At Alternet, an interview with James Howard Kunstler regarding his new book World Made By Hand.
“I’m describing changes that we face, but I’m hardly proposing that it’s the end of the world. It may be the end of the Wal-Mart experience, it may be the end of see-the-USA-in-your-Chevrolet — but that ain’t the end of the world.”
Kunstler is wrong about the Deep South. Gardening here is easy and fun. In spite of the drought, water is accessible (unlike Georgia and Florida, Alabama hasn’t depleted its underground aquifers) and many families have residual agrarian skills to fall back on. I have already turned my place into a grocery store. Admittedly, it will be more difficult to substitute for all the cheap manufactured crap we import from China. I can’t imagine Southerners flocking to New England; it is easier to envision snowbirds settling in the milder climate and richer soils of the plantation belt.