Trends

Most observers tend to extrapolate current trends and assume that what we see now will continue moving in the same direction - ever-larger cities, etc. I don't see it that way. The global energy predicament now gathering around us will synergize with climate change to produce a very different outcome. I think we'll eventually see a reversal of the 200-year-long cycle of people moving from farms and small towns to big cities. Food production is going to be a big problem when oil-and-gas-based agriculture is no longer possible, and we will have to reestablish a more meaningful relationship between urban places and a more productive agricultural hinterland. Our mega-cities will contract substantially .