The long emergency : surviving the end of oil, climate change, and the other converging catastrophes of the twenty-first century

A controversial hit that sparked debate among businessmen, environmentalists, and bloggers, The Long Emergency by James Howard Kunstler is an eye-opening look at the unprecedented challenges we face in the years ahead, as oil runs out and the global systems built on it are forced to change radically.;Cover Page; Title Page; Copyright Page; Dedication; Contents; 1. Sleepwalking into The Future; 2. Modernity and The Fossil Fuels Dilemma; 3. Geopolitics and The Global Oil Peak; 4. Beyond Oil: Why Alternative Fuels Won't Rescue Us; 5. Nature Bites Back: Climate Change, Epidemic Disease, Water Scarcity, Habitat Destruction, and The Dark Side of The Industrial Age; 6. Running on Fumes: The Hallucinated Economy; 7. Living in the Long Emergency; Epilogue; Afterword; Footnote; ch01\_fn01; ch01\_fn02; ch01\_fn03; ch01\_fn04; ch01\_fn05; ch01\_fn06; ch02\_fn01; ch02\_fn02; ch02\_fn03; ch02\_fn04; ch02\_fn05

A controversial hit that sparked debate among businessmen, environmentalists, and bloggers, The Long Emergency by James Howard Kunstler is an eye-opening look at the unprecedented challenges we face in the years ahead, as oil runs out and the global systems built on it are forced to change radically.

Publishers Weekly

The indictment of suburbia and the car culture that the author presented in The Geography of Nowhere turns apocalyptic in this vigorous, if overwrought, jeremiad. Kunstler notes signs that global oil production has peaked and will soon dwindle, and argues in an eye-opening, although not entirely convincing, analysis that alternative energy sources cannot fill the gap, especially in transportation. The result will be a Dark Age in which "the center does not hold" and "all bets are off about civilization's future." Absent cheap oil, auto-dependent suburbs and big cities will collapse, along with industry and mechanized agriculture; serfdom and horse-drawn carts will stage a comeback; hunger will cause massive "die-back"; otherwise "impotent" governments will engineer "designer viruses" to cull the surplus population; and Asian pirates will plunder California. Kunstler takes a grim satisfaction in this prospect, which promises to settle his many grudges against modernity. A "dazed and crippled America," he hopes, will regroup around walkable, human-scale towns; organic local economies of small farmers and tradesmen will replace an alienating corporate globalism; strong bonds of social solidarity will be reforged; and our heedless, childish culture of consumerism will be forced to grow up. Kunstler's critique of contemporary society is caustic and scintillating as usual, but his prognostications strain credibility. (May) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Cover Page Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Contents 1. Sleepwalking into The Future 2. Modernity and The Fossil Fuels Dilemma 3. Geopolitics and The Global Oil Peak 4. Beyond Oil: Why Alternative Fuels Won't Rescue Us 5. Nature Bites Back: Climate Change, Epidemic Disease, Water Scarcity, Habitat Destruction, and The Dark Side of The Industrial Age 6. Running on Fumes: The Hallucinated Economy 7. Living in the Long Emergency Epilogue Afterword Footnote ch01_fn01 ch01_fn02 ch01_fn03 ch01_fn04 ch01_fn05 ch01_fn06 ch02_fn01 ch02_fn02 ch02_fn03 ch02_fn04 ch02_fn05 Ch02_fn06ch02_fn07 ch02_fn08 ch02_fn09 ch02_fn10 ch02_fn11 ch02_fn12 ch02_fn13 ch03_fn01 ch03_fn02 ch03_fn03 ch03_fn04 ch03_fn05 ch04_fn01 ch04_fn02 ch04_fn03 ch04_fn04 ch04_fn05 ch04_fn06 ch04_fn07 ch04_fn08 ch05_fn01 ch05_fn02 ch05_fn03 ch05_fn04 ch05_fn05 ch05_fn06 ch05_fn07 ch05_fn08 ch05_fn09 ch05_fn10 ch06_fn01 ch06_fn02 ch06_fn03 ch06_fn04 ch06_fn05 ch07_fn01 ch07_fn02 ch07_fn03 ch07_fn04 ch07_fn05 ch07_fn06 ch07_fn07 ch07_fn08 What will happen when our current plagues of global warming, epidemic disease, and overpopulation collide to exacerbate the end of the oil age? The last two hundred years have seen the greatest explosion of progress and wealth in the history of mankind, much of it based on the exploitation of cheap, nonrenewable fossil-fuel energy. Our daily enjoyment of oil and gas has given us the energy equivalent of three hundred slaves per person in the industrialized nations. But life as we know it is about to change radically, and much sooner than we think. No combination of alternative energies will permit us to continue living the way we do, or even close to it. This book tells us just what to expect after the honeymoon of affordable energy is over, preparing us for economic, political, and social changes of an unimaginable scale.--From publisher description A “frightening and important” look at our unsustainable future ( Time Out Chicago ). A controversial hit that has sparked debate among business leaders, environmentalists, and others, The Long Emergency is an eye-opening look at the unprecedented challenges we face in the years ahead, as oil runs out and the global systems built on it are forced to change radically. From the author of The Geography of Nowhere , it is a book that “should be read, digested, and acted upon by every conscientious U.S. politician and citizen” (Michael Shuman, author of Going Local: Creating Self-Reliant Communities in a Global Age ). In an apocalyptic vision of a post-oil future, the author of The Geography of Nowhere details the economic, political, and social changes of an unimaginable scale that can be expected after the tipping point of global peak oil production is passed. Reprint. 50,000 first printing. Carl Jung, one of the fathers of psychology, famously remarked that "people cannot stand too much reality."