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 Not Alarmist Jun 12, 2009
Most of the reviews are from 2005 when this book first came out. I want to add my 2cents to say that Kunstler's thesis seems even more likely now, 4 years later.
If the reviewers who called this book "alarmist" are accurate it's only because Americans have been very carefully protected from reality these last 40 years or so.
I was more fascinated than alarmed, and grateful to have found someone who can see the big picture. The author does a masterful job of putting the last 250 years in perspective.
The whole industrial age has been built upon a platform of available, often cheap, energy. This made possible conditions in the USA (e.g. suburbanization, agribusiness) that will make the decline in the availability of the most relied upon sources of energy, oil and gas, especially crisis provoking.
The Long Emergency left me with two lens through which to watch the coming reality unfold.
Peak oil results in a plateau during which conditions will fluctuate (prices, availability); we are in that period now. After this period comes the actual decline in oil and gas when permanent disruptions in economic and social life as we know it takes place.
Alas, because "leaders" are herding us blindly into a fantasy future (alternative fuels will be available, conservation will save us), many will be able to face reality only through a rear view mirror.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Important Book May 16, 2009
This is a very important book. Peak Oil is real. If there are any doubts just read the International Energy Agencies Report that came out in the Fall of 2008. The IEA report says Crude oil production will decrease at a rate of 9% annually. Yikes. Also read the NIC Global Trends 2025 report. Peak Oil is for real, and I fear we are ill prepared.
The Long Emergency is one of the most shocking books you may ever read, and it is one of the best books on Peak oil, and post peak living.
0 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 The end is coming Mar 14, 2009
This book is good for one thing: Getting people to think about Peak oil and the credit crisis and how it will affect us in the future. Other than that, as others have said, you will basically get the opinions of the author presented as facts in a way that seeks to belittle anyone who does not share the same view.
His disregard for alternative energy is laughable. His borderline hate for all people that are not like him is very evident. He not only believes that doom and gloom are the future but it is very evident that he wants this fate for the US.
Overall, read this book with a grain of salt and there are probably much better discussions on Peak oil out there.
2 of 5 found the following review helpful:
Obsolete Mar 02, 2009
When oil was going to bust the 150/barrel predictions it looked like this book was going to be ahead of its time. Basically, society would break down and a new world would come that was not backed up by cheap oil. You could have seen the return of the sailing ship. Humanity would be come isolated again.
I really liked this book when it was first out. The author had done his homework on connecting that cheap oil meant cheap transportation meant cheap food all because of the petroleum industry. In modern America less than 5% of people are involved in agriculture. In pre-oil America more than 20% were involved in agriculture. This book had put everything together and analyzed "system failure". What would happen if the oil bottle ran dry? The end result would be no food, little transportation, and hard times for all.
But it thing that is going to kill the American economy is not expensive oil. It was cheap credit. Who would have thought that $250,000 "McMansions" bought on adjustable mortgages (sub primes loans) would eventually be sold to every nation on the planet as AAA investment bonds. If people don't have money they don't buy fuel, cars, and all the other items of modern life. Right now oil is 1/3rd the price it was in 2008. And if the oil supply fell the prices would not go up because the demand is falling faster than supply. The ironic thing about the cheap credit is it will add another ten to twenty years of life to cheap oil.
But this book is now obsolete. The present economy of the world was built on cheap credit and not so much on cheap oil.
Perhaps there will be a future with little oil. But the coming world depression will take no less than 10 to 15 years to recover from. Before the world would return to the 2007 level of consumption it will take another 10 years. That means the true future of "peak" oil will not hit until 2030 or later.
This book could have been right provided that cheap credit had not been more toxic to the world economy.
It's a nice "what would have been" book. But it's obsolete. It's dated.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Informative, thought-provoking, highly readable... Feb 15, 2009
Knustler might just be the Edward Abbey for the new millennium. If you loved "Desert Solitaire" (you have read it, right?), you will love "The Long Emergency." Combining intelligence, irreverence, information, and passion, Knustler compellingly covers the complex relationships between cheap energy (oil), consumerism, suburbanism, social and environmental degradation, and our need for real sociocultural change. Not a doom and gloom tome, this work which was written in 2005, is amazingly prophetic related to the current financial meltdown and social malaise. Well written. Excellent, highly recommended!
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