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The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century | 
 enlarge | Creator: James Howard Kunstler
Publisher: Grove Press
Category: Book
List Price: $14.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  197 reviews
Sales Rank: 1303
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6 x 0.9
ISBN: 0802142494
Dewey Decimal Number: 363
EAN: 9780802142498
ASIN: 0802142494
Publication Date: March 2, 2006
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Product Description
James Howard Kunstler's The Long Emergency was an underground hit, going into nine printings of the hardcover edition. His shocking vision for our post-oil future caught the attention of environmentalists and business leaders and was the subject of much debate, stimulating discussion about our dependence on fossil fuels. Now in paperback, with a new afterword, The Long Emergency is set to reach an even larger audience.
The last two hundred years have seen the greatest explosion of progress and wealth in the history of mankind, much of it based on the exploitation of cheap, nonrenewable fossil-fuel energy. But the oil age is at an end. Life as we know it is about to change radically, and much sooner than we think. The Long Emergency tells us just what to expect after we pass the point of global peak oil production and the honeymoon of affordable energy is over, preparing us for economic, political, and social changes of an unimaginable scale. Riveting and authoritative, The Long Emergency is a devastating indictment that brings new urgency and accessibility to the critical issues that will shape our future, and that we can no longer afford to ignore.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 192 more reviews...
 I barely survived this book May 2, 2008
I got this book thinking that the author would actually discuss how to survive the various coming catastrophes. Silly me, I shouldn't have expected the subtitle to be accurate. There is next to nothing in this book about what one should actually do during the coming apocalypse to protect himself. I'd call that false advertising.
Instead of telling us how to live through the disasters coming our way, the author, for the majority of the book, gives us a history lesson on a number of disaster situations that have happened previously. Okay, thanks... but please tell us more about the COMING disasters you warn us of. In fact, some of the historical information seems to be random facts pulled from memory of his Western Civ. class with little actual relation to the subject matter at hand.
When we do, in the last chapter, get to actual scenarios of what will happen in the FUTURE US when the disaster events unfold, the author shows off his geographic bigotry. Using stereotypes of the various regions of our country often portrayed in poorly made movies, Mr. Kunstler educates the reader as to why the Northeastern US will be the best-equipped for making it through the coming hard times. These are, of course, industrious, hard-working people with the strong communal ethic being their saving grace. Compare this characterization to that of southerners: crazy, fearful, gun nuts whose society will break down into feudal chaos at the first signs of trouble. Religiously fanatical barbarians of a people who might even bring back slavery. Thankfully for him, I guess, the author actually lives in New York state. Oh, what a coincidence.
On a more serious note: The argument that the American south is poorly suited for life after peak oil fails for a number of reasons related to climate, agriculture, and social factors. As soon as the Northeast begins to experience its first winter without heating oil, there will be a mass exodus to the warmer southern states, making it a far more habitable place throughout the year as compared to the Northeast. Related to this is the southern growing season. Before those up north are even able to begin planting, the crazy folks down south will already have enough food grown to last a year. After the first crop is harvested, more will be on the way, making it--potentially--a net exporter of agricultural products, thus benefiting the southern economy in a way other regions can't compete with.
Culturally, the south often contains an extremely tight-knit social community in rural and (even) urbanized areas. This is exactly the organization needed for survival in times of trouble. In fact, this cohesion has been tested time and time again in the gulf states by the aftermath of major hurricanes. People usually pull through with help from their neighbors. One might even say hurricanes and other natural events have created a culture of social preparedness for just the type of disasters described in the book. This is a very different possibility than the one painted by the author.
Finally, many people currently living in the south were alive before industrialization took hold there. If not themselves, then their parents know what it was like to live before many of the modern amenities we rely on today were put in place. I am a 27 year old son of the south. My parents, still living, grew up without indoor toilets and subsisted mainly on what could be farmed and raised by their family. Their lifestyle was little different from the one that will be necessary in a peak-oil future. This knowledge will be critical for the survival of current and future generations. Many parts of the north, on the other hand, have been industrialized and so oil-dependent for much longer than we down here in crazy land. Much of the survival knowledge we possess will be lacking in the cold, dead north.
The fact that the author didn't consider any of these arguments tells me he's probably myopic in other areas of reasoning as well. Such near-sightedness makes sense when one considers that Mr. Kunstler blatantly makes an argument in favor of the current disaster of a war in Iraq early in his book.
I thought this book was largely a waste, however I did give it two stars for the author's use of historical facts in the largest segment of the book. Of course, history is history.
A learning experience April 29, 2008
This is my first peak oil & energy book so it was a learning experience.
The first six chapters are good.
