Category Archives: Collapsed & collapsing nations

Failed nations and states — what it’s like to live in an unstable or collapsed region

Venezuela collapse: looting, hunger, blackouts

Posted on December 26, 2019 by

Preface. Venezuela is experiencing a double whammy of drought and low oil prices, which has lead to blackouts and inability to import food, ultimately due to their oil production peaking in 1997.  The same fate awaits the U.S. someday when … Continue reading →

Posted in Central & South America, Social Disorder | Tagged , | 6 Comments

Nafeez Ahmed: Venezuela’s collapse is a window into how the Oil Age will unravel

Posted on June 17, 2019 by

Preface. Ahmed is one of the best writers on the energy crisis and other biophysical calamities. He’s written about why many states are failing now in part due to peak oil, but also drought and other biophysical factors in his … Continue reading →

Posted in Central & South America, Oil (Tar) Sands, Peak Oil | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Book review of Mikhail’s “The beekeeper: rescuing the stolen women of Iraq”

Posted on May 24, 2019 by

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, Collapsing, Mass migrations, Middle East, Refugee Camps, Social Disorder, Terrorism | Tagged | 8 Comments

Part 2. How long do civilizations last on average? 336 years

Posted on May 6, 2019 by

I stopped trying to find out why each civilization failed in Wiki because it’s not always clear and historians bicker over it, though it’s clear drought, invasions, civil wars, and famines played a role in most of them.  Yet what’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Cambridge Centre Study of Existential Risk, Collapsed, Scientists Warnings to Humanity | Tagged | 4 Comments

Part 1. How long do civilizations last?

Posted on May 3, 2019 by

This is most, but not all of Kemp’s BBC article, which you ought to read in its entirety at the link in the title below.  I disagree with him when he says that: “The collapse of our civilization is not … Continue reading →

Posted in Collapsed, Interdependencies, Scientists Warnings to Humanity | Tagged | 2 Comments

What collapse is like: Guadalajara Mexico

Posted on December 30, 2018 by

Preface.  Collapse can be local rather than national. There are 5 states within Mexico the State Department warns not to travel to: Colima,Guerrero, Michoacán, Sinaloa, and Tamaulipas because violent crime, such as homicide, kidnapping, carjacking, and robbery, are widespread. There … Continue reading →

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Book: John Perlin’s “A Forest Journey: The Story of Wood and Civilization”

Posted on October 18, 2018 by

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 →

Posted in Collapse of Civilizations, Collapsed, Deforestation, Life Before Oil, Limits To Growth, Peak Resources, Soil, Wood | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Richard Heinberg: Energy and Authoritarianism

Posted on July 28, 2018 by

Preface. Heinberg wrote this a year ago. Brilliant and well structured, he conveys as much in this article as many books, and consolidates what must be many years of research. But Heinberg is not the only one to wonder if … Continue reading →

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The fall of the roman empire from plagues and climate change

Posted on April 25, 2018 by

Preface. This is a book review of “The Fate of Rome Climate Disease and the End of an Empire” by Kyle Harper, which shows the brutal effects of plagues, climate change, and their joint interaction on the Roman Empire. But … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate Change, Pandemic, Roman Empire, Transportation | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Lessons learned from how Cuba survived peak oil

Posted on March 18, 2018 by

[ After seeing the film “The Power of Community: How Cuba survived Peak Oil” in 2006, I thought about how those lessons might apply to California agriculture. California grows about one-third of the U.S. food supply. Much of what follows … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Cuba, What to do | Tagged , | 1 Comment