Author Archives: energyskeptic

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

Posted on July 28, 2016 by

[ 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

Posted on July 27, 2016 by

[ 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

Posted on July 21, 2016 by

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

Posted on July 20, 2016 by

[ 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?

Posted on July 18, 2016 by

 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

Posted on July 11, 2016 by

[ 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

Posted on July 6, 2016 by

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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Cascadia subduction zone 9.0 earthquake will cost hundreds of billions of dollars and many lives

Posted on July 5, 2016 by

[ Would a several hundred billion dollar earthquake shake the global financial system enough to bring on a world-wide depression?  It’s not just the costs of repair, but the indirect costs, such as destruction of the Ports of Seattle and … Continue reading →

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Vines are taking over forests

Posted on July 3, 2016 by

Laurance, W. October 5, 2013. Planet of the vines: Climbing plants are taking over. NewScientist. Giant vines are beginning to strangle Earth’s tropical forests, and it’s not just due to climate change. Gaze out over a tropical rainforest and the … Continue reading →

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Large animals driven extinct by human hunters still affect ecosystems today

Posted on July 1, 2016 by

Below is an excerpt/paraphrased of Michael Marshall’s 14 August 2013 NewScientist Ecosystems still feel the pain of ancient extinctions, the abstract of the original Nature Geoscience article, and future losses of large animals will affect tropical forests in the future. … Continue reading →

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