Book Review: The Long Emergency
The Long Emergency by James Howard Kunstler, published by Atlantic Monthly Press, 2005. Hardcover, 320 pages. (Amazon)
The latest by the most outspoken critic of suburbia is subtitled "Surviving the converging catastrophes of the twenty-first century", though first and foremost it is about the Peak Oil Crisis, aka the end of cheap oil. Kunstler analyzes the actions of the U.S. government and its people in the last hundred years within the framework of having access to cheap oil. This phenomenon — the extraction, refinement, and synthesis of oil as an efficient energy source — has distanced people from urban cores, helped create a population boom well beyond the planet's carrying capacity, and enabled people to live longer, among many things.
Most importantly, the cheap oil era has made most of the world dependent upon a finite material and who have abandoned traditional ways in favor of technological progress. Kunstler sees no way to avoid the impending crisis, no alternative magic fuels to replace gasoline to run our cars, or natural gas to heat our homes, or uranium to generate electricity. To him, the solution is not replacement (hydrogen for gas, solar cells for natural gas) but relocation (to smaller, denser settlements with localized resources), rebuilding (our economic foundation), basically reverting to a pre-oil condition without the accumulated knowledge that's been lost in the last hundred years.
If we were to extend R. Buckminster Fuller's idea that human being are an experiment on spaceship earth, Kunstler would admit defeat. It's a scary idea that the end of cheap fossil fuels is looming, and reading Kunstler's book is like having that thrown in your face over and over again, for 300 pages. It's not a happy read. Those familiar with the author's dislike of not only suburbia but contemporary architecture may wonder if he yearns for a simpler time, devoid of not only Modernism's problems but also its beauty. Regardless, Kunstler does illuminate the reader to the fact that something must be done, preferably sooner than later.
The latest by the most outspoken critic of suburbia is subtitled "Surviving the converging catastrophes of the twenty-first century", though first and foremost it is about the Peak Oil Crisis, aka the end of cheap oil. Kunstler analyzes the actions of the U.S. government and its people in the last hundred years within the framework of having access to cheap oil. This phenomenon — the extraction, refinement, and synthesis of oil as an efficient energy source — has distanced people from urban cores, helped create a population boom well beyond the planet's carrying capacity, and enabled people to live longer, among many things.
Most importantly, the cheap oil era has made most of the world dependent upon a finite material and who have abandoned traditional ways in favor of technological progress. Kunstler sees no way to avoid the impending crisis, no alternative magic fuels to replace gasoline to run our cars, or natural gas to heat our homes, or uranium to generate electricity. To him, the solution is not replacement (hydrogen for gas, solar cells for natural gas) but relocation (to smaller, denser settlements with localized resources), rebuilding (our economic foundation), basically reverting to a pre-oil condition without the accumulated knowledge that's been lost in the last hundred years.
If we were to extend R. Buckminster Fuller's idea that human being are an experiment on spaceship earth, Kunstler would admit defeat. It's a scary idea that the end of cheap fossil fuels is looming, and reading Kunstler's book is like having that thrown in your face over and over again, for 300 pages. It's not a happy read. Those familiar with the author's dislike of not only suburbia but contemporary architecture may wonder if he yearns for a simpler time, devoid of not only Modernism's problems but also its beauty. Regardless, Kunstler does illuminate the reader to the fact that something must be done, preferably sooner than later.
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