David Hare-Scott wrote:
....
I was reading that in some western cities (eg New York) kitchens are being
converted to other uses (spare bedrooms, walk-in wardrobes etc) because the
occupants always eat out and that some new appartments are built without
one. No I can't recall when or who said so.

If you look at the way cities decay into anarchy in a few days due to
external events (eg weather extremes such as Katrina at New Orleans) we must
be very concerned about the fragility of such a way of life. As soon as the
power or fuel stop people will be hungry very soon. We are going to pass
through a transition away from a fossil fuel economy some time in the next
generation. I don't see myself as a doomsayer but I worry that the
transition will not be smooth. Many people would not be aware that in this
country we have had many thousands of city men tramping about the bush
looking for work/food. Sydney is now much bigger and more dependent on
remote supplies of food and energy than it was in the Great Depression.

i hope for a long and slow but steady decline in some
aspects, but i have yet to see any civilization in historical
records that just fades quietly.

the amount of debt and the various ways the current system
is set up means that to unravel it will take quite a bit. to
do it slowly, orderly and with restraint isn't in the lexicon
of any society i've ever examined.

i'm not in the cities, but close enough that it is unlikely
i would survive a diaspora event here. there's just too many
of "them" and too few of "us".


songbird