World Changing Interview with James Howard Kunstler

If there's one thing we steer away from around here, it's doom and gloom and the sometimes-too-tempting sense of hopelessness that can come with thinking seriously about the world's problems. For this reason, there was no passive acceptance from the World Changing editorial team when James Howard Kunstler's "we're screwed" attititude gained attention around the release of his 2005 The Long Emergency.

Of course, the contention was a result of the fact that we are in agreement with Kunstler that the end of oil is inevitable, pivotal, and fast approaching. Most of us simply fall in the camp that all is not lost, and that in fact, as Alex argues in

The Post-Oil Megacity, the oil crisis may trigger an opportunity for massive change in the way we orchestrate our lives and construct our surroundings.

To keep things lively, we've decided to post an interview with Kunstler. He's got some interesting things to say about urban planning, Wal-Mart, and living local. We may not all agree with him, but if part of our goal here is to change the debate, we've got to have one. [World Changing]