James Howard Kunstler at NYCNU

Architecture, Built Environment and Infrastructure, Creation Care, Damn rackets 4 Minutes

Pro Tip: Read from the bottom up.

  1. And, of course, Jen Krouse was right about sitting near the back. She is always right. #NYCNU

  2. Okay, Kunstler is done. Bring in the grief counselors. #NYCNU

  3. Kunstler: The age of the 400 acre TND is ending. New Urbanists need to become small scale builders and developers. #NYCNU

  5. Kunstler: The action is going to shift to the places scaled to the energy and capital realities of the world, small towns. #NYCNU

  6. Kunstler: The future is not going to be bigger towers in bigger cities. Big cities are going to contract too. #NYCNU

  7. Kunstler: We have a great inland waterway system. The towns on these inland waterways are going to become much more important. #NYCNU

  8. Kunstler: We’re not going to build high speed rail across America. No capital. We need to rebuild the conventional RR system. #NYCNU

  9. Kunstler: Aspiring cubical serfs will find themselves as farmers of the future. This will emerge to organize itself. #NYCNU

  10. Kunstler: Vertical farming – more BS. Techno narcissism. Complete f’ing nonsense. #NYCNU

  11. @clmarohn When gambling was illegal they called it running numbers…now that it’s state sponsored it’s called a lottery.

  12. Kunstler: We need to reactivate the main streets of America and put commercial activity back into them. #NYCNU

  13. Kunstler: The future rural landscape needs to be a productive one. #NYCNU

  14. Kunstler: The Congress for the New Urbanism is the only organization that understands how we need to change things. #NYCNU

  15. @glhjr Yeah, there are a couple grief counselors waiting in back for when this is done. #NYCNU

  16. Kunstler: We have a psychology of previous investment, doesn’t allow us to address the problem because we poured our wealth into it. #NYCNU

  17. Kunstler: Suburbia is over. Life is tragic and we won’t be excused for the bad choices we made. #NYCNU

  18. Kunstler: We are in the twilight of happy motoring. Motoring is going to become far less democratic with more not participating. #NYCNU

  19. Kunstler: Agriculture is going to be local and smaller. Agribusiness won’t continue. People may starve if we don’t get it together. #NYCNU

  20. Kunstler: Instead of “solutions” we need to talk about “intelligent responses” and a list of tasks for changing everyday life. #NYCNU

  21. Kunstler: We need to relocalize and downscale everything in American society, something we can’t even have a conversation about. #NYCNU

  22. Kunstler: Tom Friedman did US society a disservice by making it seem like globalization was a permanent condition. It is not. #NYCNU

  23. Kunstler: The global economy is over, we just don’t know it yet. Currency wars are the latest manifestation. #NYCNU

  24. Kunstler: We need to make new arrangements. We’re not going to be able to continue to drive to Walmart forever. #NYCNU

  25. Kunstler: All the municipalities and states are broke and we can’t afford to fix everything we’ve committed to. #NYCNU

  26. Kunstler: Beware of the term “solutions”. What is being peddled is BS. #NYCNU

  27. Kunstler: We’ve become a schlerotic society unable to deal with reality. #NYCNU

  28. Kunstler: We believe that “they” will come up with a rescue remedy. There is no “they” and it is not going to happen. #NYCNU

  29. Kunstler: We’re not in a recession, Great Recession, New Depression or any of the names we like to use. We are in contraction. #NYCNU

  30. Kunstler: We are entering an era of energy scarcity and capital scarcity. #NYCNU

  31. Kunstler: Gambling used to be a marginal activity combined to the margins of life. Now it’s normal with even governments taking part. #NYCNU

  32. Kunstler: Financial innovation was an attempt to make up for the lack of productive activity in the economy. Something for nothing. #NYCNU

  33. Kunstler: Accounting fraud now making up for the lack of capital formation. #NYCNU

  34. Kunstler: We broke the link between capital formation and productive activity. Energy Return on Investment is the culprit. #NYCNU

  35. Kunstler: American economy was built on productive economic activity. This is no longer the case. We are in a new era. #NYCNU

  36. Kunstler: 1 million barrels per day of shale oil. US daily consumption: 18-19 million barrels. Shale not going to get us there. #NYCNU

  37. Kunstler: Bakken oil well depletion relate 30-50% per year. To maintain production levels requires continuous drilling. $$$ #NYCNU

  38. Kunstler: Current flows from Alaska pipeline are so low the line is nearly not usable. #NYCNU

  39. Kunstler: Reagan & Thatcher economies benefited from the last great conventional, non-OPEC oil finds. Juiced the economy. #NYCNU

  40. Kunstler: Oil then, oil cheap and easy w/ high flow. Oil now, pricey oil w/ low flow. #NYCNU

  41. Kunstler: The more distressed we become, the more delusional our thinking. It’s showing up at the highest levels of public discourse. #NYCNU

  42. Kunstler: We don’t have 100 years of shale gas. There is no chance we become energy independent living the way we are living. #NYCNU

  43. Kunstler: We are unable to construct a coherent story about what is happening to us. We therefore have no coherent responses. #NYCNU

  44. Am here with Jen Krouse. She insisted on sitting further back to steer clear of the fury of Jim. #NYCNU

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    “The remarks made in this essay do not represent scholarly research. They are intended as topical stimulations for conversation among intelligent and informed people.” (Gerhart Niemeyer)

    Some succinct standing advice on recurring themes.

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