Monthly Archives: November 2013

Pesticides & Parkinson’s in California’s Central Valley

Posted on November 30, 2013 by

Horowitz, J. 2012. Parkinson’s Alley.  Recent studies have found statistical links between pesticide use and an outbreak of Parkinson’s disease in California farm towns. Researchers even know which chemicals are the likely culprits. What’s the government doing about it? Not … Continue reading →

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More Severe & Frequent Thunderstorms ahead from climate change

Posted on November 30, 2013 by

Noah S. Diffenbaugh, Martin Scherer, and Robert J. Trapp. Robust increases in severe thunderstorm environments in response to greenhouse forcing. PNAS, September 23, 2013 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1307758110 Severe Thunderstorms and increasing catastrophic losses likely due to Climate Change Severe thunderstorms can … Continue reading →

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New York Times review of “Countdown” by Alan Weisman

Posted on November 30, 2013 by

A book review by Nathaniel Rich, October 11, 2013, New York Times of: COUNTDOWN. Our Last, Best Hope for a Future on Earth? By Alan Weisman If we wanted to bring about the extinction of the human race as quickly … Continue reading →

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Coming Food Crises

Posted on November 30, 2013 by

Below is a summary of just part of the excellent article by Gary Nabhan in the New York Times called “Our Coming Food Crisis“, which you ought to read in full if you have time. Long stretches of triple-digit days … Continue reading →

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Algal blooms more toxic due to climate change and crop fertilizer runoff

Posted on November 30, 2013 by

Paerl, H.W. et al. October 25, 2013. Blooms Bite the Hand That Feeds Them. Science Vol. 342 no. 6157 pp. 433-434  Eutrophication from climate change, dams, higher carbon dioxide concentrations, drought, and nutrients from farm and urban runoff is increasing … Continue reading →

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A summary of the United States 1980 Oil Rationing Plan

Posted on November 25, 2013 by

[ I am convinced by “Any Way You Slice It: The Past, Present, and Future of Rationing” by Stan Cox that rationing will occur.  Whether it will be anything like the 1980 plan remains to be seen. In the 1980 … Continue reading →

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Coal Power Plants stumped by Burning Wood

Posted on November 24, 2013 by

Power Plants Try Burning Wood With Coal to Cut Carbon Emissions.  Matt Wald. New York Times. November 3, 2013. There are many difficulties to burning wood in coal plants: Pound for pound, wood only produces 66% as much energy as … Continue reading →

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Zero to One Child per Woman: The only possible solution at this late date

Posted on November 24, 2013 by

Excerpt from “The Sky Is Falling: Chicken Little Was Right All Along” by Don Wilkin Nov 2013. “I am convinced the only equitable, humane, and effective way to pull our fat out of the fire at this late date, if … Continue reading →

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When deforestation begins after peak fossils, how long will it last?

Posted on November 23, 2013 by

Since we’re going back to the Wood as our main energy source, I thought it would be interesting to try to get an idea of how wood stacks up against other energy resources (below).   Burning wood to heat U.S. homes … Continue reading →

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Microchips and Fab Plants: a Detailed description

Posted on November 17, 2013 by

I recommend reading my overview of how microchips are made before delving into the details below. Introduction to detailed overview of semiconductor manufacturing The crowning achievement of our civilization is the ability to make microchips.  It is by far the … Continue reading →

Posted in Antecedents, Chemicals, Cyberattacks, Microchip Fabrication stops | 7 Comments