1. Sleepwalking into the Future
2. Modernity and the Fossil Fuels Dilemma
3. Geopolitics and the Global Oil Peak
4. Beyond Oil: Why Alternative Fuels Won't Rescue Us
5. Nature Bites Back: Climate Change, Epidemic Disease, Water Scarcity, Habitat Destruction, and the Dark Side of the Industrial Age
6. Running on Fumes: The Hallucinated Economy. A history of how we got where we did. Gets a bit tedious. I had a headache that day and it made it worse.
The last was not so
7. Living in the Long Emergency
"Synopsis:
The depletion of nonrenewable fossil fuels (oil, nat. gas, coal) is about to radically change life much sooner than anticipated. This title describes what to expect after the honeymoon of affordable energy is over, preparing readers for economic, political, and social changes of an unimaginable scale."
So. what I expected out of chapter 7 was a timeline of what would go down first, second, third, etc. ....when and why. But he doesn't give you one. Can a model timeline be figured using currant data?
From reading this you get the impression it's gonna happen over night. Boom! 2025. I guess you have to read his novel 'World Made by Hand' to get that info.
There's no practical advice spelled out for you. Even the author hasn't seriously prepared himself. I guess like me he figures he'll be dead by then. And again like me he has no children to tend to. He's tucked away in a small town like me only we have two dams and a small 20mw hydroelectric plant, lots of wood. Possibly he has other homes in strategic locals.
Mr. Kunstler has an aggravating tendency to repeat himself ... a lot. And to harping endlessly on certain immutable issues ... like suburbia. He just HATES suburbia, yet doesn't lay out his solution, not that I could see anyway. I guess that's in his other book 'Home from Nowhere'.
I'm a cynic and a lifetime misanthrope, same as Mr. Kunstler, but his repetitious ranting anger in places became tiresome. So be forewarned.
There's no index. And hey!, what about Hawaii and Alaska?
My parents (85y/o) and I don't feel so bad now about our up coming deaths after reading this book. I think I'll be glad to go before things turn real ugly. I highly recommend it to all senior citizens. :o)
 A realistic, yet depressing, scenario April 25, 2008
Books with disturbing, unconventional ideas are invariably controversial and James Howard Kunstler's dire treatise falls into this category. He presents global warming and the impending oil crisis as a simultaneous set of calamities, and contends that the U.S. faces economic, political and social crises as a result of the looming fuel shortage and climate change. This is not an upbeat prediction, but it packs a shocking punch that could alter your point of view. Certainly, his central theme - the demise of cheap oil colliding with the impact of global warming - rings true, but since no one has an accurate estimate on when the flow of oil will end or how climate change will unfold, his predictions warrant more investigation. Kunstler relates drought, famine, upheaval and disease to oil shortages and climate change. Despite some repetition, his arguments, especially regarding globalism, provide a needed, mind-changing perspective. Kunstler raises interesting questions. The challenge will be finding out if any of them have answers. getAbstract thinks this provocative book could stir widespread debate, especially in business circles.
A Tsunami Warning ! April 8, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Kunstler's Book the Long Emergency is a 'Tsunami warning'. WE ARE RUNNING OUT OF OIL...what do you think the last 7 years have been about? It is both well written and tightly argued. The logic of it is dreadfully inescapable. Even if we agree that 'peak' oil (which most probably has already happened) is not the end of supply we must admit that it is the end of cheap supply and I think we are all seeing that at the pump. Add to that the potential for supply interruptions due to political instability and terrorism and..well...you can see the problem. Disruption could lead to cascading system failures throughout our economy reminding me of the sinking of the titanic. Once the four compartments were flooded the ships designer, Mr. Andrews, knew the ship would founder. We have been headed down an illusory primrose path with our McMansions and SUV's and our luck is about to run out. It is not that our society is addicted to oil it is that our entire supporting infrastructure is predicated on it. Without the inputs the house will come tumbling down and very rapidly indeed. Even if we could formulate a solution to the problem in time by utilizing some other combination of alternate energy sources the shape and character of our society would be forever altered. The most feasible types of alternative energy do not support a suburban sprawl based configuration. Kunstler is quite correct about this. Most likely we will have to retreat to more traditional community based local living arrangements. It is going to be a rough ride...but I have hope that we will make it in the end and be the better for it. I think the implications of Mr. Kuunstler's argument are too terrible for most people to fathom and so...they take the blue pill and go back to sleep.
Deja vu chicken little April 7, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
All us hippies from the 60's can feel validated somehow, even while we suffer along with everyone else, or worse, because we are old, we can at least say I told you so. The sky is falling, as I have been saying for the last 30 years.
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