Author James Kunstler, he of peak oil fame, Y2K fear-mongering and an utterly myopic rant at TED, makes an odd point in this BusinessWeek article that the end of cheap oil will destroy suburbia and Wal-Mart:
Our gigantic metroplex cities will prove to be inconsistent with the energy diet of our future. I think our smaller cities and towns will be reactivated. We are going to be a far less affluent society.
Well hello Ms. Negative Nancy. Ignoring the fact Kunstler has yet to be right about anything at all, and the fact he’s mostly an icon for urban-leftie-re-res who see suburbs as some form of plague, Kunstler might have a point if he didn’t take it too far. First, gas is still relatively cheap in the US. Second, our last big oil scare, back in the 1970s, didn’t seem to have any effect on suburban sprawl. Obviously, high fuel costs are going to cause shifts in the way we live, but there are plenty of more-likely scenarios than Wal-Mart closing down and mankind moving to centralized, small towns.
Like, oh, an increase in telecommuting, better mass transit, and a magic genie that creates oil from the tears of suburban emos.