There’s been a buzz in the blogosphere about the recent posting at Rolling Stone’s site of an excerpt from James Howard Kunstler’s book The Long Emergency. As the excerpt makes clear, Kunstler’s thesis is that the world is now facing a long (economic, technological, and every other kind of) decline because oil production has peaked and will only decline (and become more expensive) from now on.

The article is worth reading, if only to underscore the reasons one might believe that oil-based civilization has passed its point of sustainability, even apart from the ecological damage it causes, including climate change.

But the article is not without its critiques. My favorite is Bruce Sterling’s amusing, almost optimistic point-by-point response called “The Mad Max Scenario,” which will eventually be posted here. (It’ll be note 00449 when it goes up.) In a nutshell, he says, why not start transitioning away from fossil fuels now, rather than wait until after the collapse of civilization? (That seems like a reasonable suggestion to me.)

And Bruce points us to a funny rant by Mark Morford about what he’ll have to give up when the “Peak Oil” phenomenon kicks in.

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