Categories
-
Recent Posts
- In a world without people, how long would NYC last?
- Network States to replace democratic governments with billionaire Silicon Valley CEO dictators & Republicans
- Why the kerogen in oil shale will never fill up your tank
- ‘The oil we eat’. Following the food chain back to iraq
- Vanishing open spaces: population growth and sprawl in America
- Admiral Rickover 1957: Energy Resources & Our Future
- The Green New Deal is not a solution for the real problem: Overshoot
- A transition from fossil fuels to renewables could take a century – if it ever happens
- Electrifying freight trains in the U.S. is a bad idea
- Why Nuclear Power can’t replace fossil fuels
- Energy, Water, & Climate Change are interdependent
- Why fusion power is Forever Away
- Climate Change dominates news coverage at expense of other existential planetary boundaries
- Excerpt from “The Geopolitics of Resource Wars”
- Homes & Buildings
Author Archives: energyskeptic
Lab-grown meat is energy intensive – and up to 25 times worse for the climate than beef
Preface. Meat production from animals uses a great deal of energy to produce, distribute, and refrigerate. Crops must be grown that erode soil and drain aquifers. Unfortunately, lab grown meat uses even more energy and also requires crops to extract … Continue reading
Posted in CO2 and Methane, Food production, Peak Food
Tagged agriculture, climate change, food, lab-grown meat
Comments Off on 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
Preface. This is a book review of Ehrman’s 2023 Armageddon: What the Bible Really Says about the End. Ehrman is a very devout biblical scholar who explains brilliantly what Revelations and other verses in the bible mean within their … Continue reading
Posted in Critical Thinking, Religion
Tagged bible, critical thinking. religion, Rapture, Revelations
Comments Off on The Biblical Revelations, critical thinking, and how this affects us today
Why the U.S. is ignoring nuclear winter in nuclear policies & strategies
Preface. It is very hard to find anything on the U.S. military or governments awareness of nuclear winter. So far the only other information I’ve found on this is from 2023 Risk Analysis methods for nuclear war & nuclear terrorism. … Continue reading
Posted in Nuclear War, Nuclear Winter
Tagged nuclear winter, Russia, united states
Comments Off on Why the U.S. is ignoring nuclear winter in nuclear policies & strategies
Oil choke points vulnerable to war, chaos, terrorism, accidents, & piracy
Source: Ballout, D. 2013. Choke Points: Our energy access points. Oil Change. Preface. Below are several articles I’ve collected since 2005 on oil chokepoints. If oil tanker traffic were stopped on one or more, much of the world would plunge … Continue reading
Posted in Chokepoints, Oil & Gas, Oil Shocks, Threats to oil supply
Tagged abqaiq, chokepoint, Ras Tanura, strait
6 Comments
Nuclear weapons must be reduced or we risk nuclear winter
Geoscientists Can Help Reduce the Threat of Nuclear Weapons Preface. The United States has embarked on a wide-ranging nuclear modernization program that will ultimately see every nuclear delivery system replaced with newer versions over the coming decades. The total cost … Continue reading
Posted in Nuclear Winter
Tagged arms reduction, nuclear winter
Comments Off on Nuclear weapons must be reduced or we risk nuclear winter
Fusion is already running out of fuel
Source: Khan A (2021) Nuclear fusion: building a star on Earth is hard, which is why we need better materials. The Conversation. Preface. Of all the hundreds of obstacles fusion has yet to overcome, its death knell could be as … Continue reading
Wood, the fuel of preindustrial societies, is half of EU renewable energy
Preface: By far the largest renewable energy resource used in Europe is wood. In its various forms, from sticks to pellets to sawdust, wood (or to use its fashionable name, biomass) accounts forhalf of Europe’s renewable-energy consumption. Although Finland is … Continue reading
Rare Earth updates: recent research on why complex & intelligent life are rare in the Universe
Preface. These are updates to Ward & Brownlee’s book “Rare Earth: Why Complex life is Uncommon in the Universe”. If we are one of the few planets with intelligent life, what a shame it would be if we destroyed ourselves … Continue reading
Posted in Evolution, Human Nature, Planetary Boundaries, Wood
Tagged combustion, complex life, evolution, fermi paradox, intelligent life, photosynthesis, rare earth, Theia, venus, water
1 Comment
Book review of “Chip War” and the Fragility of microchips
Major semiconductor producing countries rely on each other for different types of chips. Top semiconductor producers’ 2021 export values by source and destination, billions USD. Source: PIIE 2022 https://www.piie.com/research/piie-charts/major-semiconductor-producing-countries-rely-each-other-different-types-chips Preface. We have become insanely dependent on technology that can’t possibly … Continue reading
Posted in Microchips and computers
Tagged china, computer chip, microchip, semiconductor, Taiwan
Comments Off on Book review of “Chip War” and the Fragility of microchips
The tremendous material and energy toll of the digital infrastructure
One minute on the internet around the world. Source Infographic by @LoriLewas and @officiallyChad, 2020. Preface. This is a book review of Pitron’s “The Dark Cloud”. Of note is the huge amount of electricity and rare earth and other critical … Continue reading
Posted in Microchips and computers, Mining
Tagged computer chips, data center, electric grid, electricity, internet
Comments Off on The tremendous material and energy toll of the digital infrastructure