Comments for Forecast For the Year Ahead - James Kunstler at http://atlanticfreepress.com , comment 1 to 11 out of 11 comments http://atlanticfreepress.com Thu, 09 Feb 2012 14:22:20 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://atlanticfreepress.com/news/1/569-forecast-for-the-year-ahead-james-kunstler.html#comment-1344 It's a couple months later and the price of oil is still well beloe it's peak. Natural gas is even more off in terms of percentage. There were no mass deaths due to freezing (like Kunstler predicted) in the Midwest during the winter of 2005-6, nor in the winter of 2007-8. How can you guys take this author's view on peak oil seriously when he writes things like: 2006 might be the last bonuses wall steet insiders ever see? Kunstler man only makes insanely extreme prediction in order to draw attention to himself and sell books. Don't get caught in his web of narcissism - just look at his track record before you fall for his mumbo jumbo. - a guest Thu, 22 Feb 2007 09:34:38 +0100 http://atlanticfreepress.com/news/1/569-forecast-for-the-year-ahead-james-kunstler.html#comment-932 I think it's funny that some of you (like Charles) fight, scratch, yell, and scream to find any legitimate grounds that fossil sources like shale will eventually subsidize our energy problems. Whether true or not, it doesn't address the underlying issue - fossil fuels will eventually run out, fossil fuels are severely damaging to our health and environments, and fossil fuels will only keep us off the ledge of our own demise a little while because they are UNSUSTAINABLE. Kunstler may be a bit condescending, and he may not have the necessary degrees to "legitimize" him in some people's eyes, but at least he points to a different, sustainable way of life that we should be moving toward. Instead of sinking money into new forms of fossil fuel production we should be building rail lines, pushing for more local/community oriented living schemes, and educating the public about sustainability issues. That's the argument I wonder about. Stop beating your heads against the wall, and move through the door of possibility people like Kunstler and Heinberg have opened. - a guest Wed, 24 Jan 2007 17:41:56 +0100 http://atlanticfreepress.com/news/1/569-forecast-for-the-year-ahead-james-kunstler.html#comment-603 Charles: speaking of failing to back up your assertion, where did you get your wild optimism about oil shale? According to the EIA's recent 2007 Outlook (http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/aeo/pdf/appa.pdf), "liquids produced from energy crops, natural gas, coal, oil sands, and shale" amount to from .25 mbpd (or about 1% of our current consumption) to 1.37 mbpd by 2030, or about 6% of today's consumption, which in 2030 (if business as usual maintains for another 25 years, which no rational person should believe) will probably be closer to 3% of our petroleum consumption. And again, that's including liquids from a whole host of sources, of which oil shale is only a small part...possibly the [i]smallest[/i] part. That's hardly a cavalry! Not only that, if you do your homework and learn about Shell's in situ recovery process, you will learn that it's still very much in the testing phase, not at all yet proven to be something that could be scaled to production levels, and that there are still some very difficult environmental issues yet to be resolved (such as poisoning groundwater) and that the energy returned on investment (EROI) is so low, they don't even publish it. And as for fuel from CTL, the EIA estimates a whole 5.7 billion gallons of production annually by 2030, or about 4% of our current petroleum usage. Don't believe the hype: at this point in time, when you really do your homework and look at the numbers carefully, it is absolutely clear that there are no viable supply side solutions to our domestic fuel needs! Nearly all of the solutions, going forward, are on the demand side: as Kunstler points out, in reconfiguring out communities and learning how to get along with a whole lot less private transportation. I have covered the [i]real[/i] energy options extensively in these articles: http://www.getreallist.com/article.php?story=20070104180907593 http://www.getreallist.com/article.php?story=20070109204613934 - Chris Nelder Wed, 10 Jan 2007 22:16:12 +0100 http://atlanticfreepress.com/news/1/569-forecast-for-the-year-ahead-james-kunstler.html#comment-505 Lots of speculation on Internet. We're working on DATA. http://www.prosefights.org/nmlegal/fbifoia/mueller/mueller.htm#mueller - bilp Thu, 04 Jan 2007 09:40:04 +0100 http://atlanticfreepress.com/news/1/569-forecast-for-the-year-ahead-james-kunstler.html#comment-504 