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- 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
Fossil-fueled industrial heat hard to impossible to replace with renewables
Preface. Cement, steel, glass, bricks, ceramics, chemicals, and much more depend on fossil-fueled high heat (up to 3200 F) to make. Except for the electric-arc furnace to recycle existing steel, there aren’t any renewable ways to make cement, other metals, … Continue reading
Posted in Alternative Energy, Manufacturing & Industrial Heat
Tagged electricity, heat, hydrogen, manufacturing
2 Comments
A 1-year blackout could kill 90% of Americans
Preface. What follows is the 30-page testimony of Dr. Pry at a 2015 U.S. House of Representatives session that I’ve summarized. One of the ways that an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) could be generated is by a solar flare. During the … Continue reading
Posted in Electric Grid
Tagged cyber attack, electromagnetic pulse, EMP, nuclear, spent fuel pool, war
4 Comments
Invasion of feral hogs yet another hazard for the future
Preface. The Decline category used to be Death By A Thousand Cuts. Feral hogs are yet another cut for anyone who survives peak oil. Not only will climate change be drastically cutting back food production, feral hogs will too, and … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity, BioInvasion, Disease, Farming & Ranching
Tagged agriculture, Bioinvasion, disease, feral pigs, wild hogs
3 Comments
Energy Slaves: Every American has 200 to 8,000 or more
Preface. The range of 200 to 8,000 comes from the articles below. Perhaps even more. Former Navy Admiral Rickover wrote in 1957 that it takes at least 2,000 men to push an automobile along the road, a locomotive engineer controls … Continue reading
Posted in Energy Slaves
Tagged buckminster fuller, energy slave, muscle power, population, tad patzek, walter youngquist
2 Comments
Antonio Turiel: Explaining Peak Oil the Easy Way
Preface. Turiel writes an excellent blog “The oil crash” at http://crashoil.blogspot.com. Turiel explains eloquently why the amount of oil will decline even though there are vast pools of oil left underground. If you read my book “When trucks stop running”, … Continue reading
Shale gas is only good for plastics, not transportation fuels
Preface. The oil industry is making more plastic because electric cars have cut gasoline use, but because shale “fracked” gas is so light plastic is about the only use. It is not a transportation fuel that can save us from … Continue reading
1688 Tons of material to build just 1 windmill
Preface. There must be many high wind locations that wind turbine blades can’t be transported to, limiting how many could be built even with a trillion dollar budget. Clearly wind turbines aren’t renewable when you consider the vast amounts of … Continue reading
Invasive weeds threaten crops
Preface. Invasive weeds will make growing food harder when fossils are gone, since pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides are made with petroleum as a feedstock. Alice Friedemann www.energyskeptic.com author of “Life After Fossil Fuels: A Reality Check on Alternative Energy”, … Continue reading
Peak Phosphorus
Sources: Peak phosphorus curve indicating a peak in production by 2033, derived from US Geological Survey and industry data. Cordell, D.; Drangert, J.-O.; White, S. The story of phosphorus: Global food security and food for thought. Glob. Environ. Change 2009, … Continue reading
The rich live longer than the poor. At least 14% of wealth is hidden in tax havens
Preface. No surprises here. With peak oil close at hand, I can’t see universal healthcare and other safety nets enacted, just more and more taken away. It is so shameful the U.S. doesn’t take care of its people, it is … Continue reading
Posted in Distribution of Wealth
Tagged corruption, tax haven
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