The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes...

The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the ... | Read this book if you care about the future

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The Long Emergency...

	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 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.

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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.

Sleepwalking into the Future

The Long Emergency is written with the pretense that humans will not develop alternative forms of energy for a long time. According to Kunstler, "new fuels and technologies may never replace fossil fuels at the scale, rate, and manner at which the world currently consumes them." Later Kunstler writes, "The wish to keep running the same giant systems at gigantic scale using renewables is the heart of our illusions about solar, wind and water power."

We don't have to agree with Kunstler. Certainly, if we do agree this becomes a dark, grim scenario which he describes for us in thoughtful detail over 324 pages. Kunstler is a practical thinker that makes his speculation interesting. A sensible and realistic approach is applied to knock down one alternative energy source after another. The limitations brought onto civilization from reduced energy are then accounted for on subject after subject, such as climate, transportation, urban design, health care and agriculture.

In my humble opinion, I feel that Kunstler underestimates human innovation. He could turn out to be correct in his direction regardless. The next President, whomever that unfortunate President might be, will have to impose corrections that will make him/her very unpopular. Conservation and government programs to solve energy shortages will enable the mainstream media to anger the populace. The media is filled with bias and yellow journalistic exaggeration for political gain. We can build whatever we need technologically, but politics will do its tricks to stop us.

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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.

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