Read this book if you care about the future

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 213 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

A Pessimist is Rarely Disappointed

Before reading "The Long Emergency," I had only a vague notion of the implications of Peak Oil. Thanks to Mr. Kuntzler, I now realize exactly how dangerous the situation is. Do I necessarily believe that things are going to play out exactly as he describes? Of course not. Speculative writing is always just that, an educated guess. What I am certain of as a result of reading this book is that some variation of the future it outlines is going to play out.

What was most eye-opening was the discussion of so-called alternative fuels. Most people seem to believe that the free market will take care of itself by developing replacements for oil, coal and natural gas with little disruption to our way of life. Kuntzler painstakingly demonstrates why this is a dangerous fantasy. For that alone, the book is worth reading.

One word for those who say Kuntzler is too much of a pessimist. His vision of the future is actually more positive than that of some Peak Oil theorists who believe that it will be a (human) extinction event. Kuntzler believes the world's population will merely return to pre-industrial levels (about one billion), and that this will eventually mean a return to locally based economies. Admittedly this shows a bit of a hippie mentality on his part, but it in no way detracts from his overall message.

for more information click here

Read this book if you care about the future

"The times they are a changing" is indeed the theme of this book. And if you truely are concerned about our little island home called plant earth, I would suggest reading this book and acting now. Life as we know it will indeed change for human kind, so please become aware of this now. The Long Emergency will start this process.

for more information click here

A peak oil salesman....

Rather than immediately address the positives of this utterly gut-wrenching glimpse into the abyss that is the future of mankind, let me begin by pointing out the imperfections that resulted in less than a five-star sweep.

While Kunstler is talented and articulate, there is nobody who is quite as convinced of that great talent than, well, Kunstler himself. His tone his preachy, his dimissal of contrarian views condescending, and his prejudices against people from afar both baseless and stupid. For example, he views Southerners with a simplistic hatred that is as appalling as it is inaccurate. Didn't you know that all Southerners are straight out of Deliverance, the awful product of bad corn liquor and unbiblical sex? Just ask Herr Kuntsler.

These flaws are unfortunate, because they are a distraction from the central and all-important theme of the book: We, as a species, are about to go down the poop chute courtesy of oil depletion. Mad Max got it right. Who knew?

And in making the case for this conclusion, Kuntsler generally shines. Following his logic and research, we are left with the conclusion that in the next quarter century or so, between you and your five closest friends, only one of you will survive the coming die-off caused by an energy deprived future.

Wow. Head drag. Just when I was getting good at parallel parking, cars are going to become static sculpture across the ruined landscape of a destroyed world. Every element of modern civilization, propped up on the shaky pillars of cheap oil, is about to come crashing down. Essentially overnight, we will be forced to revert to a hunter-gatherer mode of life, with the inconvenient realization that we no longer possess any hunter-gatherer skills. In that sense, there is a little good news: both global warming and obesity become self-correcting problems.

I walked away fairly convinced that Kunstler had illuminated a problem of enormous magnitude. Instead of wasting more than a few pages spewing his vitriol against things he detests (suburbs, the Bush family, Southerners, suburbs again) he might have better spent his time telling us how to increase our individual chances of survival. (Solar-powered iPods, anyone?) On this rather important subject he was strangely tight-lipped.

Anyway, buy the book. If you're like me, you'll agree that it is an important read. And even if you don't like it, you can always burn it for fuel in a few years.

for more information click here

Deja vu chicken little

All us hippies from the 60's can feel validated somehow, even while we suffer along with everyone else, or worse, because we are old, we can at least say I told you so. The sky is falling, as I have been saying for the last 30 years.

reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, page 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14

hot

not?

What's your opinion?

Write a review and share your thoughts!

recommendations

Social Critiques and the Collapse of Societies
Promoting awareness through the written word
On Oil Addiction and Energy Independence
the end of oil: yikes!
Energy for the Future

search for books
surviving the, catastrophes, century, climate, converging, emergency, surviving, twenty-first

Impressum / about us