Category Archives: Collapsed

These nations went through collapse or are in collapse now. Several have recovered, such as Cuba and Russia.

Book review of “Empires and Barbarians: the fall of Rome and the birth of Europe”

Posted on February 14, 2017 by

[ 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 →

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Ward-Perkins “The Fall of Rome: And the End of Civilization”

Posted on January 10, 2017 by

[ This is a book review of Ward-Perkins “The Fall of Rome: And the End of Civilization“. What sparked my interest in reading several books on the decline of Rome was when James Howard Kunstler  (KunstlerCast 278) interviewed me about … Continue reading →

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Nothing is true & everything Is possible: the surreal heart of the new Russia by Peter Pomerantsev

Posted on December 7, 2015 by

Peter Pomerantsev. 2014. Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia. Public Affairs. [ OVERVIEW. This is an amazing look at what it is like in Russia these days. There are schools that teach … Continue reading →

Posted in Corruption, Financial, Russia | 2 Comments

Dmitry Orlov: How Russians survived the collapse of the Soviet Union

Posted on August 18, 2015 by

This is one of the best articles I’ve read about what collapse may be like, the best strategies to survive, and why the Russian way of life and culture prepared them far better for hard times than America.  Related posts … Continue reading →

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How different nations have coped with oil shortages

Posted on June 5, 2015 by

[ In this article, Friedrichs shows how differently Cuba, North Korea, and Japan coped after a sudden loss of most of their oil.  Also see my posts about collapse in North Korea and Cuba. I first became aware that Japan … Continue reading →

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Jared Diamond Why Societies Collapse

Posted on March 12, 2015 by

Professor Jared Diamond, Professor of Physiology at UCLA, speaking at Princeton University about what we can learn from the collapse of ancient societies. Professor Diamond won the Pulitzer Prize for his book, ‘Guns, Germs and Steel’ in 1997. October 27, … Continue reading →

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Bryan Appleyard Waiting for the lights to go out

Posted on March 12, 2015 by

Bryan Appleyard. October 16, 2005. Waiting for the lights to go out. We’ve taken the past 200 years of prosperity for granted. Humanity’s progress is stalling, we are facing a new era of decay, and nobody is clever enough to … Continue reading →

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The Empire of the United States, Roman Empire, War, etc.

Posted on March 12, 2015 by

[Several articles and comments from energy groups follow] Steven Strauss. December 31, 2012. 8 Striking Parallels Between the U.S. and the Roman Empire. Is our republic coming to an unceremonious end? History may not be on America’s side. Lawrence Lessig’s … Continue reading →

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1177 B.C. The year civilization collapsed

Posted on December 8, 2014 by

[ These are my notes that are disjointed but can give you an idea of how fast our fossil-fueled civilization could collapse.  We are far more interdependent on much longer global supply chains (a wind turbine has 8,000 parts). We … Continue reading →

Posted in 2) Collapse, Cascading Failure, Collapse of Civilizations, Drought, Historically, Interdependencies, Supply Chains | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on 1177 B.C. The year civilization collapsed

A book review of “Russia’s Food Policies and Globalization”

Posted on April 16, 2014 by

by Alice Friedemann Wegren, Stephen K.  Russia’s Food Policies and Globalization. 2005. Lexington Books. Governments that can’t feed their people lose their legitimacy and risk widespread social unrest.  The Russian government has made many mistakes in the past, such as … Continue reading →

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