James Howard Kunstler - Reactions and Criticisms

Reactions and Criticisms

Bill Kauffman has called Kunstler the "scourge of suburbia," and a "slashingly witty Jeremiah." In a review of Kunstler's weekly audio podcast, the Columbia Journalism Review described he KunstlerCast as "a weekly podcast that offers 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."

However, in critiquing The Long Emergency, journalist Chris Hayes claims that while Kunstler makes valid points about the consequences of peak oil, he undermines his credibility with rhetoric and perceived misanthropy; likewise, Kevin Drum, another peak oil theorist, considers Kunstler to be a "crank" who hurts his own cause with "crackpot arguments". Ezra Klein, writing for The American Prospect, notes that Kunstler lacks credentials as an oil expert, and claims that his work "definitely has a crazy-guy-on-Venice feel to it." Joseph Romm, a climate change expert and Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, has stated his belief 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, biofuels, energy efficiency and smart-growth policies to eliminate the need for fossil fuels. Contrarily, Paul Salopek of The Chicago Tribune finds that, "Kunstler has plotted energy starvation to its logical extremes" and points to the US Department of Energy Hirsch report as drawing similar conclusions. David Ehrenfeld, writing for American Scientist, sees 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."

In May 2008 oil reached $132 a barrel, lending credence to Kunstler's warnings about high energy prices. Kunstler commented on the price surge, saying "I'm not cheerleading for doom, you understand... merely asserting that we have a problem in the USA. Our behavior and our lifestyle are not consistent with reality. The markets are registering this for the moment."

Kunstler, who has no formal training in the fields in which he prognosticates, made similar dire predictions for Y2K as he makes for peak oil. Kunstler responds to this criticism by saying that a Y2K-related catastrophe was averted precisely because of the billions of dollars that were spent fixing the problem. As with programs to deal with acid rain and ozone depletion in the 1990s, a resoundingly successful, well-coordinated international response had the side effect of discrediting the very worst-case scenarios that inspired the efforts in the first place.

Kunstler has made several unsuccessful predictions regarding U.S. stock markets. In June 2005 and again in early 2006, Kunstler predicted that the Dow would crash to 4,000 by the end of the year. The Dow in fact reached a new peak of approximately 12,500 by the end of 2006. In his predictions for 2007, Kunstler admitted his mistake, ascribing the Dow's climb to "inertia combined with sheer luck". In January 2009, Kunstler again repeated with Dow 4000 prediction. The Dow ended 2009 at more than 10,000 (a fall from 2008, but not to the magnitude predicted by Kunstler).

Kunstler has faced strong criticism for his pro-Israeli stance in the debate over the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.