The Oil Drum

74 comments on DrumBeat: December 30, 2006

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Don Sailorman on December 30, 2006 - 5:12pm

During the 1950s sprawl was seen as increasing vulnerability to attack by possibly inaccurate intercontinental ballistic missles. There was a "Scientific American" article (I think from the mid-fifties) that advocated building cities in the form of elongated strips along highways to minimize damage from a massive atomic or thermonuclear attack. This idea went nowhere, along with building bomb shelters in back yards.

What worked to prevent war between the Soviet Union and the U.S. was the doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction. Alas, I see no comparably powerful policy to minimize the threats from Peak Oil. The U.S. fiddled and sprawled for more than thirty years after 1973; I think it is now much to late to avoid major pain of transition. But for the twentieth time, I shall repeat: I am not a doomer.

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jokuhl on December 31, 2006 - 7:58am

I have to suspect that the growth of the suburbs seen in an accelerated animation would be essentially indistinguishable from the growth of mold (or yeast?) across a fruited plain, with all the planning you would expect from it. It followed the easiest paths, and filled in any spot within reach (of the somewhat-planned Interstate Highway System) where the housing spores could stick to the soil, and that with the glue of cheap petrol, this included of course dusty deserts, high mountain retreats and sodden, marshy coastlines that get swept through every few years with harsh wind and storms..