Categories
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Recent Posts
- Rare Earth updates: recent research on why complex & intelligent life are rare in the Universe
- Book review of “Chip War” and the Fragility of microchips
- The tremendous material and energy toll of the digital economy
- Nuclear attack on U.S. could kill 90% of Americans
- What percent of Americans are rational?
- Book review of Lights Out. A Cyberattack. A Nation Unprepared. Surviving the Aftermath
- Off-Road vehicles & equipment need diesel fuel
- Book review of “Prime Movers of Globalization: the History & Impact of Diesel Engines & Gas Turbines”
- Mental Health. Coping with the future: notes from Jackson & Jensen’s “An Inconvenient Apocalypse”
- Tesla Semi trucks hauling corn chips
- What is the plan for an electric grid outage that lasts for months?
- Where to be? Links to Superfund, hazardous waste and other toxic sites in U.S.
- Why methanol cannot replace petroleum in shipping
- Why is everyone afraid of AI taking over? It makes stuff up!
- Do you want to eat, drink, or fly?
Monthly Archives: July 2017
How reasonable are oil production scenarios from public agencies?
So far both the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) and International Energy Agency (IEA) are on target in their predictions. In 2014 (the last year for which there is data), world production of crude oil and lease condensate was 77.833 … Continue reading
Posted in How Much Left, Peak Oil
Tagged EIA, how much oil left, IEA, peak oil
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70 million people may need emergency food in 2017
Emergency food assistance needs unprecedented as Famine threatens four countries. January 25, 2017. Famine Early Warnings systems network (fews.net) The Famine Early Warning Systems Network is a leading provider of early warning and analysis on food insecurity. Created by USAID … Continue reading
No, we’re not going to make ethanol out of CO2 and stop global warming
Preface. In the article below Robert Rapier debunks the research paper proposing to convert CO2 into ethanol. The researchers were honest and said “that the process is unlikely to be economically viable.” But the press spun it into a major … Continue reading
Posted in Biofuels, Biomass EROI, Critical Thinking, Far Out, Other Experts
Tagged critical thinking, EROEI, ethanol
2 Comments
Richard Heinberg: Will the US really be a major energy exporter?
[ I read this the day it was published (January 16, 2017) at resilience.org here, but thought it would be interesting to post in the future to see if the EIA predictions were as optimistic as Heinberg and Hughes thought … Continue reading
Posted in How Much Left, Natural Gas, Oil & Gas Fracked, Richard Heinberg
Tagged fracked, heinberg, natural gas, oil
3 Comments
Oil shortages and climate change may lead to refugee camps even in the U.S. and Europe
[ Will refugee camps be the cities of tomorrow in the U.S. and other developed nations? As oil shortages disrupt supply chains; food shortages grow larger every year from climate change, topsoil erosion, and shortages of natural-gas fertilizer; and rising … Continue reading
Why vultures are so important — and dying off
University of Utah. May 5, 2016. Why vultures matter—and what we lose if they’re gone. Original paper: Evan R. Buechley et al, The avian scavenger crisis: Looming extinctions, trophic cascades, and loss of critical ecosystem functions, Biological Conservation (2016).Vultures in … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity Loss
Tagged biodiversity, rabies, vulture
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Wind and solar need natural gas to balance intermittent, variable, and seasonal power
Preface. The highest wind states are getting more and more dependent on natural gas to balance wind and solar as they live and die. Yet conventional natural gas in the U.S. has peaked (half of our national gas, and declining … Continue reading
Posted in Natural Gas, Solar, Wind
Tagged energy storage, intermittent, natural gas, solar, wind
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The effects of Middle East events on U.S. Energy markets
[ Of note from this U.S. House 2011 hearing: John Hofmeister, former President of Shell Oil. Matt Simmons, who passed away this past summer, used to speak of the Straits of Hormuz as, we live one day away from an … Continue reading
Posted in Chokepoints, Threats to oil supply, U.S. Congress Energy Policy
Tagged oil chokepoint
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