Articles by JMG

Taking on the belief that technotoys will allow the status quo to continue

James Howard Kunstler, dyspeptic critic and peak oil Paul Revere, nails the people whose approach to the twin calamities of global heating and peak oil is to spend all their time trying to cobble together the McGyver solution that saves the day, rather than trying to adapt to the new, low-energy imperative.

Maybe we’re wrong thinking that airline executives don’t get it

This Washington Post story suggests that the airline industry is not being led by dumb people who just don't get it.

No, the darling of the industry, the best and the brightest, the folks heading the industry vanguard, aren't stupid. They get it.

They just don't care. They believe that personal wealth will protect them and their children and grandchildren.

They plan for growth, even as the planes carry fewer people, which means they plan to keep increasing both their overall greenhouse gas emissions and the per-mile traveled emissions, as well as to have more planes emitting more water vapor into the atmosphere where is serves as powerful heat trapping barrier.

But you're not supposed to think ill of them, because they earn money for helping destroy the climate.

At least the damage inflicted by cigarette companies is felt mainly by the smokers and the people close by -- these guys are helping push a rock over a cliff onto millions of people who can't even afford an in-flight magazine, much less a flight.

Are Americans smart enough to learn from Australia’s crisis?

What if there was a country that was like America in many ways, such as the obstinate refusal of its government to acknowledge that pursuing economic growth at the expense of the environment is simply a way to commit suicide faster, a fondness for beer, and an enormous capacity to live the high energy lifestyle as if there was no tomorrow?

Could Americans learn anything from it?

Oregon blazes a trail again, mostly

The Oregon House passed an aggressive renewable electricity supply standard that requires the biggest utilities in the state to get 25 percent of their capacity from renewables (not including existing hydro) by 2025. The state Senate already passed the companion bill, and the Oregon governor, Ted Kulongoski, has been pushing these all year, so they are widely expected to pass after the two bills are reconciled into one.

But ...