Review: World Made by Hand by James Howard Kunstler

Although neither of us typically read much fiction, we finally received our long awaited copy of James Howard Kunstler's, World Made by Hand. This book was devoured in one day's time. Gripping, compelling and a force to push the reader toward broad social introspection, this novel is difficult to put down.

Kunster's, World Made by Hand is clearly woven from his non-fiction work, The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century. The Long Emergency details the difficulties that lie ahead for societies completely (and foolishly) organized around the existence of cheap fossil fuels. He builds quite a convincing case toward a looming degredation of life as we know it as limited resources are inevitably depleated. Ravaging resource wars, climate change and technologies introduced just a little too late for mass adaptation equate to a sour end to the American lifestyle in Kunstler's view. Building upon the research supporting The Long Emergency, Kunstler dives in deep projecting his vision into a future, possibly only a decade or so away, that spells drastic change from the mechanized and somewhat detached, long-distance lives Americans are currently living.

Under the surface, World Made by Hand asks us to take a look at our own personal belief systems relative to the design of modern daily life. Kunstler offers a variety of realities easily related to in a troop of well-developed characters trying to make sense of a world where everything has changed in the absence of mass production, mega-shipping and the systems they'd taken for granted most of their lives, i.e. running water, electricity, antibiotics, daily news and ten miles drives to the grocery store from suburban subdivisions. Kunstler ravels and unravels personalities as they transition from college students, lawyers and other professional positions to farm hands, food producers, candlemakers and a few sad alcoholics. Their lives become completely local. Undercurrents of global warming produce themselves throughout the book with attention to growing seasons, sheer record-breaking heatwaves, crop yield, dengue fever, a Mexican flu epidemic, gypsy moths and other challenges met by the townspeople of Kunstler's fictional Union Grove, New York. Although the idea of a return to "normal times" is desperately clung to and often a notion of the townspeople and the main protagonist himself, Robert Earl, each character finds normal to simply mean the circumstance of the present situation, whatever it may be.

In a moment of frustration, Robert Earl opines that he is tired of sleepwalking through life as if recognizing he'd been doing it even before the jihad bombs went off in Washington D.C. and L.A. shattering the US economy while choking off what's left of international trade. Within no time the character is provided ample opportunity to square off the illusion of security his old life as a software executive was built upon. Kunstler even focuses attention on the alternative; a heavy price for maintaining the illusions we tend to sell ourselves. Robert Earl embarks on a week-long horseback journey to Albany that by car would have taken only a day. Relying on the kindness of strangers for overnight shelter Robert and his group are taken in by an old woman offering her backyard for camp and a hot dinner. Sadly this particular woman lost her mind as she lost her definition of reality. Robert fails to know exactly how to react when served rocks and grass rather than the new potatoes and greens the stranger had promised. For the old gal, it must have been all about using the china (form with no substance). Haunting symbolism is not lost on Mr. Kunstler.

Kunstler is not just spewing doom and gloom, though. Humanity will and does survive, only in a different reality matrix. The individual and collective coping mechanisms he defines are the magic, the human touch Kunstler expertly spills over with hope. A consciousness seems to begin to reveal itself in these characters that is either forgotten or mowed over in their previously mechanized world. The world of current, modern society. Kunstler even proffers up a little mysticism as he paints an appreciation for life's simplicity, it's fleeting and organic qualities magnified; the respect built working side by side through dependance on neighbors and friends; the kindness and honor of men; love. These qualities present themselves as Robert Earl's story unfolds to reveal the power and ingenuity of average people who had not planned for the future they find themselves living in.

Kunstler addresses the serious question of what could happen right here in the United States should we as individuals, communities and a nation fail to be roused from a hard sleep in the aftermath of a long and cheap energy fiesta. Despite his account of a US economy rocked by energy shortages with bombs delivering a final governmental knock-out punch being fictional, the core concepts are not that far out of the realms of possibility considering the magnitude of the US' current oil dependence. The main character summarizes this nicely;

I argued that the human race should have known it was in for trouble, at least we in the United Stated should have, given how insane our way of life had become. (p. 181)

This is a great read that will undoubtedly broaden the perspective of anyone even remotely interested in America's oil dependency issue. With meticulous precision Kunstler dissects the industrialized world and rebuilds it by the hands of a weary yet persistent set of survivors once known as middle-class Americans.

