The task we face is reorganizing the systems we depend on for daily life in a way that is consistent with the realities coming down at us.

The skyscraper - any building over seven stories really - will come to be seen as an experimental building type that doesn't work well in an energy-starved economy.

We will have to make new arrangements, or revive bygone ones. We may, for another example, see the return of the boarding house.

The salient fact about the decades ahead is that we are entering a permanent global energy crisis and it will change everything about how we live.

Societies get what they deserve, not what they expect.

I have a new theory of history, which is certain things happen because they seem like a good idea at the time. And suburbia seemed like a good idea at the time, but it was a special time and place in history, with special dynamics. And now, we're going to have to live with the consequences of that. And the consequences will be tragic.

The task we face is reorganizing the systems we depend on for daily life in a way that is consistent with the realities coming down at us.