Jim Kunstler Interview

Jim Kunstler Interview in Business Week : TreeHugger
Business Week has a good interview with Jim Kunstler for those who are not familiar with his work. A typical question:

Why is suburbia now threatened?
Cheap oil is what made suburbia possible. But we’ll run into problems with spot shortages. As we get into trouble with these supplies, our economy will suffer. Major instabilities in the system will present themselves much sooner than we are led to believe. And by that I mean the way we produce food, the way we conduct commerce, and the way we move around.

When will all that happen?
The rise and fall of oil production is asymmetrical. In other words, it’ll be a steeper, rockier tumble down than the steady increase going up. My own sense of things is that we will be in very serious trouble inside of five years.

Continue reading in Business Week

Kunstler on Colbert:

There is also this funny and informative TED talk, given by Kunstler in 2004, which I mentioned before.

Human Progress

Long Views » Blog Archive » Niall Ferguson & Peter Schwartz, “Historian vs. Futurist on Human Progress”
Questions from the audience ended with one asking whether optimism or pessimism was a more useful way to think about the future. Schwartz said, “Optimism lets you imagine how you can overcome problems, and those possibilities motivate change.” Ferguson said, “You must always focus on worst-case scenarios, and history will teach them to you.”

Sounds like a fascinating seminar. Looking forward to the video.

Designers Accord

The Designers Accord
The Designers Accord envisions a creative community where the principles of sustainable design are seamlessly integrated into all practice and production.