Buy new:
-33% $15.48
FREE delivery Tuesday, May 7 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Ships from: Amazon
Sold by: FS3 Studios
$15.48 with 33 percent savings
List Price: $23.00

The List Price is the suggested retail price of a new product as provided by a manufacturer, supplier, or seller. Except for books, Amazon will display a List Price if the product was purchased by customers on Amazon or offered by other retailers at or above the List Price in at least the past 90 days. List prices may not necessarily reflect the product's prevailing market price.
Learn more
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
FREE delivery Tuesday, May 7 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Or fastest delivery Friday, May 3. Order within 9 hrs 59 mins
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
$$15.48 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$15.48
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
Amazon
Ships from
Amazon
Sold by
FS3 Studios
Sold by
FS3 Studios
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Payment
Secure transaction
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
$9.93
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
The book may have minor cosmetic wear like creased spine, cover, scratches, curled corners, folded pages, minor sunburn, minor water damage, minor bent. The book may have some highlights, notes, underlined pages. Accessories such as CD, codes, toys, may not be included . Safe and Secure Mailer. No Hassle Return The book may have minor cosmetic wear like creased spine, cover, scratches, curled corners, folded pages, minor sunburn, minor water damage, minor bent. The book may have some highlights, notes, underlined pages. Accessories such as CD, codes, toys, may not be included . Safe and Secure Mailer. No Hassle Return See less
FREE delivery Tuesday, May 7 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Or fastest delivery Friday, May 3. Order within 11 hrs 44 mins
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
$$15.48 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$15.48
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
Amazon book clubs early access
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Explore Amazon Book Clubs
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

James Howard Kunstler
Follow
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

The Long Emergency: Surviving the Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century Hardcover – April 10, 2005

by James Howard Kunstler (Author)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 470 ratings
See all formats and editions
Great on Kindle
Great Experience. Great Value.
iphone with kindle app
Putting our best book forward
Each Great on Kindle book offers a great reading experience, at a better value than print to keep your wallet happy.

Explore your book, then jump right back to where you left off with Page Flip.

View high quality images that let you zoom in to take a closer look.

Enjoy features only possible in digital – start reading right away, carry your library with you, adjust the font, create shareable notes and highlights, and more.

Discover additional details about the events, people, and places in your book, with Wikipedia integration.
Get the free Kindle app: Link to the kindle app page Link to the kindle app page
Enjoy a great reading experience when you buy the Kindle edition of this book. Learn more about Great on Kindle, available in select categories.
View Kindle Edition
{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$15.48","priceAmount":15.48,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"15","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"48","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"EOWDcCmXtUbF8tAAaQRM8HUg2AraStGE0uA0jaEhCijDek%2FySVQSfI7z7cE6xOCEGsd3lw6rW%2BTSoMuDGl268zCoKfnB%2FxSVcvcIlCeGuyMd%2B871vWZiJLuWIgKx9hU4AsIkkqw%2BwLawArgktLmXRsW02Q25DX8pe0t0QY2rWcVt8HvnynRA74N10tO4Hqhc","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$9.93","priceAmount":9.93,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"9","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"93","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"EOWDcCmXtUbF8tAAaQRM8HUg2AraStGE0DEzZZPsY9Uhp0jFzGRPQ8HMBASjX%2FveSdw2iiv6iRz2nuKLy2yLHdtdvRzTYXq%2B1zJZsaDRd7%2B5SXamKHw7NiV7%2BOKIHJjryxdKXYrGzlx0Darpv7aYTeNLZd9RhvpKWqJb6p8tOkBVnDcTf%2BoCfS5qbhRNSPac","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

