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Recent Posts
- 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
- 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”
Author Archives: energyskeptic
Why is passenger rail so damned inefficient?
[ This is about passenger rail, not freight rail, which is incredibly efficient. Freight rail is efficient because to reduce aerodynamic drag and diesel fuel use (USDOT 2008), they travel on average only 23 miles per hour (to reduce aerodynamic … Continue reading
Posted in Mass Transit, Railroads, Transportation
Tagged auto, bus, mass transit, passenger, rail
4 Comments
The 1% have always been with us – even hunter gatherers had inequality
Pringle, H. May 23, 2014. The ancient roots of the 1%. Science 344: 822-825. Don’t blame farming. Inequality got its start among resource-rich hunter-gatherers. In 79 C.E., the year Mount Vesuvius destroyed it, Pompeii was not one city but two. … Continue reading
Why the demise of civilization is inevitable
MacKenzie, D. April 2, 2008. Why the demise of civilisation may be inevitable. NewScientist. Every civilization in history has collapsed. Why should ours be any different? Homer-Dixon doubts we can stave off collapse completely. He points to what he calls … Continue reading
Posted in Infrastructure, Interdependencies
Tagged civilization, collapse, homer-dixon, tainter
1 Comment
Effects of biodiesel on diesel engines: John Deere
[ Since petroleum is finite, the most important focus of U.S. energy research ought to be keeping trucks operating, since civilization ends when trucks stop running. Ideally this would be done with a “drop-in” fuel that can be burned in … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiesel, Trucks
Tagged biodiesel, diesel engine, John Deere
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Restore wild bison
[ Native wild animals have the least impact on ecosystems. While cattle plod along in line with one another, bison dance their own unique steps across the landscape, and don’t develop deep rutted grooves that can erode soil like cattle … Continue reading
A U.S. Senate hearing on T. Boone Pickens plans for natural gas and wind to reduce oil dependence
[ This session is unusual in that the words “peak oil” are spoken several times, and M. King Hubbert, James Howard Kunstler, and Matt Simmons are lauded. Gal Luft points out that “10 years ago, Osama bin Laden predicted that … Continue reading
Posted in Natural Gas Vehicles, U.S. Congress Energy Dependence
Tagged natural gas, peak oil, pickens, wind
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Natural gas is a stupid transportation fuel
[ My comment: The only reason natural gas has come up as a transportation fuel at all is the false belief that there is 100 years of natural gas (even this article does, but natural gas may last far less … Continue reading
Posted in Automobiles, Natural Gas Vehicles, Transportation
Tagged cars, natural gas, transportation
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California could hit the solar wall
[ According to a Stanford University article below this introduction (followed by excerpts from two California Energy Commission reports), if California uses mainly solar power to meet a 50% Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), on sunny days, for most of the … Continue reading
Posted in Photovoltaic Solar, Renewable Integration
Tagged alternative energy, renewable integration, solar, solar wall
4 Comments
Scientific American: Peak oil and coal may keep catastrophic climate change in check
[ Since conventional oil, 90% of supply, peaked in 2005-6 we’ve been on a plateau. Since the rate of conventional oil decline exponentially decreasing, and population is still exponentially increasing, it is unlikely unconventional oil like shale “fracked” oil, tar … Continue reading
Posted in But not from climate change: Peak Fossil Fuels, Peak Coal, Peak Oil
Tagged climate change, IPCC, peak coal, peak oil
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Ecological cost of new roads in Africa
[ What follows are excerpts from the January 8 2014 issue of Newscientist’s “Africa’s road-building frenzy will transform continent” by Andy Coghlan. ] China is funding most of the new roads to get the minerals they’ve mined, and transport food … Continue reading
Posted in Roads, Transportation Infrastructure
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