I'm not against Kyoto. I just think it's a fantasy, especially considering China's energy predicament and their coal supplies. James Howard Kunstler More Quotes by James Howard Kunstler More Quotes From James Howard Kunstler Anyone who studies the energy predicament understands its connection with the operations of capital - and by this I do not mean capitalism as an ideology, I mean the behavior of acquired wealth and its deployment for productive purpose. (A lot of educated idiots don't understand this, and we waste a lot of time blathering about capitalism.) James Howard Kunstler deployment energy mean We could do some household and neighborhood or town wind energy. But even this will run up eventually against the problem of needing an underlying fossil fuel economy to fabricate the hardware. Same with photovoltaic (solar) energy. We're going to be disappointed by what these things can do for us. James Howard Kunstler fossils running wind Two decades from now, I doubt that the home building industry, so called, will even exist as we have known it. James Howard Kunstler doubt home two I urge people not to think in terms of "solutions," but in terms of intelligent responses to the quandaries and predicaments that we face. And there are intelligent responses that we can bring forth. But when I hear the word "solution," I always suspect that there's a hidden agenda there. And the hidden agenda is: "Please, can you please tell us how we can keep on living exactly the way we're living now, without having to really change our behavior very much?" And that's sort of what's going on in this country. And it's not going to work. James Howard Kunstler intelligent country thinking Despite the obvious damage now visible in the entropic desolation of every American home town, Wal-Mart managed to install itself in the pantheon of American Dream icons, along with apple pie, motherhood, and Coca Cola. James Howard Kunstler motherhood dream home For instance, the most common type of "affordable housing" in the world comes in the form of apartments over stores. James Howard Kunstler affordable-housing common world The American house has been TV-centered for three generations. It is the focus of family life, and the life of the house correspondingly turns inward, away from whatever corresponds beyond its four walls.At the same time, the television is the families chief connection to the world. The physical envelope of the house itself no longer connects their lives to the outside in any active way; rather it seals them from it.The outside world has become an abstraction filtered through television, just as the weather is an abstraction filtered through air conditioning. James Howard Kunstler wall air weather I think the deeper truth is that the Kyoto Protocols will not be followed by anyone really and that, in effect, nothing will be done to reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse emissions. James Howard Kunstler kyoto-protocol done thinking No amount or combination of alternative fuels is going to allow us to continue running what we're running, the way we're running it. James Howard Kunstler alternatives fuel running A land full of places that are not worth caring about may soon be a nation and a way of life that is not worth defending. James Howard Kunstler land caring may America does not want change, except from the cash register at Wal-Mart. James Howard Kunstler cash doe america The skyscraper - any building over seven stories really - will come to be seen as an experimental building type that doesn't work well in an energy-starved economy. James Howard Kunstler building energy stories Ridicule is the unfortunate destiny of the ridiculous. James Howard Kunstler ridicule ridiculous destiny We don't need gold plated highways. We don't need zoning commissions which penalize offices at home and promote car commutes. James Howard Kunstler car office home When a society is stressed, when it comes up against things that are hard to understand, you get a lot of delusional thinking. James Howard Kunstler stressed delusional thinking There is not going to be a "hydrogen economy," and no combination of alternative energy systems or fuels will allow us to continue the suburban pattern. It's finished. We will, however, desperately need to grow more of our food closer to home, and so the preservation of agricultural hinterlands is of great importance. But don't expect the fiesta of suburban construction to continue more than a few more years. James Howard Kunstler energy home years My beef with the alt-fuel people is not the renewable or alt-fuel ideas themselves. Sooner or later, there's no question we're going to have to rely on them. For me, it's an issue of scale. James Howard Kunstler issues people ideas If the Internet exists at all in the future, it will be on a much-reduced scale from what we enjoy today, and all the activities of everyday life are not going to reside on it. James Howard Kunstler internet everyday today If it happens that the human race doesn't make it, then the fact that we were here once will not be altered, that once upon a time we peopled this astonishing blue planet, and wondered intelligently at everything about it and the other things who lived here with us on it, and that we celebrated the beauty of it in music and art, architecture, literature, and dance, and that there were times when we approached something godlike in our abilities and aspirations. We emerged out of depthless mystery, and back into mystery we returned,and in the end the mystery is all there is. James Howard Kunstler race blue art The suburban cycle which began a hundred years ago is nearly over. We are in for a period of contraction and economic hardship. James Howard Kunstler economic hardship years
