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Recent Posts
- ‘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”
- Homes & Buildings
- Book Review “The Outlawed Ocean” by Ian Urbina
- Underestimating the Challenges of Avoiding a Ghastly Future
- Motherboards: too complicated to make after oil
Author Archives: energyskeptic
Escape to Mars after we’ve trashed the Earth?
Preface. The idea that we can go to Mars is touted by NASA, Elon Musk, and so many others that this dream seems just around the corner. If we destroy our planet with climate change, pollution, biodiversity loss, soil erosion, … Continue reading
Posted in Climate Change, Extinction, Far Out, Hopium, Human Nature, Planetary Boundaries, Where to Be or Not to Be
Tagged biosphere, colonize, Earth, fermi paradox, Mars, radiation, space, terraform
11 Comments
Spermageddon: Sperm is declining around the world
The rate sperm concentration is falling globally from samples collected from 1972 to 2000 (orange) and since 2000 (red) Source: Davies 2022 Preface. I’ve been seeing this issue in science news for years now. Scientific data has accumulated long enough … Continue reading
Posted in Extinction, Limits To Growth
Tagged decline, extinction, sperm
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Thorium nuclear bombs and reactors have too many challenges
Preface. The energyskeptic website and my books explain why we can’t run transportation, mining, agriculture, concrete, blast furnace steel and other essential sectors that are highly dependent on fossil fuels with electricity, biofuels, hydrogen, coal-to-liquids or anything else. So a … Continue reading
Posted in Thorium
Tagged nuclear war, nuclear winter, Ramana, thorium reactors
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Who Killed the Electric Car & more importantly, the Electric Truck?
Preface. Who cares about electric cars? Civilization ends when trucks stop running. Trucks can’t run on batteries because they’re too heavy, with 63 times less energy density than diesel. If all U.S. transportation were to be electrified, the existing electric … Continue reading
Posted in Automobiles, Batteries, Critical Thinking, Electric & Hydrogen trucks impossible, Electrification, Transportation, Transportation Infrastructure
Tagged battery, BEV, capacity, efficiency, electric car, electric truck, energy density, EV, lead-acid, lithium ion
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President Carter’s energy solutions 1977
Preface. The speech below is one of the reasons Carter was not reelected. Reagan’s “Morning in America” was far more appealing. Another reason he wasn’t reelected was because the Reagan administration prevented the hostage crisis in Iran from being resolved … Continue reading
Posted in Energy Policy & Politicians, Expert Advice, President Jimmy Carter
Tagged America, energy, jimmy carter, oil, president
1 Comment
Peak Menhaden
Preface. This is a book review of: Bruce Franklin’s 2007 The Most Important Fish in the Sea. Menhaden and America. Island Press. I’d never heard of menhaden until my husband, who grew up in Florida, mentioned them. Just half a … Continue reading
Hemp for paper, textiles, the war on drugs, and more
Hemp product categories include: Clothing & Accessories, Health & Wellness, Food & Drinks, Pet Supplies, Beauty & Skincare, Farming & Gardening, Home & Office supplies, Automobiles, Industrial. Source: Top 50 Hemp Products You Can Get Online Preface. If you … Continue reading
Posted in Farming and Ranching
Tagged crop, environment, hemp, paper, textiles, war on drugs
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Why towns have a hard time adding EV, solar, heat pumps
Preface. This article from IEEE does a good job of explaining how and why it is incredibly expensive for cities to cope with with L2 chargers, EV, solar, and heat pumps by zeroing in on Palo Alto, where there are … Continue reading
Posted in Electric Grid & EMP Electromagnetic Pulse, Electric Vehicles
Tagged electric grid, EV, heat pump, solar, transformer
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Building a national super grid in America
Preface. Renewables are not evenly distributed. Just 10 states have 80% of hydropower (Homeland Security 2011), 10 states produce 75% of wind power (EIA 2017), and 10 states produce 79% of solar power (CE 2020). With a national grid, instead … Continue reading
The Mayflower from the book The Barbarous Years
Preface. It was recently Thanksgiving so I thought I’d post something from Mann’s 1491 about the pilgrims that I later found out was grievously wrong from an expert who gives lectures on the Mayflower history. Here is a more subtle, … Continue reading