American people are sleepwalking into a future of hardship and turbulence. James Howard Kunstler, one of our shrewdest and most engaging social commentators, tells what to expect when we pass the tipping point of global peak oil production and enter the long arc of depletion - economic, political, and social changes on an epochal scale - sooner than we think.
The Long Emergency will change everything. Globalism will wither. Life will become profoundly and intensely local. The consumer economy will be a strange memory. Suburbia - considered a birthright and a reality by millions of Americans - will become untenable. We will struggle to feed ourselves. We may exhaust and bankrupt ourselves in the effort to prop up the unsustainable. And finally, the United States may not hold together as a nation. We are entering an uncharted territory of history.
The Long Emergency is a startling vision of what lies ahead, bringing new urgency and accessibility to the critical issues that will shape our future, and which we can no longer afford to ignore.
Previous page
  1. Print length
    320 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Atlantic Monthly Press
  4. Publication date
    April 10, 2005
  5. Dimensions
    6.75 x 1.25 x 9.25 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0871138883
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0871138880
  8. See all details
Next page
The Amazon Book Review
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.

Frequently bought together

The Long Emergency: Surviving the Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century
$15.48
Get it as soon as Tuesday, May 7
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
Sold by FS3 Studios and ships from Amazon Fulfillment.
+
Living in the Long Emergency: Global Crisis, the Failure of the Futurists, and the Early Adapters Who Are Showing Us the Way
$19.22
Get it as soon as Thursday, May 9
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
Sold by iWatch LLC and ships from Amazon Fulfillment.
+
The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape
$13.99
Get it as soon as Tuesday, May 7
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Total price:
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Details
Added to Cart
Some of these items ship sooner than the others.
Show details Hide details
Choose items to buy together.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The indictment of suburbia and the car culture that the author presented in The Geography of Nowhere turns apocalyptic in this vigorous, if overwrought, jeremiad. Kunstler notes signs that global oil production has peaked and will soon dwindle, and argues in an eye-opening, although not entirely convincing, analysis that alternative energy sources cannot fill the gap, especially in transportation. The result will be a Dark Age in which "the center does not hold" and "all bets are off about civilization's future." Absent cheap oil, auto-dependent suburbs and big cities will collapse, along with industry and mechanized agriculture; serfdom and horse-drawn carts will stage a comeback; hunger will cause massive "die-back"; otherwise "impotent" governments will engineer "designer viruses" to cull the surplus population; and Asian pirates will plunder California. Kunstler takes a grim satisfaction in this prospect, which promises to settle his many grudges against modernity. A "dazed and crippled America," he hopes, will regroup around walkable, human-scale towns; organic local economies of small farmers and tradesmen will replace an alienating corporate globalism; strong bonds of social solidarity will be reforged; and our heedless, childish culture of consumerism will be forced to grow up. Kunstler's critique of contemporary society is caustic and scintillating as usual, but his prognostications strain credibility. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Kunstler established a writing career criticizing American suburbia (e.g., The Geography of Nowhere, 1993), and his animosity against his bete noire does not abate here. It's a wide--casting, statistics-studded ramble through energy production and technologies, world economic and political history, and climatology that culminates in predictions that the suburbs are doomed. His assertions are always self--confident, sometimes immodestly so, as when he dismisses in toto any possibility that the market, or technologists, will rescue contemporary civilization from a world of declining oil production. Discerning an imminent future of protracted socioeconomic crisis, Kunstler foresees the progressive dilapidation of subdivisions and strip malls, the depopulation of the American Southwest, and, amid a world at war over oil, military invasions of the West Coast; when the convulsion subsides, Americans will live in smaller places and eat locally grown food. Credit Kunstler with an energetic argument, but whether he has achieved his stated goal--waking up an ostensibly somnolent public--via his relentless and alarmist pessimism remains to be seen. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Atlantic Monthly Press; First Edition (April 10, 2005)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0871138883
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0871138880
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 20 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.75 x 1.25 x 9.25 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 470 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
James Howard Kunstler

James Howard Kunstler

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

James Howard Kunstler is probably best known as the author of "The Long Emergency" (The Atlantic Monthly Press 2005), and "The Geography of Nowhere" (Simon and Schuster, 1993). Two other non-fiction titles in that series are "Home From Nowhere" (Simon and Schuster, 1996), and "The City in Mind" (Simon and Schuster, 2002). He's also the author of many novels, including his tale of the post-oil American future, "World Made By Hand" (The Atlantic Monthly press, 2008) and its three sequels. His shorter work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic Monthly, Metropolis, Rolling Stone, Playboy, and many other periodicals.

