Thursday, August 18, 2005

The Coming Emergency

Read a scary except from a new book from James Kunstler called The Long Emergency. When the oil runs out we are all going to freeze and strave in the dark. Here is another review of the book from a site called The Fourth World War.

Years ago I came across a sci-fi story from the fifties about a suburban family after their subdivision died, can't remember the name of the story. There was lots of great grim sci-fi in that time. As a reaction to the postwar cornecopia zeitgeist. Who can forget Harry Harrison's, Make room, Make Room, later made into the movie Solyant Green.

The Anti-Malthusians believe that nothing can ever run out, things will always be great. They feel reassured Malthus and Erlich most dire predictions have not been fulfilled. The difference between optimists and pessimists is that if they recognize reality, not automatic, optimists are disappointed and pessimists are pleasantly surprised.

1 comment:

Wolf K said...

Yup, scary all right. Time to clear out our chimney, and get ready for wood smoke, I guess.