Author Archives: energyskeptic

M. G. Salameh on oil wars in the past and future

[ Salameh explains why we will inevitably have oil wars in the future, perhaps wars over Iran’s nuclear program, between the U.S. and china, Iraq and Kurdistan, the UK and Argentina over the Falkland islands oil reserves,  and/or over the … Continue reading

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Taxpayers are paying for a concentrated solar project — Ivanpah– that doesn’t work

Ivanpah in the news: Dvorsky, G. May 21, 2016. The World’s Largest Solar Plant Just Torched Itself. Gizmodo (Australia). Misaligned mirrors are being blamed for a fire that broke out yesterday at the world’s largest solar power plant, leaving the … Continue reading

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Booklist: Limits to Growth, Overpopulation, Collapse, War, Extinction

 More booklists Limits to Growth Donella Meadows. 2004. The Limits to Growth: The 30 year update       V Smil. Enriching the Earth: Fritz Haber, Carl Bosch, and the Transformation of World Food Production. K Gever. Beyond Oil: The threat to food … Continue reading

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Over and under-cooked oil — tar sands, “fracked” tight oil & gas

This article discusses why it’s so hard and expensive to extract difficult oils like fracked shale oil, Venezuelan and Canadian oil sands. These are at the bottom of the resource pyramid, so there may be a lot of it, but … Continue reading

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Net metering and the death of US rooftop solar

April 22, 2016 by Roger Andrews at euanmearns.com “Net metering” allows anyone with a solar installation to sell surplus solar power to the grid when the sun is shining and to purchase power back from the grid when it isn’t. … Continue reading

Posted in Other Experts, Photovoltaic Solar | Tagged , , , | 9 Comments

Limited Cognition

Gifford, R. May 2011. The Dragons of Inaction: Psychological barriers that limit climate change mitigation and adaptation.  PubMed. Limited cognition.  Humans are far less rational than once believed.  1: Ancient brain Our physical brain hasn’t evolved much in 30,000 years. … Continue reading

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Missing monsoon crashes Indus Valley Civilization

19 March 2014 Withering monsoon may have doomed past Asian society. NewScientist. The Indian summer monsoon abruptly weakened 4200 years ago. The ensuing drought may have led to the collapse of the Indus Valley Civilization, which flourished around the Indus … Continue reading

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Climate change impacts on energy, water, and land use in the U.S.

Hibbard, K., et al. 2014: Ch. 10: Energy, Water, and Land Use. Climate Change Impacts in the United States: The Third National Climate Assessment, U.S. Global Change Research Program, 257-281. http://nca2014.globalchange.gov/report/sectors/energy-water-and-land [ Excerpts from this 25 page document, charts/tables: best … Continue reading

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Clouds may not curb global warming as much as hoped for

The following article, Clouds Play Lesser Role in Curbing Warming, Study Finds, is from climatecentral.org Analysis of the first seven years of data from a NASA cloud-monitoring mission suggests clouds are doing less to slow the warming of the planet than … Continue reading

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Promoting soil health in agriculture at U.S. House hearing 2014

Preface.  At last, many years after I first published “Peak soil: Why biofuels destroy ecosystems and civilizations” in 2007, Congress had a hearing to educate House members on why preserving topsoil is so essential for food production for future generations.  … Continue reading

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