James Howard Kunstler was born in New York City in 1948. He attended New York's High School of Music and art and SUNY Brockport (BA, Theater, 1971). He was a reporter for the Boston Phoenix, the Albany Knickerbocker News, and later an editor with Rolling Stone Magazine. In 1975 he dropped out of corporate journalism to write books, and settled in Saratoga Springs, New York. He now lives in nearby Washington County, N.Y., the setting of his "World Made By Hand" series.

Kunstler's popular blog, Clusterf**k Nation, is published every Monday morning at www.kunstler.com and his podcast, The KunstlerCast, is refreshed once per month.

Kunstler is also a serious professional painter. His work may be seen at www.kunstler.com

Find JHK on Patreon at: https://www.patreon.com/JamesHowardKunstler

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
470 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Bubba Pearson
5.0 out of 5 stars Scary as Heck and almost certainly Accurate
Reviewed in the United States on August 12, 2013
Verified Purchase
OK, when you read this and meet the Dark Side Of The Force (which really does seem to be us, especially those we elect to *represent* us in government office)... If you're not scared of the dark side now, you will be. You. Will. Be. It's very hard to say you like a book that seems to so accurately pinpoint our past failings and even worse the *fixes* we're making now all in the name of what basically will be the end of the world for humans (our world will adapt and move on, but humans I think already have experienced the pinnacle of the miracles of *modern life* as it pertains to them), but I do like it very much. After picking it up just as a sort of general interest thing (after just finishing a book talking about fracking and all the other ways we are ruining our one and only home's ability to support us in ANY sort of comfort in the ever-tougher-but-never-ending (although there will BE an ending) search for that sweet crude that is the foundation for all we find comfortable-to-essential for *modern* life). I found the history of the rise and the author's ideas about the fall of this civilization -- all based on the use of fossil fuels that can NOT be renewed -- very fascinating reading. When I was a kid in high school, working in a gas station during the first (and worst) of the *oil shortages* and learned the outlines at least of what was happening to us basically for nothing other than greed (my assertion, I don't know particularly that the author could pick one cause-for-all-that-is-coming to man from his own actions), and never have gotten over the shock of the shortages (especially after the 2nd one!) of something (fossil fuels) that is finite and will end soon. We had the *crises*, then ... what, it just ended? The non-renewable resource had been replenished somehow? And then we had the SECOND GAS CRISES! Then -- poof! -- that, too seemed to somehow disappear by nothing more than the waving of political magic wands. A liter (somewhere between a quart and a gallon) back then started to cost $8.00 per and up, but our prices went right on back to *normal*. We are STILL complaining about the cost of something everyone seems to have hypnotized everyone else into believing will never end at 3 and 4 bucks a gallon! We're at war all over the globe (but the mid-east seems a particular *hot-spot*). Everything the U.S. did wrong to get to this disposable, wasteful, use-it-and-forget-it lifestyle everyone else now wants to do so they too can have their equivalent of *the American dream*. This book is trying to tell us it isn't a dream anymore -- that WE MAY ALREADY HAVE PASSED THE POSSIBLE PINNACLE OF OUR CIVILIZATION since the oil on which it all was based is going away. Everyone still seems to be doing their best to believe the CATASTROPHE looming on the horizon (where all the boys and girls have nukes now) won't happen, and still -- the oil is running out. Now, we are busily poisoning what's left of our fresh water (through *fracking*) to make the ever-smaller quantities of oil keep producing at rates they no longer can sustain. It is WAY past time to yell stop, in my opinion. The "Long Emergency" about which the author writes has the serious potential to be the end of mankind on earth (and just by looking around, one can tell THE LONG EMERGENCY already has begun) and still, everything seems to be business as usual. Places all over the United States that used to have large, pure, mostly self-sustaining clean water to drink now can literally turn on the tap, wait a few moments, hold up a source of fire to what should be *tap-water* and instead FIRE comes out. We really need to get going (it's past too late, but we MUST start!) on this stuff, or THE LONG EMERGENCY may instead become *The End of Man on Planet Earth." A VERY good read that, without advocating violence or other counter-productive measures, is trying to tell everyone something they desperately need to hear -- an excellent and highly recommended read. Be ready for shocks and examples of idiocy almost beyond the ability to comprehend, but please, buy it, read it, and if you can, do SOMETHING, almost ANYTHING to ensure that others also know what is happening and what could happen. This no longer (in my opinion) is something only *our kids* and future generations will have to deal with. It already has started, and we need to start doing something intelligent and productive about it RIGHT NOW!
9 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
James
4.0 out of 5 stars Good points, but lacks evidence, too many predictions
Reviewed in the United States on October 8, 2013
Verified Purchase
I'm a radical and I do think our current industrial way of life will be over this century, but I wouldn't recommend this book. He does discuss many important issues, but I think there are better authors on the subjects, whether on peak oil or anthropology or history. He makes A LOT of assertions without evidence (he seems to me a hack pundit rather than an expert) and loads of predictions about our future, so it's very hit and miss (it seems like there are hundreds of mistakes in this book). For example, he rightly talks about the housing bubble and how suburbia isn't sustainable, but then he also talks about how shale gas isn't economically viable (fracking?) and how peak oil would be between 2000 and 2008 (we're still not there it seems). This book is not only human-focused, but American-focused. He mostly talks about the industrious people in America, leaving out the non-industrious poor. He doesn't make any deep criticism of our culture or past, leaving out a lot about how we got to be such a destructive and individualistic state.

