James Howard Kunstler speaks at ERA Launch

[@CollisionofSoul]

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.....

[@fishsurfer1]

Found him 20 years ago, definitely grateful for that moment as it has shaped my path forward for the better.

[@LayZeeDawg]

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

[@whaszis]

Kunstler has it pegged! What a talented and artistic person!

[@Dionysus_333]

This guy is OP! He is so on point. He puts together a A LOT in a way that makes sense

[@BradKwfc]

You mean to tell me that our financed standard of living and our insane volume of burning a limited resource can't continue forever?

[@adrianjanssens7116]

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.

[@BillyCosmosis]

Lol! @ "Dude, we got technology" Good rant from JHK - as usual

[@KrunchyJD]

@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....

[@GodsOwnPrototype]

Which we now have. I'm just waiting for a e-bike with an all weather shell, the non transparent material of which can be mostly bio-replaceable, (like with bamboo).

[@1x93cm]

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

[@hollywoodartchick]

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.

[@KrunchyJD]

@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.

[@KrunchyJD]

@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.

[@KrunchyJD]

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.

[@phazze]

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.

[@evegreenification]

JHK keeps responding to this argument, though maybe not here in this video, I haven't heard the whole thing. To paraphrase, the problem with this argument is that it is like a bird in the bush instead of the hand. Set up this technology in my house and show me how it generates enough energy (I have my roof covered in solar panels and solar hot water already) for how I want to live and I will pay what it takes to install/service it. Until then, I'm gonna be preppin'.

[@38snipshow]

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.

[@drmodestoesq]

@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.

[@Withnail1969]

he moved on to peak oil after Y2K and ended up being wrong about that as well. i got sucked into that as well back in 2005 and thought the world was about to end.

[@martingrau98]

@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.

[@joseornelas1718]

Bike paths don't need to paved. Either way they last longer than vehicle roads

[@econogate]

It will be farming and ethanol from the bottom up....farms will become gas stations/local food productions, cars will have to be repaired, no replacements, must ride them for decades instead of just a few years and then buy a new one.

[@joseornelas1718]

Ethanol will hardly factor. Small batches could power mopeds.

[@econogate]

Watching him I am reminded of when HP said to Apple's Wozniak "Why would anyone want a personal computer?" IN other words what kind expert in technology discoveries has this guy become, does he not realize that people are sitting on patents until the market makes financial sense to buy into a new technique....but others are running into it, but it usually will not be the first but second or third company that will reap the new economy, sure the economy has collapsed.

[@janklaas6885]

3:30

[@fredschwentafsky2641]

People will leave...big time..

[@flight1100]

O.K?

[@markstaddon4993]

I understand exactly what is meant,but we need another Saudi Arabië every 15 years.

[@KathyJensen-vh2yk]

Mystery how wokery was incorporate into system democratic party. Richard Kellogg Jolly , Tucson Arizona

[@marcmeinzer8859]

Some scattershot thoughts: [1] the most hideous waste of energy is the unimaginably enormous world merchant fleet in excess of 40,000 large vessels, a dated figure which is undoubtedly too modest, which transport all of the crap we no longer manufacture ourselves. [2] the great effeminacy of our educational system which abhors manual arts and tries to bully everyone into going to college, even though the average adult has perhaps a sixth grade reading level and cannot afford to attend college w/o student loans, not to mention at least one-third of the kids who unwisely attempt college inevitably flunk out since they’re not even remotely academically or intellectually oriented [3] the malaise of modernity is its own contraceptive since such increasing numbers of young men have lost interest in breeding, do not trust women, and are not interested in contributing to society in the first place, preferring to do bong hits while playing computer games and tending their covert black market cannabis grow ops which consume just as much electricity as the entire aluminum can industry.

[@susanralph274]

"maggie darling" was the WORST book i ever read

[@GordonMGreen]

Interesting, but where is the evidence or argumentation? Most of what I hear in this lecture is a stream of unsupported assertions and invective about how dumb everyone is, with no coherent argument as to why the speaker's point is any more accurate, useful, or credible than anyone else's. As I understand it, eliminating coal-fired power plants is the #1 priority for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and I don' t think the speaker even mentions this, instead focusing only on urban planning.

[@jaykaiser1754]

Gordon Green unfortunately since this was summarized, he left out the facts. Watch his ted talk

[@econogate]

But even with a collapsed economy all it takes maybe a new invention such as teleportation which has made unbelieveable strides and maybe will be realized in less than 10 years time....no more shipping things around, can you imagine? I don't think anyone will know what the world will look like in 5 years let alone 10 years. I'd bet if you were to drop off the net for 2 months and come back and read sciecne sites you would be amazed at all the new inventions, they need more publicity.

[@gurjotsingh8934]

@thevso yea it will not, it is designed to take us down.

[@Potlickerdotorg]

Nothing alarmist about being prepared.