more energy-efficient rail system, and writes "we have to get cracking on the revival of the railroad system if we expect to remain a united country." Reception A 2020 article at NewGeography.com described one of Kunstler's essays in American Conservative as a "misanthropic, pessimistically aggressive Malthusian screed", and comments that Kunstler's "over the top act" shows him to be "survivalist masquerading as an urban geographer". The article points to Kunstler's growing appeal to conservatives due to the "overlap between libertarian conservatives and environmentalist zealots". In 2005, conservative writer Bill Kauffman called Kunstler the "scourge of suburbia," and a "slashingly witty Jeremiah." In a 2008 review of Kunstler's weekly audio podcast, the Columbia Journalism Review described the KunstlerCast as offering "some of the smartest, most honest urban commentary around—online or off." The Albany, New York, Times Union reviewed Kunstler's book World Made by Hand, writing that, "James Howard Kunstler is fiddling his way to the apocalypse, one jig at a time." The paper described the book's scenario as "grim", with "an upside or two." Critiquing The Long Emergency, journalist Chris Hayes claimed in 2010 that while Kunstler makes valid points about the consequences of peak oil, he undermines his credibility with rhetoric and perceived misanthropy. Joseph Romm, a climate change expert and Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, stated that accelerating shifts toward renewable energy will maintain suburban lifestyles and that, contrary to Kunstler's arguments, "suburbia won’t be destroyed by peak oil." Charles Bensinger, co-founder of Renewable Energy Partners of New Mexico, describes Kunstler's views as "fashionably fear-mongering" and uninformed regarding the potential of renewable energy resources to eliminate the need for fossil fuels. In 2005 David Ehrenfeld, writing for American Scientist, saw Kunstler delivering a "powerful integration of science, technology, economics, finance, international politics and social change" with a "lengthy discussion of the alternatives to cheap oil." Bibliography See also Georgism Psychology of previous investment John Michael Greer References External links Interviews with the author Chaos in the City. Architecture, Modernism and Peak Oil Production—James Howard Kunstler in Interview James Howard Kunstler Interview in MungBeing Magazine The American Conservative interview Resilience interview Terrain.org "Entropy Made Visible" interview TED Talks: James Howard Kunstler dissects suburbia at TED in 2004 1948 births Living people American bloggers American non-fiction environmental writers The High School of Music & Art alumni Jewish American writers Writers from New York City People from Saratoga Springs,