Good points:

1. 2008 recession. He predicted the housing bubble.
2. He criticizes consumerism, suburbia, and car culture.
3. He rightly says our culture is dying, and that we will be moving into a "Long Emergency".

Bad points (these are some examples, there are hundreds of mistakes and loads of junk commentary/predictions in this book):

1. Racism. He lumps Muslims together in chapter 3 for criticism about fundamentalism, and lumps blacks together for criticism in chapter 7. Chapter 3 sounds a lot like what comes out of the mouth of neoconservatives like Thomas Friedman. He seems to support the war in Iraq.

2. He leaves out much popular social criticism about our industrial way of thinking, commitment and individualism in America: see Morris Berman, Philip Slater, Robert Bellah, World-Systems Analysis.

3. He leaves out anthropology, especially when talking about culture and community. He doesn't mention older traditions and ways of living, especially tribal cultures.

4. He says that natives will one day reinhabit the Great Plains. This seems far-fetched.

5. Throughout the book, he says anarchy = chaos and violence. I don't think he's read radical literature, as the word means "without leaders". Read The Democracy Project by David Graeber.

6. He says humans have always made transactions with money. This is false: anthropologists recognize we first had credit before anything else: read Debt: The First 5,000 Years

7. He doesn't discuss pre-scientific thought: people in industrialized countries drastically changed our way of thinking 400 years ago, but he doesn't really address this. Read, "Reenchantment of The World" by Morris Berman.

8. Peak oil. He said shale gas wouldn't be economically viable (he didn't anticipate fraking), and we'd hit peak between 2000 and 2008. He was wrong on both points, but I do believe the peak oil discussion is important. There is good writing about peak oil on smartplanet.com, and discussion by EIA, USGS, and university professors and other authors. It seems peak oil will occur closer to mid-century than right now. That's still really close, so definitely important to talk about!

