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Recent Posts
- Thorium nuclear bombs and reactors have too many challenges
- Who Killed the Electric Car & more importantly, the Electric Truck?
- President Carter’s energy solutions 1977
- Peak Menhaden
- Hemp for paper, textiles, the war on drugs, and more
- Why towns have a hard time adding EV, solar, heat pumps
- Building a national super grid in America
- The Mayflower from the book The Barbarous Years
- Deep Sea Oil
- Book review of “Livewired. The inside story of the ever-changing brain”
- The conveyor belt may be slowing down — Yikes!
- Battery Energy storage batteries (BESS) too complex to ever be commercial
- New war and energy alliances over next resource wars
- Book review of “Siege: Trump Under fire”
- Why do people vote for Trump?
Author Archives: energyskeptic
Negative energy return of solar PV in Northern Europe
Preface. I once yanked this paper after huge blow back, almost as bad as nuclear proponents, 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 … 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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U.S. Army new jobs: quell social unrest from climate change, help get arctic oil
Preface. Of all the branches of government, the military is the most on top of climate change, peak oil, pandemics, power grid failure, and other disasters. I guess that shouldn’t be surprising, it’s their job to defend the U.S. against … Continue reading
Posted in Military
Tagged arctic oil, army, climate change, military, pandemic
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Reforestation for the return to biomass after fossil fuels
Preface. Below are excerpts from a New York Times article about forests. My book “Life After Fossil Fuels: A Reality Check on Alternative Energy” explains why the myriad ways we use fossil fuels can’t be electrified (or hydrogenized or anything … Continue reading
Posted in Deforestation
Tagged biomass, Reforest
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The History of Drunkenness
Preface. This is a book review of “A short history of Drunkenness” by Mark Forsyth. I expect alcohol to be a big part of life postcarbon not only because most cultures have embraced alcohol, but to drown the sorrows and … Continue reading
Posted in Advice, Agriculture, Human Nature
Tagged Alchohol, drunkenness, religion
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Pentagon report: collapse within 20 years from climate change
Preface. The report that the article by Ahmed below is based on is: Brosig, M., et al. 2019. Implications of climate change for the U.S. Army. United States Army War College. It was written in 2019, before covid-19 and so … Continue reading
Posted in Arctic, Blackouts, Climate Change, Infrastructure & Fast Crash, Military, Over Oil
Tagged climate change, collapse, military
2 Comments
A Relentless Growth of Disparity in Wealth
Preface. I write a lot about why electric vehicles won’t be widely adopted. One reason is that the bottom 95% can’t afford them. This tremendous unfairness will likely make peak oil decline more violent and chaotic than it would have … Continue reading
Posted in Distribution of Wealth
3 Comments