Author Archives: energyskeptic

How are microchips made?

Posted on January 31, 2021 by

Preface. Computer chip fabrication plants need to run continuously for weeks to accomplish the thousands of steps needed to make microchips. A half-hour power outage at Samsung’s Pyeongtaek chip plant caused losses of over $43 million dollars (Reuters 2019). Chip … Continue reading →

Posted in Chemicals, Microchips and computers | Tagged , | 16 Comments

Motherboards: too complicated to make after oil

Posted on January 28, 2021 by

Preface. The wood-based world of the future simply won’t have the energy and minerals required not just to make electronic devices, but the precision machine tools to make them.  As diesel fuel grows scarce and the economy fails, supply chains … Continue reading →

Posted in Microchips and computers | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Many steps using fossil fuels to make cans & potato chips

Posted on January 25, 2021 by

Preface.  I am gobsmacked by how much energy goes into making beverage cans and potato chips, look at all the steps, each one using energy!  Why haven’t we run of oil yet? Especially when you look at everything else out … Continue reading →

Posted in EROEI Energy Returned on Energy Invested, Manufacturing & Industrial Heat | Tagged , , , , | 8 Comments

Will the Great Game be won by Cyber Attacks?

Posted on January 25, 2021 by

Preface.  This is a book review of Joel Brenner’s “America the Vulnerable: Inside the New Threat Matrix of Digital Espionage, Crime, and Warfare”. The ransom cyber attack on the colonial pipeline forced the shutdown of a vital pipeline delivering half … Continue reading →

Posted in China and War, Cyber, Cyber Attack Books, CyberAttacks, War Books | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Will the Great Game be won by Cyber Attacks?

Renewables: not enough minerals, energy or time and mining is destructive

Posted on January 22, 2021 by

Preface. Electricity generating contraptions like wind and solar can’t replace the 50% of oil used in global manufacturing, because they can’t generate the high heat needed, or run battery or catenary electric trucks as I explained in “When Trucks Top … Continue reading →

Posted in Alternative Energy, Battery - Utility Scale, Peak Critical Elements, Peak Platinum Group Elements, Peak Rare Earth Elements, Peak Resources, Recycle, Recycling, Solar, Wind | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Ugo Bardi’s The Universal Mining Machine

Posted on January 19, 2021 by

Preface. Below I’ve excerpted some of Ugo Bardi’s “The Universal Mining Machine” (24 January 2008 europe.theoildrum), but I’ve left a great deal out of this excellent article, I encourage you to read all of it if you have time. The … Continue reading →

Posted in Mining, Peak Critical Elements, Ugo Bardi | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Minerals essential for wind, solar, and high-tech, are anything but clean and green

Posted on January 16, 2021 by

This is a book review of Pitron’s “The rare metals war”.  To produce the metals and minerals to make a transition to wind, solar, nuclear and so on would be incredibly destructive and polluting. A fifth of China’s arable land … Continue reading →

Posted in Battery - Utility Scale, Mining, Peak Critical Elements, Peak Rare Earth Elements, Peak Resources, Photovoltaic Solar, Recycle, Recycling, Wind | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Book list: What to do about peak everything and limits to growth

Posted on January 13, 2021 by

If you search on prepping you’ll get 262 million results. That isn’t my focus, there are plenty of groups and websites devoted to that.  Where best to be is important but hard to decide since initially cities might be best … Continue reading →

Posted in Advice, Book List, Where to Be or Not to Be | Tagged , , , | 14 Comments

328 Million Americans use 3.2 million pounds of minerals, metals, and fuels in their lifetime

Posted on January 10, 2021 by

Preface. Even if you go off the grid, civilization is using up minerals at an exponential rate to maintain the non-negotiable American lifestyle, which in 2006, required 3.7 million pounds of minerals, metals, and fuels in each person’s lifetime, or … Continue reading →

Posted in Mining, Peak Critical Elements, Recycle, Recycling | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

Batteries use rare, declining, critical, & imported elements from unstable countries

Posted on January 7, 2021 by

Preface.  Since oil and other fossils are finite and emit carbon, the plan is to electrify society with batteries.  But doh!  Minerals used in batteries are finite too.  And dependent on fossil-fuels entirely in their life cycle, from mining trucks … Continue reading →

Posted in Batteries, Mining, Peak Critical Elements, Peak Rare Earth Elements | Tagged , | 7 Comments