Living in the long emergency Global crisis, the failure of the futurists, and the early adapters who are showing us the way forward

Kunstler, author of 19 previous works, including The World Made by Hand series of speculative post-collapse novels in which he ingeniously imagines a what-if future U.S, is a master storyteller whether he's writing fiction or nonfiction. A bold social critic, he constructs solid foundations of feasibility out of historical facts and the shifting detritus of current events. Kunstler's latest engaging inquiry into the human muddle, especially the tattered state of the American dream, is a brilliant twenty-first-century follow-up to The Long Emergency (2005), an astute analysis of the slow decline of the oil age and the impact that will have on our current profligate lifestyles. Here, Kunstler profiles individuals who are actively confronting that challenging transition as the consequences of climate change accelerate. Drawing on correspondence engendered by his influential blog, Clusterfuck Nation, he poses the big question: "Now what?" The responses he shares here are varied, entertaining, and intriguing as people from all over the country, with different backgrounds, perspectives, occupations, and solutions, share their stories. Kunstler chronicles the issues and all that's at stake with journalistic skill and energy.