After the Oil is Gone

[katty]

more at:
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/051605_world_stories.shtml#0

After the oil is gone

By Katharine Mieszkowski
www.salon.com
May 14, 2005
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/05/14/kunstler/index.html

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

Say goodbye to your suburban house, yoke up that horse, and stand by to repel pirates! Author James Howard Kunstler talks about the dire world of his new book, "The Long Emergency."

Suburbs will collapse into slums. Farmhand will be a more viable career choice than public relations executive. And avoiding starvation will replace avoiding boredom as the national pastime.

Those are just a few of the predictions that James Howard Kunstler makes in his new book. "The Long Emergency" paints a dystopic view of the United States in the wake of what Kunstler dubs the "cheap oil fiesta." It's a future the author insists is not apocalyptic. Calling it the end of the world be too easy.

No, Kunstler believes the human race will survive as we slip down the other side of Hubbert's Oil Peak. But the high standard of living we've built by gorging on cheap oil will not. America, as a political entity, will be history too.

When will the doom begin? It already has. "There have been no significant discoveries of new oil since 2002," Kunstler says. And the Saudis have screwed up their super-giant Ghawar oil field, long a fossil-fuel font for the U.S. "They have damaged it by pumping enormous amounts of salt water into it; in fact, the field itself may be entering depletion," he says.

A former journalist turned novelist turned social critic, Kunstler is best known for his book excoriating the suburbs, "Geography of Nowhere." Now he foresees the end of the entire artifice of American life, from the suburbs to the interstate highway to Wal-Mart and the global supply chain that supports it.

more at: http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/051605_world_stories.shtml#0

[NAO]

1. sooner tan you think...yesterday I saw a stretch limo Hummer

[ozymandius]

4. Those things have a bad habit of blowing out tires.

Seriously.

[cliss]

2. Yes. I believe it.

Thanks for posting, Katty. I read this very same article last week on Stangoff.com. I was pretty shocked about what Kunstler had to say. I'm sure lots of people shake their heads in amazement and believe this will never happen.

But if you think about how this administration has behaved; how we marched into Iraq under false pretenses (world's #2 supply of oil), how we're picking fights with Iran (some reports say #1 supply of oil), how we're being very belligerent and hostile toward Hugo Chavez (in the world Top Ten supply of oil).....

and it all makes sense.

After my wanderings took me to fromthewilderness.com, my questions were answered.

[kliljedahl]

3. In conjunction with that

I recommend the video "The End of Suburbia" which makes many of the same points. In fact, most of the exact same points. For the many of the "Reading Impaired" (I'm afraid that's about 95% of the US) showing this video is a much more effective way of getting the message out. Of course, you'll be so Damn depressed afterwards...


Keith’s Barbeque Central

[Chicago Democrat]

5. This article caused a huge argument ..Who else is worried?

For the argument this article caused me last night see this thread....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x3267587


I still flipping about this article.

I mean, who would bring children into a world with such a future? It puts into question ALL INVESTMENTS, the value of land...etc...

I mean MASS Starvation and DISLOCATION and FAMINE and CIVIL WAR is all I can see!!!