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Recent Posts
- Excerpt from “The Geopolitics of Resource Wars”
- Homes & Buildings
- 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
Author Archives: energyskeptic
Walter Youngquist: Geodestinies Minerals
Preface. I was fortunate enough to know Walter for 15 years. He became a friend and mentor, helping me learn to become a better science writer, and sending me material I might be interested in, and delightful pictures of him … Continue reading
Posted in Mining, Walter Youngquist
Tagged minerals
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Walter Youngquist: Geodestinies Metals
Preface. I was fortunate enough to know Walter for 15 years. He became a friend and mentor, helping me learn to become a better science writer, and sending me material I might be interested in, and delightful pictures of him … Continue reading
Youngquist: Geodestinies Population
Preface. Youngquist emphasized overpopulation in everything he wrote, since this is the root of all our problems — pollution, climate change, soil erosion, fresh water depletion, extinction, biodiversity loss — can you think of a single problem that wouldn’t be … Continue reading
Posted in Experts, Overpopulation, Walter Youngquist
Tagged Geodestinies, overpopulation, population, Youngquist
1 Comment
Walter Youngquist: Geodestinies
Preface. I was fortunate enough to know Walter for 15 years. He became a friend and mentor, helping me learn to become a better science writer, and sending me material I might be interested in, and delightful pictures of him … Continue reading
Posted in Energy Books, Walter Youngquist
Tagged Geodestinies, oil, population, war, Youngquist
5 Comments
Kurt Andersen: “Evil Geniuses” & wealth
Preface. This is a well-written book with original insights into the economic, cultural, and politics behind how we got to a right-wing wannabe fascist incredibly unfair distribution of wealth. But Andersen is unaware that energy, not money, is the basis … Continue reading
Disposal of nuclear waste in municipal landfills
Preface. The pandemic is probably going to enable a lot of bad legislation to be snuck in while attention is focused elsewhere. This proposal is for low-level waste in landfills. But the big problem is that nothing at all is … Continue reading
Why no single or combination of alternative energy resources can replace fossil fuels
Preface. This 2002 paper is still true today. There simply are no renewable replacements for the fossil fuels that power our civilization. If only scientists could violate the laws of thermodynamics and physics the way capitalistic crooks cheat, like Bernie … Continue reading
Posted in Alternative Energy, Biomass, Fusion, Hydrogen, Nuclear Power Energy, Orbiting Solar, Peak Oil, Photovoltaic Solar, Wind
Tagged fusion, hydrogen, nuclear, peak everything, solar, wind
6 Comments
Utility scale energy storage doesn’t scale up: limits to minerals and geography
Preface. Natural gas is finite, but aside from (pumped) hydropower, natural gas is the main way wind and solar are balanced now. Therefore, a tremendous amount of energy storage will be needed in the future as natural gas declines. And … Continue reading
Far Out power #6: Stale beer, crayfish shells, and burning metal powder
Preface. Unfortunately, turning beer into biogas requires a pandemic so that it isn’t drunk at pubs instead. Scientists assure us there will be more pandemics as we mow down (rain)forests for shopping malls and come into contact with new viruses, … Continue reading
Posted in Biofuels, Far Out
Tagged beer, biogas, renewable power
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