LotW (vi) [a tad NSFW] & The Coming Apocolypse (Dada IIIa)

Last Tuesday, I attended a lecture for extra-credit. The class is my Dance course, which isn't about dance in any manner (although we have been known to bounce around on pilate balls) - Community, Earth, and Body. The event was at the German House, and was hosted by the Rochester Regional Community Design Center, a group built around the idea of Sustainability.

The Speaker: James Kunstler

This week's link: James Kunstler (He has some language issues, so you may want to cover your eyes)

I remember in elemenary school reading about renewabl vs. non-renewable resources. The book said: "Most of our energy comes from non-renewable resources, but some of it comes from renewable resources." (not verbatim, but pretty close). The book left it at that, and I did too, for about 10 or so years.

So what was the lecture about? His futuer; however, in order to understand his future, you had to make two asssumptions:

1. We will run out of oil.


2. When we do, our culture will be the same as it is now

These terms aren't as easy-to-understand/lucid as I make them to be. When I write "We will run out of oil" I don't mean we will wake up and find our tanks empty, gas pumps broken, a caved-in middle East. I mean it won't be Economically Viable. It will be so expensive - not because of price-gouging, but because of extraction and refining costs - that it will not be able to be used. Hence, we will run out of oil.

"Our culture will be the same as it is now" Obviously this refers to our thirst for oil. We all understand how much oil affects us, I'm sure; but yet, there are so many hidden uses that are hidden deep within our social system. This willl be explained in a couple paragraphs.

The conclusion Kunstler arrived at was: "Life as we know it will end". Again, another phrase with a different meaning. Not life as in a life-force, our sense of identity; rather (like above) our culture, the method in which we live. We won't die (this is a divergence from Kunstler), but our excess and large buildings will certainly lose their ability to function.

So what will life be without oil? Where do you get your food? Where did it come from? How did it get to your house/store/community? Without oil, we will not have a trucking industry. Unless we have localized Fritos and Coke plants, we will lose our abilities to consume major corporate food products.

How will houses be heated? Supposedly (meaning this is an area I have yet to investigate) Natural Gas will become a problem as early as next winter. Imagine we find ways to heat our homes efficiently with renewables. What about our skyscrapers (from yesterday) ?

This first-half of Kunstler's speech was quite depressing. Later, during a question session, someone asked "You said people would leave the cities and suburbs. What will happen to them?" Kunstler's reply? "Medicine will be difficult to transport; I imagine life expectancy to decline." Boy, was that encouraging (especially for a boy from the suburbs).

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To keep the suspense, I will continue tomorrow...