Monthly Archives: March 2019

Venezuela collapse: looting, hunger, blackouts

Posted on March 22, 2019 by

[ Venezuela is experiencing a double whammy of drought and low oil prices, which has lead to blackouts and inability to import food.  It just keeps getting worse and worse.  Related posts: Book review of “In order to live: A … Continue reading →

Posted in Central & South America, Social Disorder | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Why and how Jellyfish are taking over the world

Posted on March 19, 2019 by

Preface.  The more climate change kicks in, the more we over-fish, pollute, acidify and warm the ocean, create vast dead zones, and trawl ocean bottoms, the better the jellyfish do. It is quite possible that the ocean ecosystem will shift … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Extinction, Fisheries, Jellyfish, Peak Food | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Book review of Dirt: the erosion of civilization

Posted on March 16, 2019 by

Preface. On average civilizations collapsed after 800 to 2,000 years because they’d destroyed their topsoil. Today, industrial agriculture is doing this far faster – in most of the United States half of the original topsoil is gone from the richest … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Agriculture, Peak Food, Soil | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Why aren’t there battery powered airplanes or flying cars?

Posted on March 13, 2019 by

Preface.  Batteries are too heavy for airplanes to get off the ground. These two articles explain that in further detail. Alice Friedemann   www.energyskeptic.com  author of “When Trucks Stop Running: Energy and the Future of Transportation”, 2015, Springer and “Crunch! Whole … Continue reading →

Posted in Batteries, Energy | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

IEA 2018 World Energy Outlook: Peak oil is here, oil crunch by 2023

Posted on March 10, 2019 by

Preface. I’ve been working on a post about the latest IEA 2018 World Energy Outlook report, but the excerpts from the cleantechnica article below states most clearly why there is likely to be a supply crunch as soon as the … Continue reading →

Posted in Investment, Peak Oil | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

How United Nations scientists are preparing for the end of capitalism

Posted on March 7, 2019 by

Preface. The article below was written by Nafeez Ahmed, who wrote one of my favorite books  “Failing States, Collapsing Systems: BioPhysical Triggers of Political Violence“. Ahmed writes: “Most observers have no idea of the current biophysical realities – that the driving … Continue reading →

Posted in Crash Coming Soon, Organizations | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

Pedro Prieto: many solar panels won’t last 25-30 years, EROI may be negative

Posted on March 4, 2019 by

Preface. Pedro Prieto and Charles Hall wrote the definitive book on the EROI of solar power, “Spain’s Photovoltaic Revolution. The Energy Return on Investment” and has built many commercial facilities himself and witnessed the failure of solar panels long before … Continue reading →

Posted in Pedro Prieto, Photovoltaic Solar | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments

Richard Heinberg: Our bonus decade

Posted on March 1, 2019 by

Preface.  Because of the bonus oil and gas fracking brought us starting in 2005, Heinberg says “I’ve titled this essay “Our Bonus Decade” because the past ten years were an unexpected (by us peakists, anyway) extra—like a bonus added to … Continue reading →

Posted in Crash Coming Soon, Richard Heinberg | Tagged , , | 7 Comments