Here is my two cents on the book..
[url=http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0871138883/qid=1114992295/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/002-1245979-2604849?v=glance&s=books&n=507846]
The Long Emergency
by James Howard Kunstler[/url]
Jim Kunstler is a familiar face to those who follow the Peak Oil debate. A former editor at
Rolling Stone and now an independent writer based in the Adirondack region of New York State, Kunstler has authored three nonfiction books that that address the unsustainability and wastefulness that has been caused by the postwar trend of suburban and exurban development in the United States. Intense, energetic and sometimes crude, Kunstler was prominently featured in the recent video
The End of Suburbia and publishes an
oft-amusing weekly online commentary on current events, the title of which I will leave the reader to explore at their own peril.
The first two chapters of
The Long Emergency are an elegant summary of the approaching peak of world crude oil production and the effect that the oilfield depletion that is already well advanced will have on the viability of the American way of life (particularly in the suburbs, or course), globalism and global population. Some reviewers are finding the book gloomy, which may be the case; I'm more concerned with whether its forecasts are realistic, and based on the research I have done on the issues, many of them may well be. Others, though, seem to be a stretch, as I will discuss further below.
The third chapter discusses the geopolitics of Peak Oil. Kunstler describes the growing struggle against what he calls "militant Islam," the issue of Saudi stability, the reasons behind the Iraq occupation and the potential of future contests between the US and other powers, particularly China, for future access to Saudi oil. In my opinion, he underemphasizes the role that Israeli excesses have played in provoking the Islamists and strengthening groups like Al Qaeda, viewing the conflict as "intractable," when it might actually be solvable with some timely adjustments in US foreign policy. He concludes, however, that the US will eventually be worn down military and economically and forced to withdraw from the region. This seems to be the probable outcome to me as well.
The fourth chapter gives an excellent if brief description of why alternative fuels are unlikely to be an adequate replacement to crude oil and its byproducts, at least at the prices that would be required to sustain the American way of life and free market globalism as we now know it.
The fifth chapter delves into broader issues such as global warming and how its effects will likely superimpose themselves onto the human misery and dislocation that will be caused by oil depletion. Catastrophic spread of AIDS, mass starvation due to climate change and lack of petrochemical fertilizers, rampaging strains of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and lack of fresh water are some of the more realistic examples Kunstler gives of what the world has to look forward to in coming decades. This may be Kunstler at his characteristic gloomiest, but it is worth considering in my opinion. It is no coincidence that global population has increased at a Malthusian pace during the past 150 years, and that the increase has paralleled the exploitation of crude oil and petrochemicals. Most of the world's fertilizer is synthesized from natural gas, for example, which is also increasingly in short supply in many parts of the world, particularly in North America. It is quite likely that the population carrying capacity of a world with diminished fossil fuel production would be markedly decreased.
I found the sixth chapter "The Hallucinated Economy" to amount to a cynical leftist diatribe against American-style corporatism and free market globalism. There is no doubt that the free market system will have a hard time adjusting in future years, but I expect that it will do better than any workable alternative. In my view, globalism has helped the human condition more than it has hurt it. Its collapse may be cheered by the antidevelopment crowd, but it will harken the loss of hope for much of the world's poor, many of whom face a bleak uncertain future as their meagre yet essential fossil fuel based infrastructure is no longer available for use.
The seventh and last chapter, "Living in The Long Emergency" is at once thought-provoking, sobering and unrealistically apocalyptic. Kunstler projects that the United States will fragment into autonomous regions, with the Southwest and the major cities nationwide ultimately nearly depopulating. He thinks the rural Northeast and Midwest are best suited as a result of their geography and respect for diversity and the rule of law to making the transition to an economy based on local production. I have to say that some stereotypical northeastern liberal bias is evident in his gloomy predictions of violence and unrest in the Southeast and Mountain West, which he views as unstable due to the "hyperindividualism" and religious fundamentalism of those who live there. Personally, I would predict that the potential for civil conflict is greater in the major metropolitan areas of the Northeast, particularly in the inner cities and close-in suburbs, and in the Rust Belt than in the Southeast or in the valleys of Idaho. In my view, Kunstler defies credibility as well in predicting future attacks by Asian proto-pirates along the coastal regions of the Pacific Northwest. (Note to Jim: It's a long way from Malacca to Seattle.)
Overall, I would say that the book is a must read for those who are interested in learning more about oil depletion and the changes that is is about the wreak on the world. Kunstler's talent as a writer always makes for an entertaining read, but this book provides much more than that.