Monday, June 04, 2007

The Long Emergency

Read this book. I am finding myself repeating myself so often these days because I am continually promoting this book or discussing the concerns that it presents.

Here is a short synopsis of The Long Emergency, by James Howard Kunstler, which was run in Rolling Stone. Basically, it is a chilling collection of thoughts as we turn the corner in our ability to pull oil out of the ground and what that may mean for everything from the suburbs to transportation to alternative energy to medicine to agriculture to social and political landscapes...

Also, I have recently read The Ominvore's Dilemma , by Michael Pollan, which serves up an effective indictment against large scale agriculture and what passes for diet and nutrition in this day and age.

Usually, I read fiction and am an escapist by nature but these books, and a couple others recently read, have me rethinking a lot of things. My son went vegetarian about five or six months ago and so I am really overhauling my efforts in the kitchen and have established a fairly ambitious garden at our new house. I am now vegetarian myself, though I will eat seafood on occasion, and though I don't much miss the meat, I do miss the variety of dishes but I have picked up a lot of new wrinkles in my cooking repertoire.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm hoping your garden doesn't still look like that, Gordon. I think we had one day of rain here...and we are doomed indeed without our friends the honey bees. An update at your Fligger would be a treat.

beck

Anonymous said...

Yes, that is an interesting book, as are several others on the same Peak Oil topic. Richard Heinberg's "The Party's Over" is another sobering title in that vein.

GiselleG said...

Hi! Just saw your post and thought I should add another book to your reading list...
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. I think it's in the same vein as these others that you've read. I haven't read the ones that you've mentioned, but I'm curious!
So, while my family currently eats meat, I've always thought that if one of my kids decided to go veggie, I'd be supportive of that. Right now, I think my 3 year old is happy to live off of dairy, fruit, and mac & cheese.

moominsean said...

i'm not a vegetarian, though i kind of eat like one. the nice thing about controlling what you eat, or eating healthy, is that it makes you come up with ways to enjoy food more than if you were just eating anything and everything, like most people. If you have to try harder, your food usually tastes better!
no idea why i felt the need to comment on this...