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- Book Review “The Outlawed Ocean” by Ian Urbina
- Underestimating the Challenges of Avoiding a Ghastly Future
- Motherboards: too complicated to make after oil
- “More and More and More” one of the best books on energy ever written
- The staggering destruction of knowledge by Christians in the Roman Empire
- The staggering cost of Net Zero in Britain
- Why the R/P Reserves to Production ratio does not show when oil will run out
- Catton on Collapse “Bottleneck: Humanity’s Impending Impasse”
- Book Review of Grain Brain: Extraordinary claim not backed up by evidence
- Why did everyone stop talking about Population & Immigration?
- What would happen if trucks stopped running?
- How to survive a nuclear winter
- The insect apocalypse will kill billions more people than climate change
- The war on drugs. A book review of “Chasing the scream”
Author Archives: energyskeptic
What did Native Americans make of the French in the 16th century?
Preface. My first exposure to philosophy was in High School, about the philosophies that helped shape the U.S. constitution. This led me to read Rousseau, Hobbes, Locke, Montesquieu, and others. “Dawn of Everything” points out that Native American philosophies should … Continue reading
Posted in Dawn of Everything
Tagged French, philosophy, Wendat
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Dawn of Everything Conclusion
Preface. Clearly for their conclusion to make sense you’ll need to read the book and see the evidence for yourself. Since they challenge just about all of the ideas currently in fashion, you can find some pretty damning reviews of … Continue reading
Posted in Dawn of Everything
Tagged agriculture, cahokia, wendot
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Dawn of Everything Introduction
Preface. It is likely that all world oil, both conventional and unconventional, peaked in 2018. The good news is that this means there isn’t enough carbon left to turn the world into a hothouse extinction, though for centuries the planet … Continue reading
Posted in Dawn of Everything
Tagged agriculture, politics
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Electric Swarm Tractors
Preface. In both my books Life After Fossil Fuels: A Reality Check on Alternative Energy & When Trucks Stop Running: Energy and the Future of Transportation, I write that since most “renewables” generate electricity (i.e. wind, solar, nuclear, hydropower, compressed … Continue reading
Neighborhood councils to cope with energy decline
I’m reading “The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity” which is one of the best books I’ve read in years, and a very hopeful one – this 700 page book is full of evidence that agriculture, capitalism, slavery, … Continue reading
Posted in Government on what to do, Life Before Oil, Political Books
Tagged agriculture, bird flu, councils, dawn of everything, energy decline, monarchy, pandemic, peak oil
2 Comments
Can we eat enough fried food for biodiesel to keep trucks running?
Fatberg from London sewer If the U.S. can’t make enough biodiesel from plants, then the question becomes: Can we step up our fast-food game? Can we eat more French fries? Biodiesel is already made from used cooking oil (11.5% of … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiesel, Farming & Ranching
Tagged biodiesel, fast food, fatberg
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Why it is hard to replace diesel with biodiesel
Biodiesel is the great hope, our main hope, the only renewable fuel of all the many options, and the closest to the diesel essential for rail, trucks, and ships to do the actual work of civilization. The U.S. produces over … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiesel, Food production, Oil, Peak Biofuels, Peak Food, Transportation, Water
Tagged biodiesel, diesel, EROI
1 Comment
Corn for ethanol & soy for biodiesel tremendously destructive
In the news: Cullen A (2024) Corn Belt fertilizer is killing the Gulf of Mexico. Washington Post. About 30 percent of the nitrogen applied for raising corn is lost to water, and much of it right now is draining off … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiesel, Peak Food, Pesticides, Soil, Water Pollution
Tagged aquifer depletion, biodiesel, corn, erosion, ethanol, pollution, soybeans, topsoil
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Energy certificates as currency when oil shocks strike?
Since world oil peaked in 2018, clearly there will be a time when there are oil shortages. The price may be high at first, but that often brings on a financial crash (Hamilton 2013), unemployment rises as business shut down, … Continue reading
Posted in Oil Shocks, Rationing, U.S. Congress Energy Policy
Tagged blackouts, currency, ecological economics, energy crisis, Hubbert, money, oil shock, rationing
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Coal Ash is a major toxic waste
Coal ash is what remains after coal is burned, and has numerous elements dangerous to human health, including known carcinogens such as arsenic, hexavalent chromium, and radium. A nuclear power plant generating as much energy as a coal plant generates … Continue reading
Posted in Hazardous Waste
Tagged arsenic, coal ash, radioactive, rare earth
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