TED TUESDAY 6/20/08 James Howard Kunstler (2004)

One of my all-time favorites, the angriest man to ever speak at TED: James Howard Kunstler


Also check out his five-part series on the end of peak oil.

The discussion was varied on this our first go out of the gate. A lot of it surrounded the end of peak oil and the demise of Walmart (an event Kunstler predicts). But we soon shifted to urbanism and the culture suburbia forces on us, which seemed to some in our group to be more hype than reality.

The question what can we do right now to stave off the "long period of pain" Kunstler talks about as a result of the end of peak oil came up and led us to a discussion of living locally (buying locally, working locally, finding ways to have more value to our neighbors).

Here's a question (or two) to everyone – what can we do to move the conversation from consumerism to living locally? What kind of tools can we build to facilitate that behavior? For instance, what about a craigslist-style message board where local growers can connect with local customers? A co-op message board. Any ideas?