James Junstler, author of The Witch of Hebron and The Long Emergency

Pundits have been saying since the 1973 oil crisis that oil reserves will run out. Yet, we still find reserves deeper and deeper beneath the earth’s crust. Critics say we are paying to fund terrorism whenever we buy oil from foreign sources, yet our Number 1 oil trade partner is Canada—those terrorists to the North.

No doubt we’ll need new energy sources. Solar, wind, thermal and nuclear power are years away. An electric car is nice in theory, but we’ll have to build a new infrastructure to support it.

James Howard Kunstler repudiates the notion that we continue to find large oil reserves. He says Oil discovery peaked in the 1960s.

Furthermore, he says our other oil trading partners will require more oil as they modernize, add more cars, etc. He says the best example of this is Mexico. Mexico was once our #3 oil trading partner. They have now dropped to #6 because they are using oil for the own consumption.

James believes the keys to the future are: 1) re-localized economies. Large companies will fail. Multi-unit companies will face staggering challenges as transportation systems weaken from a lack of oil. Better rail systems may have avoided this inevitable decline. 2) shifting agriculture. Industrial farming will fail, too.

James’s predictions are Malthusian. He sees the world population peaking and then declining. We will return to a simpler lifestyle based on smaller cities, more localized communities and narrowly focused trade.

Listen to the whole interview below: