Tag Archives: energy

A Century from Now Concrete Will be Nothing But Rubble

Posted on January 19, 2014 by

Photo: road abandoned since 1984 in the Florida Keys Concrete is an essential part of our infrastructure. And it’s all falling apart, as Robert Courland’s 2011 book Concrete Planet makes clear. The Romans built concrete structures that lasted over 2 … Continue reading →

Posted in Concrete, Infrastructure, Infrastructure, Predictions, Roads | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Oil and Gas infrastructure are falling apart

Posted on July 11, 2013 by

Beneath Cities, a Decaying Tangle of Gas Pipes March 23, 2014. Patrick McGeehan et al. New York Times It is a danger hidden beneath the streets of New York City, unseen and rarely noticed: 6,302 miles of pipes transporting natural … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate Change, Energy, Oil & Gas | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off

Climate change will cause blackouts & brownouts as energy infrastructure brought down

Posted on July 11, 2013 by

11 July 2013. John M. Broder. Climate Change Will Cause More Energy Breakdowns, U.S. Warns. New York Times. The nation’s entire energy system is vulnerable to increasingly severe and costly weather events driven by climate change, according to a report … Continue reading →

Posted in Blackouts, Climate Change, Energy | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off

Antecedents — too much oil needed to make wind, solar, batteries, and so on

Posted on December 31, 2012 by

Fossil fuels are used in every step of every process AND as a component of material objects from plastics to medicine and 500,000 other products. Any kind of alternative energy you care to name requires fossil fuels from the very … Continue reading →

Posted in Antecedents, Energy | Tagged , , , | Comments Off

Drought affects Survival in many ways

Posted on December 14, 2011 by

Christian Parenti calls multiple crises “The Catastrophic Convergence” in “Tropic of Chaos, Climate change and the new geography of Violence”.  The problem isn’t that calamities happen simultaneously, it’s that they compound and amplify one another. Obviously drought reduces agricultural production.  … Continue reading →

Posted in 1) Decline, Drought | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Why Oilsands (a.k.a. tarsands) can’t replace oil

Posted on July 10, 2011 by

Tar sand excavation images: trucks landscape tarsand refineries overhead video: Beautiful Destruction – Alberta Tar Sands Aerial Photographs The problems with oilsands (tarsands) are: 1)   In the tar sands open-pit mines, to produce one barrel of synthetic crude it takes … Continue reading →

Posted in Energy, Hazardous Waste, Oil Sands, Pollution | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off