Category Archives: Books

How burning biomass made us human

[ This is a book review of Wrangham’s “Catching Fire: How cooking made us human”. Fire enabled us to have larger brains from the increased calories in cooked food, held carnivores at bay, killed bacteria, and gave us many other … 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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Book review of Door to Door and the amazing world of transportation

Edward Humes.  2016. Door to Door: The Magnificent, Maddening, Mysterious World of Transportation. HarperCollins. A book review by Alice Friedemann at www.energyskeptic.com  author of “When Trucks Stop Running: Energy and the Future of Transportation, 2015, Springer] I was in the … Continue reading

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When Trucks Stop Running, So Does Civilization. Energy and the Future of Transportation.

When Trucks Stop Running. Energy and the Future of Transportation. Available at Springer, Amazon, Google Play, Barnes & Noble, Alibris When Trucks Stop Running: Table of Contents, Preface, References Book review: “When Trucks Stop Running: Energy and the Future of … Continue reading

Posted in Electric & Hydrogen trucks impossible, Electric Grid & EMP Electromagnetic Pulse, Electrification, Energy Books, Oil Shocks, Railroads, Ships and Barges, Transportation Infrastructure, Transportation Supply chain, Trucks, When Trucks Stop Running | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on When Trucks Stop Running, So Does Civilization. Energy and the Future of Transportation.

When Trucks Stop Running: Table of Contents, Preface, References

Alice Friedemann.  2016. When Trucks Stop Running: Energy and the Future of Civilization. Springer. Available in print and eBook at Springer, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble. Table of Contents 1 When Trucks Stop Running, America Stops 2 Shipping Makes the … Continue reading

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13 fallacies of Steven Pinker’s “The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined”

It only took me half an hour to find significant criticism of Pinker’s work and write this up.  If I had more time I could find a lot more. Hopefully this will spare you many days of wasted time reading … Continue reading

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Review of Schneider-Mayerson “Peak Oil Apocalyptic Environmentalism and Libertarian Political Culture”

I just finished a great book about life in Russia called “Nothing is true and everything is possible, the surreal heart of the new Russia” by Peter Pomerantsev. He reveals how Soviet propaganda is propagated through TV shows whose goal … Continue reading

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Tilting at Windmills, Spain’s disastrous attempt to replace fossil fuels with Solar PV, Part 1

Book review by Alice Friedemann at energyskeptic of “Spain’s Photovoltaic Revolution. The Energy Return on Investment”, by Pedro Prieto and Charles A.S. Hall. 2013. Springer. Conclusion: the EROI of solar photovoltaic is only 2.45, very low despite Spain’s ideal sunny … Continue reading

Posted in Alternative Energy, Charles A. S. Hall, Debt, Electric Grid, Energy Books, EROEI Energy Returned on Energy Invested, Pedro Prieto, Photovoltaic Solar, Solar, Solar EROI | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 21 Comments

Some of my favorite passages from H Is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald

When walking the forest you come across all sorts of things you don’t expect. Great tracts of reindeer moss, for example: tiny stars and florets and inklings of an ancient flora growing on exhausted land. Crisp underfoot in summer, the … Continue reading

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Book Review of Kleveman’s 2003 “The New Great Game: Blood and Oil in Central Asia”

[I posted this book review at yahoo group energyresources back in 2004 when the average American still thought the Iraq war was about weapons of mass destruction. It is still relevant today.  Alice Friedemann  www.energyskeptic.com ] Lutz Kleveman. 2003. “The … Continue reading

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