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Recent Posts
- How concrete damages the planet by TC Fishman
- The history of rope making
- What will future societies be like after fossil fuels are gone?
- Phosphate: All hopes for food and LFP batteries rest on Morocco with up to 85% of remaining reserves
- Floating Solar Farms add plastic, metal, PFAS & cut off light and oxygen to life below
- Peak Lithium
- 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
Author Archives: energyskeptic
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
Posted in Climate Change, Critical Thinking, Critical Thinking and Scientific Literacy
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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
Posted in Extreme Weather, Planetary Boundaries
Tagged climate change, fall of civilization, monsoon
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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
Posted in Energy Climate Change
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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
Posted in Global Warming
Tagged climate change, clouds, global warming
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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
Posted in Biomass, Peak Topsoil, Pesticides, Soil, U.S. Congress Infrastructure, Water Pollution
Tagged agriculture, cover crop, erosion, no-till, peak soil, soil health, U.S. House of representatives
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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
Posted in Extreme Weather
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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
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
Posted in CO2 and Methane, Peak Water, Water
Tagged carbon dioxide, climate change, streams, water
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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
Posted in U.S. Congress Energy Policy
Tagged congressional record, energy crisis, energy policy, OPEC
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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
Posted in U.S. Congress Energy Policy
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