Author Archives: energyskeptic

Will global warming drive us extinct? A review of Peter Ward’s “Under a Green Sky”

Posted on October 7, 2022 by

Canfield purple ocean, Green Sky Preface. Thank goodness for world peak oil production in 2018. We’re out of time to destroy the planet! We’re about to dramatically reduce fossil fuel consumption, unwillingly, as it declines at 8% or more and … Continue reading →

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Look Before you Eat

Posted on September 30, 2022 by

Preface. This post is a book review of Be Wilson’s Swindled. From Poison Sweets to Counterfeit Coffee – The Dark History of the Food Cheats. Wilson explains why cheating has always gone on and always will, especially in societies with … Continue reading →

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How the grid works, why a distributed grid won’t work

Posted on September 23, 2022 by

Preface. This is a book review of Angwin’s 2020 “Shorting the Grid. The Hidden Fragility of Our Electric Grid”. It is a good primer on how the grid works, especially why Volt-Ampere Reactives (VARs) are important and why renewables don’t … Continue reading →

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After the Reich. The Brutal History of the Allied Occupation

Posted on September 16, 2022 by

Preface. This is a book review of: Giles MacDonogh (2007) After the Reich. The Brutal History of the Allied Occupation.   In trying to understand what life might be like as energy declines, I’ve read a lot of books about … Continue reading →

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Book review of “Agrarian Dreams”

Posted on September 9, 2022 by

Preface. This is a book review of Guthman’s “Agrarian Dreams.  The Paradox of Organic Farming in California”.  Since world oil production likely peaked in 2018, and renewables can’t replace fossil fuels (read my books), there’s no choice but to go … Continue reading →

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Book Review of “War: How Conflict Shaped Us”

Posted on September 2, 2022 by

Preface.  This is a very profound and wide-ranging book about many aspects of war, the reasons for fighting, what it’s like to be a soldier, women’s roles during wars, the history and future of war, and more, a really outstanding … Continue reading →

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Criticism of Dawn Of Everything

Posted on August 29, 2022 by

I’d read a lot of anthropology decades ago so much of “Dawn” sounded right and plausible.  But it seemed too good to be true, and I’ve been looking since then for criticism. Much of what I’ve found was full of … Continue reading →

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Why mining to make renewables will destroy the planet

Posted on August 26, 2022 by

Figure 1 Landscape of earth after 37% is mined to build renewables Preface. As I wrote in Life After fossil fuels: “Mining spews out acid rain, wastewater, and heavy metals onto land, water, and air (PEBI 2016). One-fifth of China’s arable … Continue reading →

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Venezuela – when will it collapse?

Posted on August 19, 2022 by

Preface. This is a book review of Newman’s 2022 “Things are never so bad that they can’t get worse”. He lived in Venezuela from 2012 to 2016 as a correspondent for The New York Times.  Venezuela and Canada have the … Continue reading →

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Booklist: Pollution, Resource Depletion, Infrastructure, Transportation, Peak Minerals, Life after Fossil Fuels

Posted on August 14, 2022 by

More booklists Pollution G Pitron. The Rare Metals War: the dark side of clean energy and digital technologies T Colborn. Our Stolen Future: Are we threatening our fertility, survival? J McCormick. Acid Earth: The Global Threat of Acid Pollution. J … Continue reading →

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