In James Howard Kunstler's richly imagined World Made By Hand, the bone-weary denizens of Union Grove (with its echo of Our Town's Grover's Corners) cope with everything from mercenary thugs to religious extremists, yet manage to plant a few seeds of human decency that bear fruit.

- O Magazine

Clean Coal. Which Part of the Story is Dirt Free?

Kenneth Boulding (past president of the American Economic Association) once remarked, "only madmen and economists believe in perpetual exponential growth."

A few mornings ago The Cosmopolitan Charlestonian was victimized by shock and awe as CNBCs Joe Kernen on Squawk Box said something along the lines of, [so in the big picture] “…we’re running out of oil. Well, how stupid are we? If we had known about this three years ago we could have begun planning for it.” Joe was referring to peak oil, which is why we were standing together in the bedroom with our mouths agape in shock when we heard the statement. Typically the news jockeys and talking heads steer clear of anything that even remotely smells of peak oil and with exceptional organization, they rarely allow the term to escape their lips. In fact, as keen observers, we’ve been hearing some pretty creative terminology borne of the latest media-led confusion campaign. Like for instance, this one. We’ve now reached maximum efficient extraction capacity. This chatter will glaze over the eyes of any laymen, therefore, commencing the confusion campaign. We should also point out to Joe (who is more often the rogue character with deadpan observations and coy cynical wit) that Americans did know about this little problem three years ago. In fact, we’ve known about oil and energy shortages for ages. Remember those shocks in the 70’s, Joe? Lots of us have been talking about preparing for peak oil while the people on your show yawned, shrugged off great minds as alarmist and went on discussing unlimited growth. Growth! Growth! Stock Market to 21,000!

Peak oil being the segue for alternative energies, the Marketeers at Squawk moved on to the pursuit and peddling of “clean coal.” LOL – clean? The Honorary Southern Belle here in The Cosmopolitan Charlestonian camp is a transplant from Pennsylvania. That’s Coal Country people and the evidence is there. Here in beautiful Charleston we are far removed from the sights and sounds of industrial coal mining operations. Despite coal plants powering some areas of this state, the broader realities of coal use have not sunken into our collective consciousness. Because we don’t see it, mind the particulate matter that fills our air and pollutes our waterways as a direct link, we give it nary a thought. Unfortunately, the true cost and true effect is most certainly invading our daily lives with exorbitant intangible expense.

Looking back at life in coal country, the unrealized costs of the extraction of the coal resource were plain to see. Strip-mined areas were dead and barren, the land hacked and sawed into where the coal was taken. Abandon quarries and mine shafts took the lives of curious children and daring teenagers where drowning and collapse occurred. People often spoke of hidden costs, hidden company agendas and invisible toxins degrading air quality to the inevitable ailment of all society. There were always clear economic and environmental situations. Take for instance, Centralia, Pennsylvania. It’s been on fire since the 60’s underground. The town is dead from the inside out. Take a look. Is this clean coal?

Yes, we have discussed sequestration and scrubbing methods, etc. and agree that these new methods are cleaner; however, the truth of the matter simply is - there is no clean coal. When we talk about sequestering CO2 we are only talking about the portion of the process related to what comes out after we’ve converted the resource to energy. We’re not looking at the whole picture in this case which is exactly how coal and energy companies would like it to remain. What of the extraction, the processing, the shipping and overall messiness of this dusty resource? In our previous post, Curing Charlotte’s Addiction, you may have already found, especially if you are someone who has suffered at any time from asthma, or know someone that does, that coal is not so much our friend after all.

Coal may be viewed as one of life’s ultimate ironies as peak oil tempts us to tap the earth for additional resources. Our coal reserves in the states may be as vast as the great seas, yet can an ocean quench a man’s thirst? Or should we be left much like the Mariner lamenting, “Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink.”

We have coal in great abundance. It is all around us. But should we go ahead and fire it up?

