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Recent Posts
- 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
- 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
Author Archives: energyskeptic
Why facts don’t change our mind
Preface. Below are excerpts from this article. Longish descriptions of various studies at Stanford and elsewhere lead to conclusions such as that once formed, impressions are remarkably perserverant, and even after the evidence for their beliefs has been totally refuted, … Continue reading
Posted in Critical Thinking
Tagged critical thinking
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Peak Cobalt
Preface. Electric vehicles use many other finite platinum group elements, precious elements, and rare earth elements. And there are many challenges batteries must overcome. In addition, the electric grid can’t stay up without utility scale energy storage of at least … Continue reading
Posted in Peak Critical Elements
Tagged battery, cobalt, critical element, peak
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Blackouts in the news
Preface. Richard C Duncan proposed an “Olduvai Theory” that the current industrial civilization would have a maximum duration of 100 years from 1930 to 2030. A key indicator the End Was Near would be when partial and total blackouts began … Continue reading
Posted in Blackouts, Blackouts Electric Grid
Tagged blackout, Duncan, electric grid, middle east, Olduvai gorge, right wing, terrorism
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Why it is futile to think that Wind could ever make a significant contribution to energy supplies
Matt Ridley. May 15, 2017. Wind turbines are neither clean nor green and they provide zero global energy. Even after 30 years of huge subsidies, it provides about zero energy. The Spectator. The Global Wind Energy Council recently released its … Continue reading
Posted in Alternative Energy, Wind
Tagged alternative energy, energy, wind
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Richard Heinberg on why low oil prices do not mean there is plenty of oil, EROI, collapse
[ Yet another wise, thoughtful, and wide-ranging essay from my favorite writer of the many facets of a civilization about to decline as it is starved of the fossil fuels that feed it. Although the topics are quite varied, Heinberg … Continue reading
Posted in Oil, Peter Turchin, Richard Heinberg, Social Disorder
Tagged 100% renewable, collapse, EROI, oil, prices, richard heinberg, social instability, violence
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Oil theft around the world: Cartels and exploding donkeys
Preface. Oil thefts cost Nigerian oil producers at least $18 billion a year. In Mexico, cartels spend only $5-8,000 to tap into pipelines and withdraw “unlimited” amounts of gasoline, and did so 7,000 times in 2016, resulting in $1 billion … Continue reading
Posted in Peak Oil, Threats to oil supply
Tagged oil, production, theft
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How horses changed native cultures after 1492
[ This is a very brief overview of Peter Mitchel’s “Horse Nations”. As oil and other fossils decline, will we will almost certainly return to using more horse “muscle power” as we did in the past. Alice Friedemann www.energyskeptic.com author … Continue reading
Posted in Agriculture, Farming & Ranching, Muscle Power
Tagged horses, muscle power, pack animals
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Preventing economic shock wave: Securing the port of Houston from a terrorist attack
[ An attack on (LNG) ships, oil tankers, or the Houston port facilities Houston would cause an oil shock, since a third of oil refining takes place there, and it’s … Continue reading
Posted in Disasters, Oil & Gas, Terrorism
Tagged financial collapse, terrorism oil shock
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Wells Fargo created bogus bank accounts and credit cards without customer knowledge, billed them millions
[ I know this is “old news” from 2016, but the drawback of newspapers is that stories aren’t repeated. What an insane level of corruption we’ve reached! Just look at the financial book list I haven’t yet posted at the … Continue reading
Posted in Banking
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We Must Preserve The Earth’s Dwindling Resources For My 5 Children
Brenda Milford. June 28, 2006. We Must Preserve The Earth’s Dwindling Resources For My 5 Children. The Onion. Vol 44 Issue 27 “As we move into the 21st century, it is our responsibility to think of the future of the … Continue reading