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EspañolJAMES HOWARD KUNSTLER
'James Howard Kunstler' (born 1948) is an American author, social critic, and who is perhaps best known for his book ''The Geography of Nowhere'', a history of suburbia and urban development in the United States. He is prominently featured in the peak oil documentary, ''The End of Suburbia'', widely circulated on the internet. In his most recent book, ''The Long Emergency'' (2005), he argues that declining oil production will result in the end of industrialized society and force Americans to live in localized, agrarian communities.
Kunstler was born in New York City. Spending summers at a boys camp in New Hampshire, Kunstler became acquainted with the small town ethos that would later permeate many of his works. In 1966 he graduated from New York City's High School of Music & Art (now Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts), and then attended the State University of New York at Brockport.
After college Kunstler worked as a reporter and feature writer for a number of newspapers, and finally as a staff writer for ''Rolling Stone''. In 1975, he began writing books and lecturing full-time. He lives in Saratoga Springs, New York and was formerly married to the children's author Jennifer Armstrong.
Kunstler has been an outspoken critic of suburbia and urban development trends throughout the United States, and has been a leading proponent of the New Urbanism movement. He has summed up his attitude towards the current American landscape by describing it as follows:
He has also written that:
More recently, he has written about the effects that he predicts the coming oil peak will have on society in his 2005 book ''The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of the Oil Age, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes''. He appears in the documentary film ''The End of Suburbia'' (2004).
In addition to his other books on urban planning, ''Home From Nowhere'', and ''The City in Mind: Notes on the Urban Condition'', Kunstler has also written several works of fiction, the most recent being '' in 2004.
He also wrote in the days after 9/11 that "age of skyscrapers is at an end" in an op-ed on Planet Citizen.
Kunstler's views have been described as "fashionably fear-mongering" and uninformed regarding the potential of renewable energy, biofuels, energy efficiency and smart-growth policies to eliminate the need for fossil fuels.[1]
Kunstler, who majored in Theater at college and has no formal training in the fields in which he prognosticates, made similar predictions for Y2K as he makes for peak oil.[2][3] Kunstler responds to this criticism by saying that a Y2K catastrophe was averted by the hundreds of billions of dollars that were spent fixing the problem, a lot of it "in secret," he claims.[4]
In June 2005 and again in early 2006, Kunstler predicted that the Dow would crash to 4,000 by the end of the year.[5] [6] The Dow in fact reached a new peak by 2007. In his predictions for 2007, however, Kunstler admitted his mistake stating "''Let's get this out of the way up front: the worst call I made last year was for the Dow to crumble down to 4000 when, in fact, it melted up to a new all-time record high of about 12,500. The reason we saw this, in my opinion, was that inertia combined with sheer luck to keep the finance sector decoupled from reality…''". He also predicted, however, that in 2006 the United States housing bubble would start to deflate, which appears to be borne out by latest data. [7] However, unlike Kunstler's Dow predictions, which were uniquely his, the bursting of the United States housing bubble was widely forecast before Kunstler began discussing it. [8]
1.
2. My Y2K—A Personal Statement
3.
4.
5.
6.
7. "No question about it, the housing downturn is here now, and it's big." New home sales continue to fall Jim Hamilton
8.
★ James Howard Kunstler's website and blog
★ Chaos in the City. Architecture, Modernism and Peak Oil Production—James Howard Kunstler in Interview
★ Kunstler comments on current events
★ ''Interview with James Howard Kunstler''—small WORLD Podcast 2006
★ James Howard Kunstler Interview in MungBeing Magazine
★ James Howard Kunstler interview in The Chronicle of Higher Education
★ James Howard Kunstler speaks at TED2004
★ Orion Magazine 5-part video interview
★ Remarks to the Commonwealth Club of California--MP3 Download
★ ''Subdivided: Isolation and Community in America'' Documentary Film featuring James Howard Kunstler media
★ August, 2007 interview with James Howard Kunstler
Kunstler was born in New York City. Spending summers at a boys camp in New Hampshire, Kunstler became acquainted with the small town ethos that would later permeate many of his works. In 1966 he graduated from New York City's High School of Music & Art (now Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts), and then attended the State University of New York at Brockport.
After college Kunstler worked as a reporter and feature writer for a number of newspapers, and finally as a staff writer for ''Rolling Stone''. In 1975, he began writing books and lecturing full-time. He lives in Saratoga Springs, New York and was formerly married to the children's author Jennifer Armstrong.
| Contents |
| Writing |
| Reactions and Criticisms |
| References |
| External links |
Writing
Kunstler has been an outspoken critic of suburbia and urban development trends throughout the United States, and has been a leading proponent of the New Urbanism movement. He has summed up his attitude towards the current American landscape by describing it as follows:
He has also written that:
More recently, he has written about the effects that he predicts the coming oil peak will have on society in his 2005 book ''The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of the Oil Age, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes''. He appears in the documentary film ''The End of Suburbia'' (2004).
In addition to his other books on urban planning, ''Home From Nowhere'', and ''The City in Mind: Notes on the Urban Condition'', Kunstler has also written several works of fiction, the most recent being '' in 2004.
He also wrote in the days after 9/11 that "age of skyscrapers is at an end" in an op-ed on Planet Citizen.
Reactions and Criticisms
Kunstler's views have been described as "fashionably fear-mongering" and uninformed regarding the potential of renewable energy, biofuels, energy efficiency and smart-growth policies to eliminate the need for fossil fuels.[1]
Kunstler, who majored in Theater at college and has no formal training in the fields in which he prognosticates, made similar predictions for Y2K as he makes for peak oil.[2][3] Kunstler responds to this criticism by saying that a Y2K catastrophe was averted by the hundreds of billions of dollars that were spent fixing the problem, a lot of it "in secret," he claims.[4]
In June 2005 and again in early 2006, Kunstler predicted that the Dow would crash to 4,000 by the end of the year.[5] [6] The Dow in fact reached a new peak by 2007. In his predictions for 2007, however, Kunstler admitted his mistake stating "''Let's get this out of the way up front: the worst call I made last year was for the Dow to crumble down to 4000 when, in fact, it melted up to a new all-time record high of about 12,500. The reason we saw this, in my opinion, was that inertia combined with sheer luck to keep the finance sector decoupled from reality…''". He also predicted, however, that in 2006 the United States housing bubble would start to deflate, which appears to be borne out by latest data. [7] However, unlike Kunstler's Dow predictions, which were uniquely his, the bursting of the United States housing bubble was widely forecast before Kunstler began discussing it. [8]
References
1.
2. My Y2K—A Personal Statement
3.
4.
5.
6.
7. "No question about it, the housing downturn is here now, and it's big." New home sales continue to fall Jim Hamilton
8.
External links
★ James Howard Kunstler's website and blog
★ Chaos in the City. Architecture, Modernism and Peak Oil Production—James Howard Kunstler in Interview
★ Kunstler comments on current events
★ ''Interview with James Howard Kunstler''—small WORLD Podcast 2006
★ James Howard Kunstler Interview in MungBeing Magazine
★ James Howard Kunstler interview in The Chronicle of Higher Education
★ James Howard Kunstler speaks at TED2004
★ Orion Magazine 5-part video interview
★ Remarks to the Commonwealth Club of California--MP3 Download
★ ''Subdivided: Isolation and Community in America'' Documentary Film featuring James Howard Kunstler media
★ August, 2007 interview with James Howard Kunstler
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