After Peak Oil

James Kunstler has a very interesting article in Rolling Stone on what he calls the “Long Emergency” – how the world is going to get by after “Peak Oil,” that point in the future when worldwide oil production peaks and then begins to decline, and as fuel prices climb ever higher.

He’s not optimistic, foreseeing serious alterations to our economy and a return to localism in our daily lives:

“Anything organized on the large scale, whether it is government or a corporate business enterprise such as Wal-Mart, will wither as the cheap energy props that support bigness fall away. The turbulence of the Long Emergency will produce a lot of economic losers, and many of these will be members of an angry and aggrieved former middle class.”

Food production is going to especially be a problem, he says, and personal mobility will widely decreased. Yet more reason to start paying serious attention to alternative fuels and a hydrogen economy.