One of the more interesting blogs I have seen on Peak Oil is Clusterfuck Nation by Jim Kunstler. Jim seems more than some of the others to say what he feels is what it's going to be. Some of his predictions have been way off (Dow Jones 4000, instead of the actual 12000), but his general thesis is well taken. People seem to be ignoring the signs of Peak Oil, so maybe someone like him is necessary to get people to listen. One of his points is that such things as Toyota Priuses, ethanol, CAFE standards and the like are merely ways of trying to get us to continue driving like we have been, instead of what he thinks would be better, namely to restructure the way we live and the places we live so we can do with less oil.
In his latest blog ("Both Ways"), he says he would rather have someone who wants us to discourage suburban development instead of pulling the troops home. We have someone, Jim. To me it follows that he would want us to support Dorothy Jaeckle in Chesterfield County, Virginia, who won an upset victory over Jack Wilson, more than Democrats such as Hillary and Obama who want to pull the troops home. At least Dorothy would be a start. She defeated a candidate supported by his boss and by developers all over the place. Her platform, which she documents in a letter (parts of which are here), is that something should be done about unbridled growth and development in Chesterfield County. She put her case convincingly, and won the election easily.
It's a start, but so far she has told us what she is against. What is she for? Hopefully, she will outline a design for the County that will include farmer's markets, design to make the automobile less necessary, and other facets of what is called the "urban village". For we are eventually going to have to adjust to such an environment. The oil may have already hit a peak worldwide, and there will be only less of it as the time goes by.
In the meantime, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and other candidates who yell about pulling troops out of Iraq, about energy dependence, and about bombing Iran should listen to what Dorothy Jaeckle is saying and call for all of us to head in the same direction.
In the meantime, I hope Jim continues his blog, and that his servers stand up better than they did tonight. I could not comment on his blog because of "this page can't be displayed".
