Ricky’s Quickies: Book Review

The Long Emergency by James Howard Kunstler

This was a gift from my friend Vanessa G. The quote on the cover
basically sums up the book: frightening and important. In fact, it
probably changed my perspective on a lot of domestic and international
issues more than anything else in recent memory.

Here’s the gist: We’re past our peak of oil and natural gas production
and we’re, quite frankly, fucked.  We can start working on solutions
now, but that still won’t give us enough time. Kunstler predicts that
within the next few decades we will return to a pre-industrial age.
Bio-fuels such as ethanol and hydrogen are a joke — they take more
energy “inputs” to grow than they provide.

The book made me realize the most important issue facing our country
today is energy policy. We need a massive national energy program if
we’re going to stand a chance. Our government needs to invest in it more
than we’ve invested in anything before. This includes developing
nuclear, wind, and solar power as well as rebuilding our infrastructure,
fixing our out-of-date rail system, etc. We also have to retool how we
think about housing — the suburbs will soon become worthless.

Obama is leaps and bounds ahead of McCain on this issue, but not as much
as he needs to be. This is our country’s greatest challenge but it’s
also our greatest opportunity. Invest in the future and you can solve
our war, economic, and energy problems in one swoop.