Category Archives: Historically

Book Review: The Fall of the Roman Empire: A new history of Rome and the barbarians

Posted on November 26, 2020 by

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 →

Posted in Collapse of Civilizations, Roman Empire | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Book Review of “Against the Grain. A Deep History of the Earliest States”

Posted on September 9, 2020 by

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 →

Posted in Collapse of Civilizations, Historically, Human Nature, Life Before Oil, Slavery | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

11 Nations that Collapsed because of Drought

Posted on May 28, 2020 by

Preface. Recently it was discovered that Assyria collapsed in the 7th century BC.  Jeff Masters list ten more civilizations that failed from drought. We may be next, as Lynn Ingram, a professor at U.C. Berkeley discusses  in her  book: The … Continue reading →

Posted in Drought, Drought, Historically | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Fall of Indus valley & Akkadian civilizations from climate change

Posted on April 20, 2020 by

Preface. Any civilization or region that survives energy decline must then survive climate change for many centuries. As far as the wind systems that collapsed the Akkadian empire, it’s already happening: “Greenhouse gases are increasingly disrupting the jet stream, a … Continue reading →

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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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Jared Diamond Why Societies Collapse

Posted on March 12, 2015 by

[ Whoops, Diamond left out peak oil: Book review of “In order to live: A North Korean girl’s journey to freedom” by Yeonmi Park Inside North Korea’s Environmental Collapse Who Lives, Who dies in a never-ending energy crisis. Book review … 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