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Recent Posts
- The history of rope making
- What will future societies be like after fossil fuels are gone?
- Phosphate: All hopes for food and LFP batteries rest on Morocco with up to 85% of remaining reserves
- Floating Solar Farms add plastic, metal, PFAS & cut off light and oxygen to life below
- Peak Lithium
- Trump eliminates birth control abroad
- In a world without people, how long would NYC last?
- Network States to replace democratic governments with billionaire Silicon Valley CEO dictators & Republicans
- Why the kerogen in oil shale will never fill up your tank
- ‘The oil we eat’. Following the food chain back to iraq
- Vanishing open spaces: population growth and sprawl in America
- Admiral Rickover 1957: Energy Resources & Our Future
- The Green New Deal is not a solution for the real problem: Overshoot
- A transition from fossil fuels to renewables could take a century – if it ever happens
- Electrifying freight trains in the U.S. is a bad idea
Author Archives: energyskeptic
A book review of “Thundersticks: Firearms and the Violent Transformation of Native America“ by David J. Silverman
Preface. This is a book review of “Thundersticks: Firearms and the Violent Transformation of Native America“ by David J. Silverman 2016. I found this book hard to put down. It should be read because it tells the role guns played … Continue reading
Posted in Human Nature, Military, guns, Slavery, Social Disorder, Violence, War Books
Tagged guns, Indians, Native Americans, slavery, violence, war
Comments Off on A book review of “Thundersticks: Firearms and the Violent Transformation of Native America“ by David J. Silverman
Book Review of “Against the Grain. A Deep History of the Earliest States”
Preface. Energyskeptic.com is ultimately about the rise and fall of civilizations, although I didn’t know that when I first started writing this as an energy and resource blog. Our civilization too will fail as fossil fuels decline, and then we’re … Continue reading
Will life after peak oil be like the middle ages?
Preface. Winston recreates what life was like from the 5th to the 15th centuries — from the fall of the Roman Empire to the beginning of the Renaissance. Energyskeptic.com shows why hydrogen, wind, solar, geothermal, nuclear, fusion, and other alternatives … Continue reading
Posted in Agriculture, Biomass, Life Before Oil
Tagged biomass, life before oil, middle ages, wood world
8 Comments
Think covid-19 is bad? The tuberculosis pandemic is still killing millions
Preface. These are my kindle notes from “The Plague and I” by Betty MacDonald. Her great sense of humor, beautiful writing, and finding out what it would have been like to be in a Tuberculosis (TB) sanitarium in 1937 are … Continue reading
Wave, tidal, ocean current, in-stream, & ocean thermal power
Preface. This is mainly a review of the 2013 National Research Council’s report on harvesting marine energy from waves, tides, temperature differences, currents, and run-of-river. But also the latest projects and other evidence related to the energy that can be … Continue reading
Posted in Waves & Tidal
Tagged hydrokinetic, national academy, OTEC, tidal power, wave power
2 Comments
Nuclear winter could kill 2 to 5 billion people
Preface. Carl Sagan introduced the idea of a “nuclear winter”, which helped to end the cold war. The smoke from fires started by bombs would absorb so much sun the earth wold grow cold, dry, and dark, killing plants on … Continue reading
Posted in Extinction, Farming & Ranching, Fisheries, Nuclear War, Nuclear Winter
Tagged 1 billion deaths, agriculture, fishery, nuclear, nuclear winter, ozone loss, UV radiation, war
1 Comment
Maddow’s “Blowout”, Russian peak oil, corruption, fake news
Preface. Since this blog focuses on peak resources, I drastically rearranged my notes from this book in the order I found most interesting. I’m also interested in corruption, Putin, fake news, and more, as you’ll see below. Since the book … Continue reading
Posted in Corruption, Corruption & Finance, Oil shock collapse, Peak Oil
Tagged corruption, fake news, peak oil, Russia, Ukraine
2 Comments
Can you grow enough fruit and vegetables to be self-sufficient?
Preface. If you want to try to feed yourself, buy John Jeavons excellent book “How to Grow More Vegetables, Ninth Edition: (and Fruits, Nuts, Berries, Grains, and Other Crops) Than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land with Less Water … Continue reading
The Golden Age of Russian Oil Nears an End
Preface. One huge factor in Russia’s future oil decline not mentioned below is how incredibly corrupt and inefficient Russia’s oil and gas companies are, as Rachel Maddow describes in her book “Blowout”. A few quotes: The Russian oil and gas … Continue reading
Far out #3: Sugar power
Preface. No, you object, sugar in the gas tank will destroy the engine. Not true. Snopes.com says that won’t happen because sugar doesn’t dissolve in automotive fuel or caramelize, and so it does not turn into the debilitating gunk this … Continue reading