The Long Emergency

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4878856748297910182

This is an hour long video with James Kunstler on his book "The Long Emergency".

It's an in depth discussion on the subject of our dependence and consumption on fossil fuel. Peak oil. Energy return on energy invested. An extremely important subject revolving around the amount of energy required in order to "get" fuel. How our society will be affected by peak oil, which is here now. And a whole host of things revolving around fossil fuel's effect on American society.




Edit- By the way, I found this while searching for this-

"Essentially what we are faced with is a situation where our politicians and business men have bet all of our chips on the ability to grow and 'technology' our way out of our troubles. As a result what we as a people have been bet on is a house of cards that is held together almost entirely by oil's horsepower. A horsepower which today gives the average North American the equivalent of 300 energy slaves working for them 24/7. As far as bets go smart is not a word that immediately leaps to mind."

From this-

http://www.countercurrents.org/peakoil-berg091104.htm

for people who are forward thinkers.

Thank you for bringing this to the attention of DUers.

I wish more people would pay attention to what you, Kuntsler and others have been saying.

I am really not doing this talk justice. It's very very informative. More like good common sense.

One thing that reinforces my energy perception is his discussion of how alternative energy will not even permit us to live even a fraction of the way we live now, even in a combination of all of it's forms.

There's a hell of a lot in this.

The way peak oil is now about to affect our lives. The way things will begin to fall apart. It's interesting that they all coincide exactly with what I've been saying for years. I guess it's fairly intuitive. Oil will affect trucking, which will affect big box stores and food prices. I think we're just beginning to see this now. As if I even needed to say any of this. I'm sure you know. I just wish everyone knew.

book scares the devil out of you. The last 1/3 helps you plan for the future. Much of what he says you can already see happening. A must read.

Thanks!

I'm bumping my own thread. I don't do that very often.

You should post something about this in GD, Gregorian.

Is there any reason why you couldn't cross-post this (or something like this) there?

If there were a transcript, it might work better. He does have a book out. I could post it that way.

Yeah, this is far more important than anything going on in the entire forum. I know that sounds weird. But there's no doubt it's true.

But what are we going to do about it? I mean that in a pathetic and disparate way. I mean, we can't do anything about it. By virtue of our numbers, and how we've put ourselves in the petroleum corner, we really cannot do a thing. Take someone in the Bronx. There's no dirt. There's no water. So the way I see it, there are a few pockets left in the country that have pasture, flowing water. And even they will have a difficult time. Like I've been saying to myself and others, it's going to look a lot like 1890.

I take nothing for granted. Soap, flour, meat, milk, water. Clothes. Shoes. People say they can actually make that stuff. But you have to find a way to eat and survive while doing it. I'm far from optimistic. However, it may be many years before we hit any wall. It may be that we are able to phase into something like solar. Maybe ween ourselves off of the high volume oil consumption. But the bottom line is smaller, slower, less. And a lot of panic and probably death. What's Chicago going to do when the oil stops.

And the oil may stop suddenly. We are now dependent. But I don't know. I can't predict. My experience is that things do not happen suddenly. I see a slow decline.

...many other books on the same topic.

www.carolynbaker.org is a good resource for information about the coming collapse. For those who can't accept the idea of collapse, it's at least wise for all of us to begin taking the stress off of Mother Earth, and learn to live in heartfelt community once again.

Gone will be the day of everyone going home to a garage door opener and a microwave oven. Some disasters may have redeeming qualities, although I do not wish to make light of the great hardship the end of easy energy will bring.

When I was a babe, my grandmother used an icebox (I saw the iceman come and put a block of ice down in the bottom chamber), a treadle sewing machine, a hand-operated wringer for her wash, a hand-cranked meat grinder, a cast iron, wood-burning stove.

Those were the days. Those may be the days again. The above may be remembered as the Golden Age compared to life back in the future.