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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?
Category Archives: Collapse of Civilizations
Book Review: The Fall of the Roman Empire: A new history of Rome and the barbarians
Preface. Most historians see the fall of the Roman Empire as due to the invasion of barbarians from the North, partly pushed towards Italy by the brutal Huns. These lands had never been conquered by Roman armies because they were … Continue reading
Book Review of “Against the Grain. A Deep History of the Earliest States”
Preface. Energyskeptic.com is ultimately about the rise and fall of civilizations, although I didn’t know that when I first started writing this as an energy and resource blog. Our civilization too will fail as fossil fuels decline, and then we’re … Continue reading
Book review of Mikhail’s “The beekeeper: rescuing the stolen women of Iraq”
Preface. This is a gruesome post you may want to skip. My main interest in this book was what will happen to the hundreds of millions forced to flee in the future because of the crash of civilization as oil … Continue reading
Posted in Collapse of Civilizations, Mass migrations, Middle East, Refugee Camps, Social Disorder, Terrorism
Tagged collapse, Iraq, refugees
8 Comments
Jorg Friedrichs: The future is not what it used to be. climate change and energy scarcity
Preface. This book ranges across many topics and I’ve only included a few bits and pieces. Friedrichs discusses what to do, recovery, denial, migration, historically how Japan, North Korea, and Cuba reacted to sudden energy decline and based on their … Continue reading
Posted in Collapse of Civilizations
Tagged climate change, denial, peak oil, recovery, what to do
2 Comments
Book: John Perlin’s “A Forest Journey: The Story of Wood and Civilization”
Preface. This contains excerpts from John Perlin’s “A Forest Journey: The Story of Wood and Civilization”. It’s one of my favorite books about natural resources, exploring the role wood has played in the rise and fall of civilizations since they … Continue reading
Fantasyland Part 1. How America Went Haywire. A 500-Year History.
Preface. This a review of the “Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire. A 500-Year History”. If you want to understand what’s wrong with America, and be highly entertained at the same time, this is the book for you, one of my … Continue reading
Book review of “In order to live: A North Korean girl’s journey to freedom” by Yeonmi Park
Related Posts North Korea collapse posts How different nations have coped with oil shortages Dmitry Orlov: How Russians survived the collapse of the Soviet Union A book review of “Russia’s Food Policies and Globalization” Lessons Learned from How Cuba Survived … Continue reading
Posted in Collapse of Civilizations, North Korea, Oil shock collapse
Tagged North Korea, survival
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Why Civilizations Fail by William Ophuls
[ These are my notes from the book, not a proper book review, and since the notes are disjointed, you’d be wise to buy the book– it’s excellent! Plus then it’s on your shelf for future generations to understand what … Continue reading
Book review of “Empires and Barbarians: the fall of Rome and the birth of Europe”
[ After these introductory comments is my book review of Heather’s “Empires and Barbarians: the fall of Rome and the birth of Europe. What follows is from Ward-Perkins “The Fall of Rome: And the End of Civilization” about the role … Continue reading
Posted in Collapse of Civilizations, Roman Empire, Supply Chains
Tagged fall of civilization, immigration, roman empire
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Failing states, collapsing systems: biophysical triggers of political violence
Preface. In this post I summarize the sections of Nafeez’s book about the biophysical factors that bring nations down (i.e. climate change drought & water scarcity, declining revenues after peak oil, etc.) The Media tend to focus exclusively on economic … Continue reading
Posted in Cascading Failure, Caused by Scarce Resources, Collapse of Civilizations, Collapsed & collapsing nations, Drought & Collapse, Exports decline to ZERO, Food production, Interdependencies, Limits To Growth, Middle East, Net Energy Cliff, Other Experts, Over Oil, Overpopulation, Peak Oil, Violence, War & Violence
Tagged climate change, drought, Export Land Model, peak oil, population, water scarcity
3 Comments