Category Archives: Books

Book review: the stranger in the woods. The extraordinary story of the last true hermit

Posted on April 30, 2019 by

Preface.  On March 16, 2020 it was announced that the residents of most San Francisco Bay Area counties were expected to shelter in place for a few weeks to stop the Covid-19 pandemic.   Three weeks?  You can do it, Christopher … Continue reading →

Posted in (Auto)biography, Real Estate | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Book review of Wrigley’s “Energy and the English Industrial revolution”

Posted on April 12, 2019 by

Preface. I’ve made a strong case in my book “When trucks stop running” and this energyskeptic website that we will eventually return to wood and a 14th century lifestyle after fossil fuels are depleted. So if you’re curious about what … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Energy Books, Farming & Ranching, Life Before Oil, Limits To Growth | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Book review of “The Soul of an Octopus”

Posted on April 3, 2019 by

Preface.  The octopus is an amazing creature, more than can be conveyed in the bits and pieces I’ve selected below.  The only downside to reading it is that you may not want to eat octopus anymore! 2018: A team of … Continue reading →

Posted in Natural History | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Rare: The High-Stakes Race to Satisfy Our Need for the Scarcest Metals on Earth by Keith Veronese

Posted on March 31, 2019 by

Preface.  This is a book review of Keith Veronese’s book “The High-stakes race to satisfy our need for the scarcest metals on earth” (well, the kindle notes, so a bit disjointed). Capitalism believes there’s a solution for everything due to … Continue reading →

Posted in Infrastructure Books, Mining, Peak Critical Elements, Peak Platinum Group Elements, Peak Precious Elements, Peak Rare Earth Elements, Peak Resources | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Book review of Bryce’s “Power hungry: the myths of green energy and the real fuels of the future”

Posted on March 28, 2019 by

Preface.  This is a book review of: Robert Bryce. 2009. Power Hungry: The Myths of “Green” Energy and the Real Fuels of the Future. This is a brilliant book, very funny at times, a great way to sharpen your critical … Continue reading →

Posted in Energy Books, Other Experts | Tagged , , , , | 9 Comments

Book review of Heinberg’s “Afterburn: society beyond fossil fuels”

Posted on March 25, 2019 by

Preface. This book has 15 essays Heinberg wrote from 2011 to 2014, many of them available for free online.  These are some of my Kindle notes of parts that interested me, so to you it will be disjointed and perhaps … Continue reading →

Posted in Energy Books, Peak Oil, Richard Heinberg | Tagged , , | 9 Comments

Why and how Jellyfish are taking over the world

Posted on March 19, 2019 by

Preface.  The more climate change kicks in, the more we over-fish, pollute, acidify and warm the ocean, create vast dead zones, and trawl ocean bottoms, the better the jellyfish do. It is quite possible that the ocean ecosystem will shift … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Extinction Books, Fisheries, Jellyfish, Peak Food | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Book review of Dirt: the erosion of civilization

Posted on March 16, 2019 by

Preface. On average civilizations collapsed after 800 to 2,000 years because they’d destroyed their topsoil, some of it caused by deforestation to grow more food, make metals, ceramics, glass and other objects requiring high heat, which fossils provide today. Today, … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Peak Food, Soil | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Book review of Underbug: an obsessive tale of termites and technology

Posted on February 23, 2019 by

Preface.  I read this book mainly to find out where “grassoline” stood. Scientists thought 10 years ago that we could recreate the termite biota system of digesting biomass to create biofuels.  But this appears to be far in the future … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Wood | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Book review of Underbug: an obsessive tale of termites and technology

Booklist: Natural history & Science, Evolution, Critical thinking, Health, Resource allocation, Climate change, Fire

Posted on February 20, 2019 by

Preface. My goal since college has been to read as much as I could across as many fields as possible for a Big Picture View and understand the world as it really is rather than how I’d like it to … Continue reading →

Posted in Book List | Tagged , , | 5 Comments