New Urbanism Now to Avoid New Hermitism

Always willing to try something new, last Thursday The Cosmopolitan Charlestonian decided to attend a meeting on new urbanism. We jumped on our bikes and zipped over to 39 Rue de Jean, downtown Charleston, to pile into a room full of architects and town planners to enjoy an enlightening hour with the former Mayor of Milwaukee and current President, John Norquist, of The Congress for New Urbanism.

Feeling a bit like those lonesome island-like neighborhoods we’ve written about here, we found the presentation timely. Since giving up our Jaguar, we have become frustratingly aware of the bad design of our urban landscape and its complete reliance on the automobile. We wanted answers (and some hope) quick! Although we live downtown, our personal quest to crush our dependency on oil has segregated us from normal society in the same way any one of those gated communities sits – stranded, alone, miles of asphalt between you and it. Our friends are still part of normal society. And they live and party in those communities, tethered to the main artery by long, long roads, parkways, avenues and highways. And they still drive cars. Oh, how we miss them.

We made a choice. We kicked our car to the curb like an X (pick up Divorce Your Car by Katie Alvord when you get a chance). By Saturday night, that choice along with 50 years of urban sprawl caused us to miss our dear friend, Eddie Bush’s impromptu birthday party…a result of our damned global warming/peak oil/reduction of mass consumerism choice. And, of course, the party was, like, fifteen miles away, in a neighborhood on the outskirts of town with a bus line running no where close. So we immediately phoned a cab company, only to be told that a one way trip would equate to a Grand Total of $35.00 (plus we would tip another $7). Had our community been Newly Urbanized in the same fashionable manner the urbanist, forward-thinkers presented, we’d have been able to attend the party and would have been transported there on a reproduction electric trolley car. Who couldn’t just love this idea?

We’ve gotten around with no car and no trouble in cities like Amsterdam, London, New York, Washington D.C. and L.A. In Europe, even small cities (roughly the size of Charleston) offer wonderful public transit. The public transportation was so thorough and user-friendly in Jönköping and Huskvarna, Sweden, we even saw dogs on the bus sitting with their masters! In Amsterdam there are multiple lanes on every street - one for cars, one for electric street cars, one for buses, one for bikes and one for pedestrians. And they have giant bike parking garages! If you are an idiot and find yourself in the wrong lane, it is your own fault and people shake their heads in disgust while mumbling cruel Dutch words under their breaths. The New Urbanists appear to simply desire a return to the sensible architectural studies thrown away in a rebellion against two World Wars. Thus, the birth of Urban Sprawl, otherwise known as U.S. In car world there is little to be debated over with respect to urban design. However, the meeting did provide some hope for future connectivity.

The New Urbanist focus was on many of the issues we’ve already pointed out on this blog. Pedestrian unfriendly, disconnected neighborhoods segregated further by restrictive zoning laws have sprawled into a suburban nightmare reminding us constantly of James Howard Kunstler’s Eyesore of the Month. In most cases, this setup leaves anyone outside of a car subjected to a nice walk in the gutter (or over someone’s landscaping as we’ve pointed out in the past). America’s reliance on cheap oil, which is now obviously dwindling, has fueled more than just our vehicles – it has fueled an entire architectural movement toward big box theory flanked by giant parking lots devoid of human life. It’s no wonder the general population “looks down” upon those of us trudging over the beaten down footpaths carved into areas where a sidewalk should have been planned. We’re walking in gutters looking like we cannot even afford so much as an old klunker to deliver us to point B.

On a more positive note, we can fix this. A focus on infill development with a keen eye on urban design can save America from endless urban sprawl. Developers interested in green building must give great thought to the placement of their future buildings with rooftop gardens. There is no point in building green if the residents of said building must pollute for miles and miles driving to their new green homes. You too can join the Congress for New Urbanism for a mere hundred dollars. Their next presentation here in the States is to be held in Austin, Texas.

As far as the party, we hope to figure out additional alternatives for the future. Eddie – Happy Birthday! We hope you had a wonderful time and our thoughts were certainly on your special evening. We’re still figuring out the carless lifestyle. Cheers!