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- The war on drugs. A book review of “Chasing the scream”
Category Archives: Books
Rise of high-tech civilization helped by moderately cold climate, rainfall all year, navigable water ways
What follows is a review by Rembrandt Koppelaar of Christian Welzel’s 2013 book: “Freedom Rising Human Empowerment and the Quest for Emancipation” on a private forum, followed by some comments of members of this group. The basic paradigm of the … Continue reading
Posted in Collapse of Civilizations
Tagged rise of civilization, slavery
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Will we go out with a whimper instead of a bang? Cyberwar more likely than nuclear war
Preface. This is a book review of Clarke & Knake’s “Cyber War: The Next Threat to National Security and What to Do About IT”. The ransom cyber attack on the colonial pipeline forced the shutdown of a vital pipeline delivering … Continue reading
Posted in Cyber, Cyber Attack Books, CyberAttacks, War
Tagged china, cyber attack, cyber war, cyberwar, infrastructure, Russia, scenario
2 Comments
Livestock diseases, Science Mag Review of “Arresting Contagion”
Science 17 April 2015: Vol. 348 no. 6232 p. 294 DOI: 10.1126/science.aaa7672 The fever on the farm Arresting Contagion Science, Policy, and Conflicts over Animal Disease Control Alan L. Olmstead and Paul W. Rhode Harvard University Press, 2015. 477 pp. … Continue reading
Posted in Agriculture, Disease
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1177 B.C. The year civilization collapsed
[ These are my notes that are disjointed but can give you an idea of how fast our fossil-fueled civilization could collapse. We are far more interdependent on much longer global supply chains (a wind turbine has 8,000 parts). We … Continue reading
Posted in Cascading Failure, Collapse of Civilizations, Collapsed & collapsing nations, Drought & Collapse, Interdependencies, Supply Chains
Tagged 1177, collapse, complexity, interdependence, supply chains
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Looking for a good book to read?
Here are eight book lists with recommendations from 45 years of non-fiction reading Booklist: Natural history & Science, Evolution, Critical thinking, Health, Resource allocation, Climate change, Fire Booklist: Travel, Psychology, World history, Food, Anthropology, (Auto)biography, Religion Booklist: American History, Politics, … Continue reading
Biggest Waste of Wealth in All of history: America’s Interstate Highway system
A book review by Alice Friedemann of: Swift, Earl. 2012. The Big Roads: The Untold Story of the Engineers, Visionaries, and Trailblazers Who Created the American Superhighways. Related articles $46 Trillion Infrastructure in USA, $6 Trillion is Transportation Expressways & … Continue reading
Posted in Concrete, Infrastructure Books, Roads, Transportation, Transportation Infrastructure, Trucks
Tagged damage, highway, interstate, truck
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Other booklists
The Biophysical Economics Policy Center booklist from 1926 to present Books John Howe Astyk, S. (2008) “Depletion and Abundance, Life On the New Home Front.” Bartlett, A. (2004) “The Essential Exponential, For the Future of Our Planet.” Bligh, J. (2004) … Continue reading
Posted in Other Lists
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A book review of “Russia’s Food Policies and Globalization”
Preface. Today Russia exports a substantial percent of wheat, and now that oil prices are surging is in much better shape than after the Fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. But with peak oil likely in 2018, and money … Continue reading
Posted in Agriculture, Oil shock collapse
Tagged collapse, peak food, Russia
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Who lives, who dies in a never-ending energy crisis. Book review of Nothing to Envy. Ordinary Lives in North Korea
Preface. Much of this post comes from Barbara Demick’s 2010 “Nothing to Envy. Ordinary lives in North Korea”. But first I summarize why and how energy shortages led to the hardships chronicled in this book. Related Posts: North Korea collapse … Continue reading
Posted in Agriculture, Energy Books, North Korea, Oil shock collapse
Tagged collapse, North Korea
1 Comment
Scientists and Environmentalists for Population Stabilization
This fantastic list is from March 2014, so to see the must up-to-date bibliography go here: Scientists and Environmentalists for Population Stabilization bibliography Arrow, K., B. Bolin, R. Costanza, P. Dasgupta, C. Folke, C.S. Holling, B. Jansson, S. Levin, K. … Continue reading
Posted in Other Lists
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