Comments on: Already adapting to the post-oil future http://cominganarchy.com/2008/05/03/already-adapting-to-the-post-oil-future/ Speak Victorian, Think Pagan Sat, 20 Mar 2010 04:47:48 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: ElamBend http://cominganarchy.com/2008/05/03/already-adapting-to-the-post-oil-future/comment-page-1/#comment-383548 ElamBend Sun, 04 May 2008 00:54:16 +0000 http://cominganarchy.com/2008/05/03/already-adapting-to-the-post-oil-future/#comment-383548 I have to agree with Jim. We'd adapt somehow, even if it meant lots of new coal-fired plants and all electric cars. I am enjoying the attention that alternative energy production and non-oil dependent tech is receiving. However, we have been down this road before and should the coming drop in oil prices go too far, then these things will whither until the next energy crisis. I have to agree with Jim. We’d adapt somehow, even if it meant lots of new coal-fired plants and all electric cars. I am enjoying the attention that alternative energy production and non-oil dependent tech is receiving. However, we have been down this road before and should the coming drop in oil prices go too far, then these things will whither until the next energy crisis.

]]> By: jim http://cominganarchy.com/2008/05/03/already-adapting-to-the-post-oil-future/comment-page-1/#comment-383547 jim Sun, 04 May 2008 00:22:08 +0000 http://cominganarchy.com/2008/05/03/already-adapting-to-the-post-oil-future/#comment-383547 Dystopian visions are good booksellers, but unlikely realities. Sharp discontinuities in a nation and economy the size and scope of the United States are rare. Changes happen at the margins. If you look at the most dramatically changing communities in America ... it's actually new suburban growth. The booming burbs of Charlotte and Raleigh, Phoenix and Vegas. These are places with space and welcoming local goverments. New highways get built, new subdivisions go up, new offices move to town. The work follows the workforce now. Northern Virginia is a good example. People want single family suburban living. Fairfax (close in DC suburb) boomed in population until it hit a certain density level. Then new migrants pushed to the south (Prince William) and west (Loudoun) for cheaper housing. But now their commute is growing worse and worse. The response of companies is to move their office buildings south and west, chasing their workforce. This chase might lag the workforce movement by a decade, but it happens. Density the goes up and people push farther south and west and the cycle starts all over again. Most Americans don't like urban density levels. When a county or region hits a certain point -- new domestic migrants stop coming, and young people start moving out. Not to mention that the current inhabitants start enacting density limiting laws and refuse to build new roads. America is just really, really big. If one county or MSA becomes undesirable or uninviting ... there's always two or three others who are anxious to grow. I think Americans response to the "commute tax" indicates suburban living is a very stable feature of the American lifestyle. If spending hours a day in traffic doesn't dissuade people from the suburbs, I doubt a few more dollars a day in gas prices will. Dystopian visions are good booksellers, but unlikely realities. Sharp discontinuities in a nation and economy the size and scope of the United States are rare. Changes happen at the margins.

If you look at the most dramatically changing communities in America … it’s actually new suburban growth. The booming burbs of Charlotte and Raleigh, Phoenix and Vegas. These are places with space and welcoming local goverments.

New highways get built, new subdivisions go up, new offices move to town. The work follows the workforce now.

Northern Virginia is a good example. People want single family suburban living. Fairfax (close in DC suburb) boomed in population until it hit a certain density level. Then new migrants pushed to the south (Prince William) and west (Loudoun) for cheaper housing. But now their commute is growing worse and worse.

The response of companies is to move their office buildings south and west, chasing their workforce. This chase might lag the workforce movement by a decade, but it happens. Density the goes up and people push farther south and west and the cycle starts all over again.

Most Americans don’t like urban density levels. When a county or region hits a certain point — new domestic migrants stop coming, and young people start moving out. Not to mention that the current inhabitants start enacting density limiting laws and refuse to build new roads.

America is just really, really big. If one county or MSA becomes undesirable or uninviting … there’s always two or three others who are anxious to grow.

I think Americans response to the “commute tax” indicates suburban living is a very stable feature of the American lifestyle. If spending hours a day in traffic doesn’t dissuade people from the suburbs, I doubt a few more dollars a day in gas prices will.

]]> By: Kunstler: World Made by Hand « Plausible Fremtider http://cominganarchy.com/2008/05/03/already-adapting-to-the-post-oil-future/comment-page-1/#comment-383546 Kunstler: World Made by Hand « Plausible Fremtider Sat, 03 May 2008 22:19:43 +0000 http://cominganarchy.com/2008/05/03/already-adapting-to-the-post-oil-future/#comment-383546 [...] omtale på ComingAnarchy. Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)World Made by Hand (James Howard Kunstler, [...] [...] omtale pÃ¥ ComingAnarchy. Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)World Made by Hand (James Howard Kunstler, [...]

]]> By: Kotare http://cominganarchy.com/2008/05/03/already-adapting-to-the-post-oil-future/comment-page-1/#comment-383540 Kotare Sat, 03 May 2008 19:20:00 +0000 http://cominganarchy.com/2008/05/03/already-adapting-to-the-post-oil-future/#comment-383540 I haven't read the novel, but Kunstler's <i>The Long Emergency</i> covers the same ground. It's a provocative read. One of the key ideas in the book that stuck with me, aside from the 'car-suburbs are doomed' thesis, was Kunstler's call for the regeneration of the US railroad system, on an electrified basis. I haven’t read the novel, but Kunstler’s The Long Emergency covers the same ground. It’s a provocative read. One of the key ideas in the book that stuck with me, aside from the ‘car-suburbs are doomed’ thesis, was Kunstler’s call for the regeneration of the US railroad system, on an electrified basis.

]]> By: von Kaufman-Turkestansky http://cominganarchy.com/2008/05/03/already-adapting-to-the-post-oil-future/comment-page-1/#comment-383539 von Kaufman-Turkestansky Sat, 03 May 2008 18:31:42 +0000 http://cominganarchy.com/2008/05/03/already-adapting-to-the-post-oil-future/#comment-383539 A very important topic - and in a sense we can see some of the potential future effects of the transiation from a fossil-fuel based civilization to another form of civilizaton even now. I think that cities will see the effects of many kinds of adjustmets: economic adjustments as the cost of locomotion changes (and the policy decisions that follow from this change - such as building a transport infrastructure that will move people and goods more efficiently); also demographic changes in places like North America (will the Baby Boom life-cycle changes translate into a bubble boom in real estate?) and much of the developing world (where a country like Yemen will pack a much stronger demographic punch as its populations rises past 50 million souls by 2050 - I have been playing with the UN Population Prospects online tool at http://esa.un.org/unpp/ - check it out if you haven't already!) The following article in The Atlantic should be of great interest: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200803/subprime ... A very important topic – and in a sense we can see some of the potential future effects of the transiation from a fossil-fuel based civilization to another form of civilizaton even now.

I think that cities will see the effects of many kinds of adjustmets: economic adjustments as the cost of locomotion changes (and the policy decisions that follow from this change – such as building a transport infrastructure that will move people and goods more efficiently); also demographic changes in places like North America (will the Baby Boom life-cycle changes translate into a bubble boom in real estate?) and much of the developing world (where a country like Yemen will pack a much stronger demographic punch as its populations rises past 50 million souls by 2050 – I have been playing with the UN Population Prospects online tool at http://esa.un.org/unpp/ – check it out if you haven’t already!)

The following article in The Atlantic should be of great interest:

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200803/subprime …

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