You tied the correct idea that ethanol is a subsidy charade with the false idea that "oil shale is going nowhere". You then failed to back this up or base your assertion on anything. When Shell oil launches their insitu method extraction following the commercial federal leasing in the next 18 months, you will find out how wrong your assumption was. Shell's movements will send an American hydrocarbon cavalry to the rocky mountains completely backed by the U.S. congress and you will witness America far surpass Canadian unconventional crude production by 2025 because they don't have as much pipeline to lay to get to U.S. markets. American's will lose the Iraq and Middle East battle for oil, but they will win the war on energy through oil shale and coal-to-liquids technology. Write that down. - Charles London Thu, 04 Jan 2007 06:12:58 +0100 http://atlanticfreepress.com/news/1/569-forecast-for-the-year-ahead-james-kunstler.html#comment-502 When you tell it like it is, you always will have people after you because they are so desperate for it to be some other way that they will lie, cheat, steal, and murder to keep the truth from coming out. The stock market used to be a legitimate way to raise investment capital for expansion or consolidation or streamlining, which also gave rise to the ability of men to GAMBLE on what other men might do as they like to do on horses and dogs and athletic events. Now it is strictly a gambling game which only on rare occasions is ever used for raising capital. Some say zero sum, but that isn't true either: the broker is the house, and the game is rigged for the player to lose every time he plays, and for the house to win every time he plays, even as for every one-time winner, there is a one time loser. - SamSnedegar Thu, 04 Jan 2007 00:19:53 +0100 http://atlanticfreepress.com/news/1/569-forecast-for-the-year-ahead-james-kunstler.html#comment-497 My mistake. - Mike Bendzela Wed, 03 Jan 2007 21:14:31 +0100 http://atlanticfreepress.com/news/1/569-forecast-for-the-year-ahead-james-kunstler.html#comment-496 Jimmy, saying that kunstler is "not an economist" is a compliment--like saying he is "not a retard." I've taken to dissing peak oil because I don't want the lifeboats swamped with retards like Jimmy when oil fields crash precipitously. "Peak what? Nonsense! Oil fields replenish themselves." The creationist republicans with MBA degrees reelly, reelly appreciate this. Meanwhile, I grow my own food, stay at home as much as possible, and work on ways to subsist without electricity. I've met with great success. - Mike Bendzela Wed, 03 Jan 2007 21:11:51 +0100 http://atlanticfreepress.com/news/1/569-forecast-for-the-year-ahead-james-kunstler.html#comment-495 I liked you in [i]Rolling Stone[/i] and I like you now. And if you were wrong about the timing of the Wall Street crash (it's coming, I'm sure of that), you can take solace in the fact that people like George Will, who are wrong about a great many things, get six figures annually for being wrong about a great many things. So if you don't have enough money, I'd suggest you do what so many others have done and start being wrong about everything. Eric Alterman, who is often wrong himself, has a great column on that very topic. I saw it on HuffPo. It's posted in its entirety on Altercation, and it's worth a look if you haven't seen it. You're not wrong here, though. You're right. And I know that AFP didn't pay for your column. You get nothing for being right. See how this works? Go and be wrong. Get rich. Got that? - Jimmy Montague Wed, 03 Jan 2007 21:02:13 +0100 http://atlanticfreepress.com/news/1/569-forecast-for-the-year-ahead-james-kunstler.html#comment-490 Stop. Just stop. This is what happens when an ex-Rolling Stone reporter with a degree in drama tries his hand at financial prediction. You're a literary stylist, JHK not an scientist. If you want to be taken seriously please provide a hypothesis and some data, not a laundry list of things you despise about American suburbia. - charts Wed, 03 Jan 2007 14:14:02 +0100 http://atlanticfreepress.com/news/1/569-forecast-for-the-year-ahead-james-kunstler.html#comment-488 That was the funniest sarchasm with the ususal woven truths I have read in a long time. You really have your thumb over the world. Too bad the world is ignorant and does not know you thumb is there. I think they would say it was up your ass. But then again that would box you and suit their pursuits of trying to afford a more extravagant car. I am going to post this on myspace blog. I am sure my babtist friends will ignore yet another mirror to look into. - hens Wed, 03 Jan 2007 13:51:18 +0100