Letters to the Editor
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I've been thinking
About how this is all going to turn out. Lots of folks talking about doom & gloom, including me, but regardless of whether or not that's a done deal I tend to be curious about what happens next.
Specifically, let's say just for giggles that peak oil is true (and ignore climate change for a moment since it's an equally tough nut). Thinking about reading in Jared Diamond's "Collapse", I got the idea that we're going to move towards something like Australia... kinda. That is, folks in cities because - as noticed - there is an efficiency there. You don't have to spend as much energy heating your domicile if 2 or more of it's sides are shared with neighbors. Public transport becomes more predictable due to larger numbers. Etc etc etc...
But then you have farmlands, and you need to be able to that food places obviously. You won't have people stacked like cordwood out there.
He semi-suggested Australia as a model, with a lot less emphasis on suburbs than we have. In their case I believe water is more of an cause for this than oil, although undoubtedly that isn't far behind.
Even without people like Kunstler saying so, that model seems a lot more logical.