has anybody read "the long emergency"

[zonmoy]

by james howard kunstler? if so what did you think of what it says about peak oil and our future.

[Nordmadr]

1. No, but I have read Powerdown and The Party's Over both by

Richard Heinberg. If the Long Emergency is like either of those it pretty much says were pretty much fucked. The only chance we've got for maintaining society is by adapting to much lower energy consumption and fairly localized communities.

The seven recommendations listed in his book Powerdown
(pages 94-95, directly quoted, he is quoting from the Club of Rome published "The Limits to Growth (1972 )) Do a search on that, highly interesting.

1. Stabilize the human population (which, in 1970, stood at about 3.6 billion).

2. Increase efficiency, so that "resource consumption per unit of industrial output is reduced to one-fourth of its 1970 value."

3. Shift economies from production of goods to provision of services.

4. Reduce pollution "per unit of industrial and agricultural output" to one-fourth its 1970 value.

5. Divert capital to food production so that the entire population is fed.

6. Shift agriculture to a sustainable model (e.g., using compost as opposed to chemical fertilizers) to avoid soil depletion.

7. Improve the design of industrial goods to maximize durability and repairability.





The Club of Rome was laughed at. Not so funny anymore. They have done two updates to their study since then.
" Beyond the Limits" (1992)
"The Limits to Growth: The 30 Year Update" (2004)

Their most recent report pretty much says we blew it already and it won't be very much fun around here soon; only they say it much more scholarly like :)


Olafr

[hadrons]

2. I just finished Kunstler's "The Geography of Nowhere" last week ....

it was incredible ("A People's History of the U.S." and "Fast-Food Nation" good); it was so good I was thinking of starting a thread on it ... I plan on reading Long Emergency, but I Kunstler's views are a lot like Heinberg's (I do believe Kunstler believes that grabbing the Iraqi oilfields was a good thing)

Rent or buy The End of Surburbia, both Kunstler and Heinberg (and others) are interviewed

[pstans]

5. Geography of Nowhere is a fantastic book

I read it in a Urban Geography class in college about 5 years ago. I learned about history of suburbs and what he said about the way we live made a whole lot of sense. I have also read "Home From Nowhere", which is a more technical version of "Geograhpy of Nowhere". I highly recommend those 2 books.

I was excited to read "The Long Emergency" since I liked Kunstler's other 2 books, but after reading it I was a little disapointed. It was more a rant than a guide like his other 2 books. If you want to learn more about Peak Oil, I'd look for another book. If you already know some about Peak Oil and want to know one person's opinions about the world then read "The Long Emergency".

If you liked Geography of Nowhere, check out "The Rise of the Creative Class" by Richard Florida. A very interesting book. To quote the website: "Richard Florida's "The Rise of the Creative Class" examines creativity and its effects on economic development." http://www.creativeclass.org

[CrispyQ]

3. It was the July Book Club title.

Here's the link.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=209&topic_id=2057

[bikebloke]

4. Started it, but...

He lost me when he said the US had to go into Iraq to make sure they didn't have weapons of mass destruction.