8. He focuses on peak oil above all reasons that we will enter the "Long Emergency", though it seems like other things could be important as well. There is also pollution, loss of biodiversity, destruction of ecosystems, overconsumption, lack of commitment in American life. Also our economy is based on debt, and it seems like another recession could really mess the system up. He doesn't mention world-systems analysis.
23 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Allan J. Masison
5.0 out of 5 stars Well written and well worth reading. Sure to be a best seller.
Reviewed in the United States on January 6, 2006
Verified Purchase
The author presents a convincing case for the fact that we are running out of oil and natural gas. The depletion of natural gas is devastating as well because natural gas is the basis for most fertilizers. The effect on food production would be enormous.

Peak oil production is simply the highest number of gallons of oil ever produced in a year. If production has reached a high point and subsequent production in later years is less and less, it becomes obvious that a point has been reached among production, consumption and inventory and that the inventory will eventually be zero. Particularly frightening is the fact that current production has been in a continual decline, consumption is increasing and no new fields have been located in the last several years.

That all of the oil will be gone is indisputable. The question is when. The author suggests that it is going to be sooner that most expect. Two of the most important factors are the overstatement of reserves (production quotas in OPEC are based on reserves) and the fact that the remaining oil recoveries will be more difficult and costly and in some cases not cost effective.

It is alarming to read how the alternatives to oil will be inadequate, yet the analyses are well thought out and detailed. For example, hydrogen may work well in a laboratory setting but distribution of explosive and corrosive hydrogen to hundreds of thousands of gas stations, among other problems, is another matter.

We are all hopeful that alternatives will be found; however, at the moment, none of the current ones look promising. What is more disturbing is the apparent lack of a national effort to develop an alternative to oil.

In summary, a very thoughtful and provoking book. Highly recommended.
9 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English
Lance Read
5.0 out of 5 stars Feast Then Famine for Humans
Reviewed in Canada on January 26, 2013
Verified Purchase
Alberta based Canadian writer Nikiforuk does an excellent job of showing us how we will eventually be living in a World Made By Hand as we burn up the rest of the cheaper fossil fuels heading towards a world where alternate fuels will be of little help. EVERYTHING we use - eat, rely on for health care, wear, play-with, watch and read is fossil fuel based and it is getting ever more expensive economically and environmentally to convert the crappy dregs like Tar-sands, shale oil/gas and deep sea into usable energy.
One person found this helpful
 Report
andy23889
5.0 out of 5 stars Sustainable Retreat, the only hopeful future
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 22, 2012
Verified Purchase
Breathlessly written by James Howard Kunstler, and with the very long subtitle of Surviving the [End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other] Converging Catastrophes of the 21st Century. My edition had a shorter one by excising the bracketed words but they are key to the book with half of it being about oil (and its curtain-raiser, coal).

Both have correlated with our rocketing world population and have defined the carrying capacity of Planet Earth. Before the Industrial Revolution our numbers struggled up to 1 billion and managed to exploit most corners of the world. Now oil allows 7 billion. And when the oil runs out... Will nuclear, hydrogen, solar, wind or hydro cut it? They're relatively so inefficient and user-unfriendly that it seems not.

We believe that technology will deliver. Kunstler doesn't mention biofuel but that may postdate 2004. It doesn't change his assertion that oil also fuels technology so it'd better find an alternative before it runs out. Well before; like now, and that doesn't seem to be happening.

Next up is climate change (not global warming!) Here's a nugget: twice in the last 20,000 years the planet has warmed by double-digit degrees (Fahrenheit, I assume) in about a decade. So you can throw away your smooth temperature projections. It can go crazy!

Oh, we've had scares about the future before. I grew up with the Cold War and nuclear winter but it was only ever one threat at a time. Now the question seems to be more the order in which the many will come. End of oil; end of gas; rising sea; depleted water; exhausted soil (which in any case requires gas to fertilise it for the yields we expect); disease (exacerbated by rising temperatures). And that's not all...

The Running on Fumes chapter is an economic history and pretty much above my head. But I recognise a few terms, enough to think that Kunstler was somehow predicting the banking and real estate crisis that knocked the bottom out of my shares not long back. If so, I'm impressed and the more ready to believe his other projections.

