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- 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
- Why Nuclear Power can’t replace fossil fuels
- Energy, Water, & Climate Change are interdependent
- Why fusion power is Forever Away
- Climate Change dominates news coverage at expense of other existential planetary boundaries
- 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
Author Archives: energyskeptic
Vaclav Smil on natural gas (ethane) and plastics
Preface. Vaclav Smil doesn’t mention using plastic for heat, but in a letter to The Guardian, David Reed suggests: “The effort of collecting, transporting and cleaning plastics for possible recycling has largely failed, created much more pollution and contributed massively … Continue reading
Venezuela collapse: looting, hunger, blackouts, environmental catastrophe
Preface. Venezuela is experiencing a double whammy of drought and low oil prices, which has lead to blackouts and inability to import food, due to their oil production peaking in 1997. If you want to know how collapse will unfold … Continue reading
Peak Sand
Preface. With world peak oil production in 2018 so far (Peak oil is here!) it looks like peak sand won’t be the main factor in the fall of our fossil-fueled civilization. After all, oil makes all materials and activities possible, … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity, Concrete, Peak Sand, Soil
Tagged biodiversity, concrete, ecosystem destruction, food loss, peak sand, shoreline erosion
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Boston Globe: the false promise of nuclear power
Last Updated August 2021. Preface. This article raises many objections to nuclear power. Theoretically it could be cheaper, but the exact opposite has happened, it keeps getting more expensive. For example the only new reactors being built in the U.S. … Continue reading
Posted in Nuclear Power Energy
Tagged accidents, climate change, Fukushima, nuclear power, nuclear weapons, waste
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Rust Power
Preface. This is yet another article with an energy generation idea that will probably never work out and become commercial. But it gives hope and dreams to ordinary people who think what a cool idea, and who will never check … Continue reading
Carbon capture could require 25% of all global energy
Preface. This is clearly a pipedream. Surely the authors know this, since they say that the energy needed to run direct air capture machines in 2100 is up to 300 exajoules each year. That’s more than half of global energy … Continue reading
Himalayan glaciers supplying water to a billion people melting fast, Andes too
Preface. The Himalayan glaciers that supply water to a billion people are melting fast, already 30% has been lost since 1975. Adding to the crisis are the 400 dams under construction or planned for Himalayan rivers in India, Pakistan, Nepal, … Continue reading
Posted in Caused by Scarce Resources, Climate Change, Dams, Peak Water, Planetary Boundaries, Water, Water Infrastructure
Tagged Andes, climate change, dams, glaciers melting, Himalaya
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Billionaire apocalypse bunkers & other hideouts
Source: Cohen L (2018) A Survival Condo in a Missile Silo? It’s a Thing. Zillow Preface. There are many reasons why people might want a bunker, but peak oil, peak food, peak everything for that matter were not mentioned in … Continue reading
How safe are utility-scale energy storage batteries?
This 2 MW battery, installed by the Arizona Public Service electric company, exploded in April 2019 and sent eight firefighters and a policeman to the hospital (Cooper 2019). At least 23 South Korean lithium-ion facilities caught fire in a series … Continue reading
Posted in Batteries, Lithium-ion, Safety
Tagged battery, failure, fluoride gas, hazardous, hydrogen fluoride, phosphoryl fluoride, toxic gas
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Scientists on where to be in the 21st century based on sustainability
Preface. The article below is based on Hall & Day’s book “America’s Most Sustainable Cities and Regions: Surviving the 21st Century Megatrends”. Related articles: Hess, P. 2016. These will be the best places to live in America in 2100 A.D. … Continue reading