Categories
-
Recent Posts
- Why the U.S. is ignoring nuclear winter in nuclear policies & strategies
- Oil choke points vulnerable to war, chaos, terrorism, accidents, & piracy
- Nuclear weapons must be reduced or we risk nuclear winter
- Fusion is already running out of fuel
- Peak Oil is Officially Here! World oil production peaked November of 2018
- Wood, the fuel of preindustrial societies, is half of EU renewable energy
- 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”
Author Archives: energyskeptic
Do you want to eat, drink, or fly?
Preface. In this post the New York Times writes about renewable airplane fuel from corn ethanol, and questions whether there is enough water and a few other problems. First I’m going to summarize their issues with this, and then follow … Continue reading
Posted in Airplanes, Biofuels, Biomass EROI, Groundwater, Peak Water
Tagged aquifer, aviation fuel, corn, EROI, ethanol
Comments Off on Do you want to eat, drink, or fly?
The 10th planetary boundary: Salt
Preface. In 2009, Johan Rockström proposed that there were nine planetary boundaries we must not cross. In 2023, Richardson et al found that 6 of the 9 boundaries had been transgressed: Climate change CO2 and radiative forcing, Biosphere integrity, land … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity Loss, Planetary Boundaries, Pollution, Soil
Tagged biodiversity, existential threat, salt
Comments Off on The 10th planetary boundary: Salt
Unpave concrete & asphalt to save energy and money
Preface. The U.S. has 4.1 million miles of roads (1.9 million paved, 2.2 million gravel). About 3 million miles of roads have less than 2,000 vehicles a day, less than 15% of all traffic. The paved portion of these low-volume … Continue reading
Posted in Concrete, Roads, Transportation, Transportation What To Do
Tagged depave, roads, unpave
2 Comments
Subsistence life in West Virginia before capitalism
Preface. These are a few of my kindle notes from Steven Stoll’s “Ramp Hollow: The Ordeal of Appalachia” that may give you an idea of how people might survive after collapse. It is a damning critique of capitalism.
Posted in Jobs and Skills, Life Before Oil
Tagged capitalism, farming, hunting, Subsistence
3 Comments
Will Congress ever create a new independent agency to store nuclear waste permanently?
Preface. The lack of permanent geological storage of nuclear waste will be yet another nightmare for those living after fossils have declined and civilizations go back to biomass fuels and muscle power. They will already be dealing with heat making … Continue reading
Posted in Nuclear Waste, U.S. Congress Energy Policy
Tagged energy policy, nuclear power, nuclear waste, Nuclear Waste Administration Act, S. 1240, senate hearing, Yucca mountain
Comments Off on Will Congress ever create a new independent agency to store nuclear waste permanently?
Nuclear waste will harm future generations for a million years without underground storage
Preface. This is a book review of “Too Hot to Touch: The Problem of High-Level Nuclear Waste” and the best book I’ve read on the topic, as well as additional research on the topic. Now that world wide production of … Continue reading
A Nuclear spent fuel pool fire could force millions to evacuate & cost $2 trillion
Preface. Nuclear cheerleaders love to talk about how safe nuclear power is. You will never ever hear them talk about nuclear fuel pools because that would destroy their argument. Though like Limits to Growth and Malthusian overpopulation dismissed by capitalists, … Continue reading
A Mega Storm in California might cost $1 trillion & destroy a third of America’s food
Preface. Hurricane Katrina cost somewhere between $109 and $250 billion dollars (Amadero 2017). Estimates of hurricane Harvey range from $100 to $190 billion (Kollewe 2017, Lanktree 2017). The next California ArkStorm is likely to cost $900 billion, or even a … Continue reading
Posted in Floods, Planetary Boundaries
Tagged arkstorm, california, extreme weather, flood, superstorm
Comments Off on A Mega Storm in California might cost $1 trillion & destroy a third of America’s food
Sodium Sulfur Batteries
Recent research progress in sodium ion batteries: (a) cathode, (b) anode, (c) electrolyte and (d) binder. Source: Hwang J (2017) Sodium-ion batteries: present and future. Chem. Soc. Review 46: 3529-3614 DOI: 10.1039/C6CS00776G Preface. If lithium were used for both EV … Continue reading
Posted in Battery - Utility Scale
Tagged battery, electricity storage, sodium, utility scale energy storage
Comments Off on Sodium Sulfur Batteries
Book review: Atomic Days. The Untold Story of the Most Toxic Place in America
Preface. Plutonium for nuclear weapons was produced at the Hanford Washington site for nearly four decades. Today it is the world’s most polluted site chock-a-block with radioactive waste and toxic chemicals. The department of energy estimates a clean-up could cost … Continue reading
Posted in Disasters, Energy Books, Nuclear Waste, Pollution
Tagged accident, Bechtel, DOE, Hanford, nuclear waste, plutonium
Comments Off on Book review: Atomic Days. The Untold Story of the Most Toxic Place in America