Gore's ravings about climate crisis trend problems. The Abbot & Costello of Weather & Energy trends of our empire energy sucking industries, till the shortages & blackout cause local spasms & desperate seeking help, like in New Orleans?
I do Permaculture - organic homesteading on land growing healthy food balancing fertility with weather cycle in our bioregion. Jimmy misses Permaculture, solar wind storm peaking cylces & Gaia ecology of whole earth cycling to rebalance all energies supporting organic life here. Until we kill ourselves with pollution, drugs & war. I pray Jimmy & Al raise awareness of US seeking ecological solutions to our Suburban mess of factory junk & toxic waste inro RECYCLING micheal sunanda Oness press

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This book will slap you in the face and wake you up.

Before buying this book, which a friend of mine recommended, I came to Amazon to check out the reviews. From reading the reviews, I went back to my friend and said, "I don't know, everyone is saying how exaggerated it is, and how he is biased against suburbia," and things like that. So, I wasn't too hot on buying it. So my friend said, "Read the effing book!" As you can tell, he was very determined to have me read the book. After reading this book I e-mailed a big thank you to my friend for making me read it. This book will open your eyes and wake you up. It has changed my world view, and I am very serious about that. Everyone should read this book to find out how bad things really are. As if things can be any worse? They can, and they will be. Take oil out of the U.S. equation and everything stops. And that day is coming.

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The one book every American must read.

This book is the holy grail of humanity. If you don't read this book, you will live in denial. Read my review of "Powerdown" on the end of the fossil fuel age, then read this book. The last chapter will fill you with the despair that comes from seeing the truth about what we have done, and how our children will be unable to pay for it.

Unless you can think in terms of "geological time", you might remain in denial. If you are one of the rare people who can, you will come to realize that the only thing you can do is to enjoy a responsible lifestyle during you lifetime, because this is the last generation. Our children and grandchildren will pay the bill for the fossil fuel orgy in the form of famine, plague, and the collapse of the civilized world, or what we call humanity. This is a truly great book, the truth really hurts.

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After the Collapse

I must admit upfront that, like the author, I too come from upstate New York, that being anything North of West Point. This part of the the Empire State is commonly referred to these days as the New York Appalacia, or the Goulags. It has been economicially dead, thriving only upon the seasonal visits from vacationers, tourists, and the Montreal - New York asphalt pipeline known as the Northway. Anyways, if you have read "Collapse" and paid attention to Mr. Gore's "An Inconvient Truth", then you might think that we are facing a catastrophic event now that we have passed the peak production of carbon fuels. The connection here is that prior great civilizations have all disappeared because of their overexploitation and eventual depletion of key natural resources that formed the underpinning of their civilization. In our generation, that underpinning resource has been oil, coal and natural gas. I have used the past tense here, because of the past peak lens that the author applies to his thesis.
From my standpoint, the solution must be the creation of more Indian casinos, because there are strong parallels between the government's ineptitude in dealing constructively with societies that suffer from natural resource deprivations. A decade ago, the government decided that the best economic/social/political solution to decades of failed Native American Indian economic developent policies was to approve the Indian Gaming Act, permitting the Tribes and the States to tap out 15% of the local domestic economy, which is shared between the Tribes and the States according to a Tribal-State Gaming Compact. The Casino Solution recognized that marginalized people without access to abundant natural resources can survive by endorsing their right to generate funds through gambling. Nicely called "Indian Gaming", Casinos provide entertainment, food, social interaction, and a chance to get rich quick. Of course, there is a social and cultural price to be paid, but what the heck, if every town across this great land can sacrifice their inner economic center for a Walmart, Target, Home Depot, or strip mall in the 'burbs, why not give them a chance to gamble away their future, as well. The States themselves have done so through State-run lotteries, so it must be good. New York, as an example, approved the construction of six Tribal casinos in response to the economic devastation the author explains so well in both the east (the Catskills) and the west (Buffalo). So, facing declining supplies of energy resources combined with global warming and its associated disasters, the government's central planners must be thinking about the fruits borne in Indian Country through the Great Indian Gaming Experiment. Who knows, it's a model that just may work to soothe the fury of the masses when the lights finally dim.

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reviews: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, page 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20

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