[Peakoil] Kunstler and Heinberg talk peak oil, suburbia and the end of growth

[Keith Thomas]

The following blurb does not make it clear that you can do as I do and download the KunstlerCast free through iTunes
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Keith Thomas
www.evfit.com
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KUNSTLER, HEINBERG TALK PEAK OIL, SUBURBIA, THE END OF GROWTH

Noted Author/Commentators Exchange Ideas on Podcast - Transcript Available

TROY, NY (08/29/2011) -- James Howard Kunstler and Richard Heinberg are
two of the most popular authors on peak oil and the coming age of
resource scarcity.

On the latest "KunstlerCast" podcast, the two author/commentators
engaged in a compelling conversation that moved from America's
disastrous reliance on limitless economic growth, to the failures of
globalism, to the fate of suburban sprawl.

"Anything that would question growth is like questioning gasoline at a
NASCAR rally," Heinberg said on the podcast of the flailing American
economy. "So that leaves us with only one option. That is denial. That's
where our system is stuck."

Heinberg is senior fellow-in-residence at the Post Carbon Institute, a
think tank "dedicated to getting society off fossil fuel fast." He is
the author of 10 books, including "The Party's Over" and "Peak
Everything." In his most recent book, "The End of Growth" (New Society
Publishers, 2011), he argues that the trajectory of industrial
civilization is colliding with non-negotiable natural limits.

Kunstler is the author of "The Long Emergency," a stark warning about
the converging catastrophes of the twentieth century, and "The Geography
of Nowhere," a landmark book about suburban sprawl. His "World Made By
Hand" novels imagine a post-petroleum America in the not-distant future.

"It's one thing to envision a future in which we are using alternative
energy systems," said Kunstler. "It's another thing to envision a future
where we are running Wal-Mart and Walt Disney World and suburbia on
alternative energy systems. People, who ought to know better, don‚t seem
to be able to overcome that."

"If we had factories out there making solar panels and wind turbines
that were powered by solar panels and wind turbines, that might be cause
for more optimism," Heinberg added, noting that most efforts to create
"green" energy alternatives still require large amounts of fossil fuel.

"Is President Obama lying when he says that we can become energy
independent, or that we have 100 years of natural gas that will get us
through this bottleneck?" Kunstler asked.

"He's telling people what they want to hear, and that includes
environmentalists," Heinberg responded. "Many of the big environmental
organizations have bought into natural gas, for example, as a
replacement for coal. He's trying to satisfy everyone. Does that
constitute lying? Well, yeah, I think so, frankly."

Both authors concur that global warming, fossil fuel depletion and
financial collapse present some of the greatest challenges that humanity
has ever faced. And in spite of American‚s tendency to believe that
technology will be our savior (an attitude which Kunstler has dubbed
"techno-grandiosity"), both authors also agree that reality will compel
us to re-localize our economy, living arrangements and systems for
agriculture. In order to approach that task successfully, we must engage
in what they call "managed contraction."

"Rather than aiming for GDP growth, we need new measures and indicators
of social welfare and environmental welfare that don‚t require increase
in consumption," said Heinberg. "That would involve reconfiguring our
infrastructure for agriculture, transportation -- our built environment.
That's a huge job. It would put a lot of people to work. But it would
require some real strength of leadership and effort on the scale of the
New Deal in the 1930s."

Part 1 of this conversation between Kunstler and Heinberg is available
for free listening at http://kunstlercast.com. Part 2 will be released
on Thursday, Sept. 1. A paid version of the entire recorded
conversation, as well as a transcript in PDF and Kindle versions, are
also available now for $1 a piece.


ABOUT THE KUNSTLERCAST

The KunstlerCast is a weekly audio podcast about "the tragic comedy of
suburban sprawl," featuring James Howard Kunstler and host Duncan Crary.
Now in its fourth year, the podcast averages 10,000 unique listeners per
week. This fall, New Society Publishers is releasing a book based on
transcripts of The KunstlerCast, compiled by Crary.