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Recent Posts
- Self-driving cars in San Francisco cause accidents, congestion, and more
- “Star Wars” missile defense won’t stop incoming nukes
- Lab-grown meat is energy intensive – and up to 25 times worse for the climate than beef
- The Biblical Revelations, critical thinking, and how this affects us today
- Why the U.S. is ignoring nuclear winter in nuclear policies & strategies
- Oil choke points vulnerable to war, chaos, terrorism, accidents, & piracy
- Nuclear weapons must be reduced or we risk nuclear winter
- Fusion is already running out of fuel
- Peak Oil is Officially Here! World oil production peaked November of 2018
- Wood, the fuel of preindustrial societies, is half of EU renewable energy
- 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?
Monthly Archives: June 2021
Book review of Fruits of Eden: David Fairchild & Americas Plant Hunters
Preface. Botanist David Fairchild is one of the reasons the average grocery store has 39,500 items. Before he came along, most people ate just a few kinds of food day in day out (though that was partly due to a … Continue reading
Posted in Agriculture, Farming & Ranching
Tagged agriculture, botany, fruit, garden, vegetables
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A Century from Now Concrete Will be Nothing But Rubble
Photo: road abandoned since 1984 in the Florida Keys Preface. Much of the material that follows is based on Robert Courland’s 2011 book Concrete Planet, which explains why concrete is an essential part of our infrastructure. And it’s all falling … Continue reading
The orbiting solar power fantasy
Preface. This 2020 article “Solar Power Beamed Down To Earth From Space Moves Forward” will leave you all warm, fuzzy, and unworried about the future. The Scientists Will Come Up With Something. But that’s because you know little to nothing … Continue reading
Posted in Alternative Energy, Critical Thinking, Far Out, Orbiting Solar
Tagged far out, orbiting solar, solar power
2 Comments
Population explosion to destroy 11% of remaining ecosystems and biodiversity
Preface. According to a recent paper in Nature Sustainability (Williams et al 2020), we are on the verge of destroying 11% of earth’s remaining ecosystems by 2050 to grow more food. We already are using 75% of Earth’s land. What … Continue reading
Posted in Chemicals, Deforestation, Food production, Overpopulation
Tagged agriculture, birth control, climate change
4 Comments
Negative energy return of solar PV in Northern Europe
Preface. I once yanked this paper after huge blow back, but in the past few years, I have no reason to doubt Ferroni and Hopkirks methods, boundaries, or conclusions, so I’m putting this post back. If you automatically dismiss this … Continue reading
Posted in Photovoltaic Solar, Solar EROI
Tagged energy return, EROEI, photovoltaic, solar
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Government plans to reduce dependency on fossil fuels won’t work
Preface. Yikes! These government plans from 2009 won’t help the energy crisis much! I do like these ideas though: Get Yucca mountain ready to take nuclear waste. We need to sequester nuclear wastes while there is still energy to do … Continue reading
Why we aren’t mining methane hydrates now — or perhaps ever
Preface. Methane hydrates are far from being commercial, and probably always will be. Scientists and companies have been trying to exploit them since the first energy crisis in 1973 to no avail. Nor are they likely to trigger a runaway … Continue reading
Posted in Alternative Energy, Global Warming, Methane Hydrates
Tagged clathrate, climate change, gas hydrate, global warming, greenhouse, hothouse, methane apocalypse, methane hydrate
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Blackouts, firestorms, and energy use
Preface. Blackouts are more and more likely in the future from fires, hurricanes, natural gas shortages and more. Below is an account from a friend who had to evacuate due to a wildfire. Blackouts in the news: 2024: Half a … Continue reading
Book Review of Richard Heinberg’s 2011 “The End of Growth”
Preface. This is not a book review really, it’s more a few of my kindle notes. Heinberg writes so well, so clearly, that I am sure history will remember him as the most profound and wide-ranging expert on energy and … Continue reading
Posted in Richard Heinberg
Tagged heinberg, limits to growth, peak oil
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