The title of James Howard Kunstler's Sunday piece in the Washington Post is an eye-opening attention-grabber: Wake Up, America. We're Driving Toward Disaster. He starts off with a major kick to the pants:

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Everywhere I go these days, talking about the global energy predicament on the college lecture circuit or at environmental conferences, I hear an increasingly shrill cry for "solutions." This is just another symptom of the delusional thinking that now grips the nation, especially among the educated and well-intentioned.

I say this because I detect in this strident plea the desperate wish to keep our "Happy Motoring" utopia running by means other than oil and its byproducts. But the truth is that no combination of solar, wind and nuclear power, ethanol, biodiesel, tar sands and used French-fry oil will allow us to power Wal-Mart, Disney World and the interstate highway system -- or even a fraction of these things -- in the future. We have to make other arrangements.

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What's he getting at? Read the article. It's two pages -- you can get a really good idea of the concept, however, if you take a look at rba's morning blurb called Bring 'em on down the road.

Here's a hint: there's a degree of psychological greenwashing going on around here. We need to truly revamp our systems if we are to achieve true advancement, understanding and mastery of our fate, which is ultimately tied to how we live, conduct business, treat our environment and each other.

It's a cradle-to-cradle sort of thinking.

Mishima's Saturday World News is up.

This is an Open Thread.