“We used [oil] […] as if there was no tomorrow. Now there may not be one. That's how special oil has been.”

—  James Howard Kunstler , book The Long Emergency

Source: The Long Emergency (2005), Chapter 2, p. 31.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 10, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "We used [oil] […] as if there was no tomorrow. Now there may not be one. That's how special oil has been." by James Howard Kunstler?
James Howard Kunstler photo
James Howard Kunstler 45
American writer 1948

Related quotes

Donald J. Trump photo

“I said it to you once, had we taken the oil -- and we should have taken the oil -- ISIS would not have been able to form either, because the oil was their primary source of income. And now they have the oil all over the place, including the oil -- a lot of the oil in Libya, which was another one of her disasters.”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

2010s, 2016, September, First presidential debate (September 26, 2016)

Calvin Coolidge photo

“Under the limitation of armaments treaty a large saving in outlay and a considerable decrease in maintenance of the Navy has been accomplished. We should maintain the policy of constantly working toward the full treaty strength of the Navy. Careful investigation is being made in this department of the relative importance of aircraft, surface and submarine vessels, in order that we may not fail to take advantage of all modern improvements for our national defense. A special commission also is investigating the problem of petroleum oil for the Navy, considering the best policy to insure the future supply of fuel oil and prevent the threatened drainage of naval oil reserves. Legislative action is required to carry on experiments in oil shale reduction, as large deposits of this type have been set aside for the use of the Navy.”

Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) American politician, 30th president of the United States (in office from 1923 to 1929)

1920s, Second State of the Union Address (1924)

Ralph Nader photo

“The use of solar energy has not been opened up because the oil industry does not own the sun.”

Ralph Nader (1934) American consumer rights activist and corporate critic
Ariel Sharon photo

“Arabs may have the oil, but we have the matches.”

Ariel Sharon (1928–2014) prime minister of Israel and Israeli general

Quoted in Friedman, Robert I., Zealots for Zion: Inside Israel's West Bank Settlement Movement (New York, New York: Random House, 1992), 132-52.
1990s

José Saramago photo

“Now we live in the empire of oil and money — the rest is disguise.”

José Saramago (1922–2010) Portuguese writer and recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature

ÉPOCA Interview (in Portuguese) http://revistaepoca.globo.com/Epoca/0,6993,EPT1061569-1666-2,00.html, São Paulo, 2005.

“The decline in natural-gas revenues has been dramatic and the degree to which we are dependent on oil revenues, it is time for us to consider an increase in corporate and personal tax.”

Peter Lougheed (1928–2012) Canadian politician

NDP releases "extremist of the Day" number 1 http://www.albertandp.ca/ndp_releases_extremist_of_the_day_number_1, quoted in the Edmonton Journal on May 11, 2011, Alberta's NDP (April 9, 2015)

Greta Thunberg photo

“Today we use 100 million barrels of oil every day. […] There are no rules to keep that oil in the ground. So we can't save the world by playing by the rules. Because the rules have to be changed. Everything needs to change. And it has to start today.”

Greta Thunberg book No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference

Declaration of Rebellion, Extinction Rebellion, Parliament Square, London, 31 October 2018.
Cited in No One is Too Small to Make a Difference, Penguin Books, 2019, page 12 (ISBN 9780141991740).
2018, "Almost Everything is Black and White" (October 2018)

Edward Hopper photo

“Well, I have a very simple method of painting. It's to paint directly on the canvas without any funny business, as it were, and I use almost pure turpentine to start with, adding oil as I go along until the medium becomes pure oil. I use as little oil as I can possibly help, and that's my method. It's very simple... Yes, linseed oil. I used to use poppy oil, but I have heard that poppy oil is given to cracking pigment too, so I use it no longer... I find linseed oil and white lead the most satisfactory mediums.”

Edward Hopper (1882–1967) prominent American realist painter and printmaker

1941 - 1967
Source: 'Oral history interview with Edward Hopper' (1959, June 17), conducted by John Morse; 'Archives of American Art', Smithsonian Institution

Golda Meir photo

“Let me tell you something that we Israelis have against Moses. He took us 40 years through the desert in order to bring us to the one spot in the Middle East that has no oil!”

Golda Meir (1898–1978) former prime minister of Israel

At a dinner honoring West German Chancellor Willy Brandt, as reported in The New York Times (10 June 1973)
Unsourced variants: Moses dragged us for 40 years through the desert to bring us to the one place in the Middle East where there was no oil.
Moses dragged us through the desert for 40 years to bring us to the one place in the Middle East where there was no oil.

Jimmy Carter photo

“This war has been motivated by pride or arrogance, by a desire to control oil wealth, by a desire to implant our programs.”

Jimmy Carter (1924) American politician, 39th president of the United States (in office from 1977 to 1981)

on the Diane Rehm Show.
Post-Presidency

Related topics