James Howard Kunstler speaks at ERA Launch
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Published 2009-12-17
All Comments (21)
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Can't get enough of this guys perspective, wit, concern and sincerity. Truly a great mind not many know about. In 100 years people will realize.....
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Kunstler has it pegged! What a talented and artistic person!
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You mean to tell me that our financed standard of living and our insane volume of burning a limited resource can't continue forever?
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This guy is OP! He is so on point. He puts together a A LOT in a way that makes sense
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I realize this video is 14 years old, and nobody may ever read this , but Mike Ruppert in Collapse was able to link banking, finance, and growth all to fossil fuel. If one of the above is manipulated away from natural market forces, it corrupts the others and the dominoes fall. Rest in Peace Mike
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Lol! @ "Dude, we got technology" Good rant from JHK - as usual
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@CyberAthletethefirst Cars are VERY energy INEFFICIENT. The reason for this is that most of the cars energy is concerned with moving the car not its occupant. A bicycle is the opposite! There is NO green car, and there never will be. The only way to make a car green is to reduce its weight dramatically and do the same for its size. But then you have for all intense purposes is pretty much a bicycle with a small electric engine....
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What are "ecological sustains" mentioned in the intro above? New use of that term to me. Thank you offering this speech and I will look ERA up and see how they are doing.
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the good thing about the US riverways is that most of them have all been dredged already but the downside is they have 100yrs of sand and silt built up in them and also dams from the 30s and 40s
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@CyberAthletethefirst Fair enough. In the long run though with peak oil food travelling vast distances, I would suggest, is unrealistic. Food production would have to happen on a more local scale. The cities, in my country as well are too spread out. Having said that the majority of car trips now are short.
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@CyberAthletethefirst re your comment about superbikes in the Kunstler speech--what's the food take for such an endeavor? what's the time? You could still run railroads on PV electric or electric from wind turbines at a fraction of the energy input of someone bicycling such items. And bicycling's inputs include maintaining road infrastructure. the future is rail-heads with local transport by bike. but there has to be a way for trade to work as well.
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@CyberAthletethefirst There is a fundamental trueism, and that is that the automobile shapes sprawl, and then offers itself up as a solution. If we build cities with medium or high density electric trains can also become really efficient at moving people.
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Nothing alarmist about being prepared.
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@geir44 So true about Y2K. When he was on Colbert, the host fired a Y2K jibe at him when the interview was finished. The worst part about that incident is that JHK has that personality defect, which is all to common, in which he can't admit that he was wrong. South Korea, in the midst of the South East Asian financial flu didn't do anything about Y2K, despite entreaties to act and what happened to South Korea on January 1, 2000. Absolutely nothing. So we even have a control.
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It sounds like we need to head off this "economic losers" issue by fighting for fair wages for people in all industries, including agriculture, because nothing is scarier than facing old age poor and forced to do harder labor than their bodies will tolerate. I think his vision of the future is more realistic than the people who believe in the labor-less, money-less economy - that kind of utopianism is always subverted by economics.
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I agree with everything he says, except for that skyscrapers will die. Cities that had wealth to begin with will do "EVERYTHING" in their power in the future to maintain high density dwellings because of how valuable the lands they sit on is.
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There are responses, what about bicyles. Bicycles are faster then walking, and have none of the problems of cars. Bicycles are ready to do now! There is no need to invent them, they are here.
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O.K?
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But we do have technology. Human history is full of suppressed clean energy technologies. Start with Nikola Tesla and the whole "free" energy scene. What we don't have is people to push these technologies as long as oil is out there. You will see how quickly viable alternatives will emerge when the real need for them is required. Also... combine geothermal with wind and solar and we have more than enough energy. But not as long as oil companies and their profits are around.
