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Recent Posts
- 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
Toxic textiles: the lethal history of Rayon
Preface. This is a book review from Science magazine of Paul David Blanc’s 2016 book “Fake Silk The Lethal History of Viscose Rayon”, Yale University Press. I’ve shortened the review and changed some of the text. This book exposes how … Continue reading
Posted in Chemicals
Tagged carbon disulfide, rayon, viscose
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Invasive insects
Preface. Below is a by no means exhaustive list of insect scourges, just the ones I happen to run across. Whoever is still around after collapse will sure be hard pressed to survive — unless they add insects to their … Continue reading
Posted in BioInvasion
Tagged Bioinvasion, crops, insects, invasive species, pesticide
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Book: John Perlin’s “A Forest Journey: The Story of Wood and Civilization”
Preface. This contains excerpts from John Perlin’s “A Forest Journey: The Story of Wood and Civilization”. It’s one of my favorite books about natural resources, exploring the role wood has played in the rise and fall of civilizations since they … Continue reading
Book review of “White Trash. The 400-year untold history of class in America”
Preface. This book makes the case that the poor arrived 500 years ago when America was first settled, and most of them never rose to the middle or upper classes because “land was the principal source of wealth, and those … Continue reading
Posted in Distribution of Wealth, Financial, Politics, Poverty
Tagged distribution of wealth, poverty, white trash
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Book Review about why the electric grid is fragile and falling apart
Preface. This is a book review of Munson’s “The Business of Power and what it means for the future of electricity”. Although it was written in 2008 and some efforts have been made in some places to improve the grid, … Continue reading
Book review of Hillbilly Elegy and why hillbillies voted for Trump
Source: David Horsey / Los Angeles Times Preface. I bought “Hillbilly Elegy: A memoir of a family and culture in crisis” because I’d like to understand why anyone would vote for Donald Trump. Before the election, it was well-known that … Continue reading
Posted in (Auto)biography, Human Nature, Politics
Tagged book review, hillbilly elegy, Republican, Trump
1 Comment
The dangers of relativism, of not being able to criticize anyone or anything because all of our beliefs are equal
[ I’ve been criticized for attacking right-wing Republicans, fundamentalist Christians, astrology, medicinal quackery, and so on. This is dangerous nonsense. It means I can’t criticize Hitler, because after all, he was a product of his times. I can’t tell my … Continue reading
Posted in Critical Thinking, Human Nature, Politics, Religion
Tagged critical thinking, relativism
5 Comments
Fantasyland 9. Myths and infotainment
Preface. This is the last of the Fantasyland review series. Links to the 9 parts of this book review: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Alice Friedemann www.energyskeptic.com author of “When Trucks Stop Running: Energy and the … Continue reading
Posted in Critical Thinking, Critical Thinking and Scientific Literacy, Human Nature
Tagged critical thinking, delusions, fantasyland, infotainment
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Fantasyland 8. Religion the main factor in America’s descent into the darkness of superstition
[ This is the 8th of nine posts about Fantasyland. Andersen believes all of the madness and superstition in America originally springs from our history of religiosity. The scariest part of the insanity is that there are Christians trying to … Continue reading
Posted in Critical Thinking, Critical Thinking and Scientific Literacy, Human Nature, Religion
Tagged Armageddon, critical thinking, insanity, Rapture, religion, superstition
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Fantasyland 7. How America became the world’s biggest theme park
Preface. This is the 7th of 9 posts about Fantasyland. Some theme park quotes: One of America’s first theme parks was created in 1894, Black America, with 500 pretend slaves advertised as “Fun for the Darkies” and the “Fun-Loving … Continue reading
Posted in Critical Thinking, Critical Thinking and Scientific Literacy, Human Nature
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