Author Archives: energyskeptic

Twice as many El Niños in 21st century

Expect more drought, flooding, and other crazy weather In Nature Climate Change, doi.org/q4c, researchers predict that  El Niños will become twice as common, about once a decade in the future versus every 20 years the past century. Another recent study … Continue reading

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Global warming spreads disease in the arctic

[ A summary of the spread of disease in the Arctic  in the August 2014 issue of Scientific American follows ] Pathogens moving northward: Aleutian Islands, Alaska. A distemper virus that infects seals in the North Atlantic ocean now attacks … Continue reading

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Plants are sucking streams dry thanks to more CO2

Slezak, M. October 24, 2015. Carbon emissions make Earth greener but are also drying it out. NewScientist. Source: Ukkola, A. M., et al. October 19, 2015 Reduced streamflow in water-stressed climates consistent with CO2 effects on vegetation. Nature Climate Change 6, … Continue reading

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OPEC’s policies are a threat to the U.S. economy. U.S. House 2000

[ Perhaps when the energy crisis has struck and rationing grows ever tighter, people not be traveling much and have more free time, and interest in the history of energy policy. So here’s a bit of what was said back … Continue reading

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U.S. House 2000 Ensuring adequate supplies of natural gas and crude oil

[ The usual partisan nonsense can be found here — Republicans blaming Democrats for not solving the energy crisis by “Drill Baby Drill” and Democrats berating  Republicans for cutting energy efficiency programs. There are a few biophysical acknowledgements that energy … Continue reading

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Water-borne diseases will increase as energy declines

Preface. Drinking water and sewage treatment plants are the main reason lifespans nearly doubled. Read Laurie Garrett’s  “Betrayal of Trust: The Collapse of Global Public Health” for details. As energy declines, the ability of towns and cities to treat water … Continue reading

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Bankers and Wall Street take cheating to new levels

[ What follows is an excerpt of an interview between behavioral economist Dan Ariely (DA) and Graham Lawton (GL) in New Scientist  16 June 2012 “The Cheating Game“. This is yet another reason another worse crash is inevitable (in addition … Continue reading

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Is large-scale energy storage dead?

 April 8, 2016 by Roger Andrews at euanmearns.com Many countries have committed to filling large percentages of their future electricity demand with intermittent renewable energy, and to do so they will need long-term energy storage in the terawatt-hours range. But … Continue reading

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Humans driving species to extinction 1,000 times the natural rate

[ According to a paper published in Science the current rates of extinction are 1000 times the background rate. This estimate is higher than previous estimates is due to a more sophisticated analysis. Other extinction news: 2017-1-18 World’s primates facing … Continue reading

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Tokyo earthquake will cost somewhere from $1 to $4 trillion and likely soon

If a disaster is capable of crashing the world financial system, an earthquake in Tokyo is surely one of them. Tokyo, with over 33 million people, is the epicenter of finance and politics in Japan. In geologist Peter Hadfield’s 1995 … Continue reading

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