The final chapter is a guess of how, principally, the US may cope post-oil. It sounds rather nice, for the 6 billion who won't die of course. But they'll largely be Johnny Foreigners so who cares about them? The other proviso is that society doesn't degenerate into anarchy or war - rather a big ask given our reputation.

An eye-opener for me then and I thought I was au fait with most thinking about the future. This book does continue the sustainable retreat theme, which looks like the only rational, and hopeful, course of action. We won't like it but we'll like the alternative worse.
2 people found this helpful
 Report
Cheerioh
4.0 out of 5 stars un avis très détaillé et intéressant sur ce qui nous attend probablement à ceci près que...
Reviewed in France on January 10, 2017
Verified Purchase
J'ai découvert J H Kunstler via son roman qui place l'humanité dans une situation post apocalyptique après une rupture massive de la normalité. Très intéressant comme point de vue sur un monde qui revient brutalement et bon an mal an à un monde plus proche de ce que connaissait le monde moderne au XVIIIème siècle.

Dans ce long essai, l'auteur explique ce qui lui a permis d'envisager une telle rupture et les éléments qui l'ont amené à l'envisager comme un avenir potentiel pour l'humanité. Il est clair quand on commence à se documenter sur le sujet que notre société décadente approche de ses dernières heures mais après une telle lecture (qu'il m'a fallu un certain temps pour encaisser, en plusieurs fois) cela paraît évident et à juste raison.

Ainsi on ne sort pas indemne des chiffres et faits bien réels qui indiquent qu'on va sur un épuisement des ressources et l'analyse faite par l'auteur des alternatives actuellement disponibles fait assez froid dans le dos car aucune ne tient vraiment la route et on constate qu'on se trouve vraiment dans une impasse.

De même le passage sur l'analyse géopolitique des conflits mondiaux du point de vue des ressources témoigne d'une capacité d'analyse hors du commun. C'est un point de vue personnel.

Pour autant le dernier chapitre n'est pas totalement négatif car du point de vue de l'auteur le monde actuel est une absurdité, opinion que je partage à beaucoup d'endroits. Pour lui le retour à la terre est une évidence mais ce retour sera difficile du fait de la maltraitance des sols, de même l'urbanisme à l'américaine est responsable d'une perte majeure des sols arables. Du coup il est important également pour moi de mentionner à de futurs lecteurs que la description de l'auteur est destinée aux Américains et de par ce fait dresse un état des lieux dont nous sommes encore un petit peu éloignés. Une bonne leçon à prendre et vive la SAFER qui protège encore les terres cultivables des rapaces de l'économie moderne.

Bref, un propos bien instructif et pas forcément trop sombre. Je ne mets que 4 étoiles bien que l'ouvrage soit passionnant car je regrette amèrement dans cette analyse qu'on sent très documentée que l'auteur n'ait pas jugé bon de partager la moindre source. Je trouve que ça jette à son propos un certain discrédit, ne serait sans mes lectures annexes je pourrais douter de la validité de son analyse.
One person found this helpful
 Report
P. Blundell
4.0 out of 5 stars Sobering Reading
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 15, 2009
Verified Purchase
I wouldn't recommend this book for holiday poolside reading, unless you want to have a depressing holiday. However, the message is clear and stark. We are running out of fossil fuels at a rapid rate. Global warming isn't really the issue we should be worried about, the real problem is oil and natural gas depletion. Once they run out there won't be any carbon emmisions anyway. The book is well written in a non dramatic style but the message is clear - the greatest challenge of the 21st Century will be upon us sooner than we think and this book makes it very plain that we are nowehere near ready to meet that challenge. The party will soon be over and when it ends, we had better prepare to turn the clock back 200 years in terms of our ability to travel, heat our homes and carry on our businesses.
3 people found this helpful
 Report
AC
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in Canada on April 8, 2016
Verified Purchase
good book and quick shipping
Report