Category Archives: Climate Change

Climate change effects on hydropower in California

Preface. Climate change will impact California agriculture without the snow melt that allows for up to three crops to be grown a year, perhaps just one crop in the future. Not to mention the impact on the 40 million people … Continue reading

Posted in Energy Climate Change, Hydropower | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Hydropower dams and the ways they destroy the environment

Preface. Hydropower comprises 71% of renewable energy worldwide.  Nations like the U.S. and Europe have dams that have reached the end of their lifespan — more are being torn down than built. In the U.S. 546 dams were removed between … Continue reading

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Lakes run dry from too much water extraction and climate change

Preface.   I think that declining oil will be the main cause of civilization to collapse, since it is the energy that makes all other activities possible, but there are so many other contenders I wonder if scholars in the future … Continue reading

Posted in Air, Drought & Collapse, Overpopulation, Peak Water, Water Infrastructure | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Lakes run dry from too much water extraction and climate change

Deep-sea trawling harms biodiversity and carbon storage

Preface. Overfishing has eliminated 90% of the world’s large predatory fishes and is devastating marine ecosystems. Bottom trawling is one of the most devastating ways our oceans are being overfished, degraded and biodiversity destroyed .  This industry tossed 437 million … Continue reading

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Rising Sea Levels – What to do?

Preface. I first published this in June 2014, but thought I’d re-update it now that $2.5 million is going to be spent by Resilient by Design on 10 teams to come up with solutions for rising sea levels.  They failed … Continue reading

Posted in Sea Level Rise, Transportation Infrastructure | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Book review: the politics of California’s central valley levees

Preface. This is a book review of Robert Kelly’s “Battling the Inland Sea”.  But it is much more than that, better than any book I know if explaining the human nature of “conservatism vs liberalism”.  It drives me nuts that … Continue reading

Posted in Agriculture, Agriculture Infrastructure, Dams, Earthquakes, Floods, Politics, Sea Level Rise | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Book review: the politics of California’s central valley levees

Why world leaders are terrified of water shortages

Preface. The article blow shows how water crisis in Yemen and Syria led to civil war, mass migration, roadblocks by angry citizens, water riots, increased dengue fever as people hard water, and 1 million refugees fleeing to Europe.  Egypt also … Continue reading

Posted in Caused by Scarce Resources, Drought & Collapse, Mass migrations, Middle East, Social Uprising, Starvation, Water | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Richard Heinberg: Systemic change driven by moral awakening is our only hope

[ Although this was written over a year ago on August 14, 2017 by Richard Heinberg on Ecowatch, it’s as true today as it was then, and worth republishing since people forget what they’ve read in the past Alice Friedemann   … Continue reading

Posted in Climate Change, Critical Thinking, Overpopulation, Overshoot, Population, Richard Heinberg | Tagged , , , | 14 Comments

Mass migration: Africa

Sengupta, S. 2016-12-15. Heat, Hunger and War Force Africans Onto a ‘Road on Fire’. New York Times. AGADEZ, Niger — The world dismisses them as economic migrants. The law treats them as criminals who show up at a nation’s borders … Continue reading

Posted in Drought & Collapse, Extreme Weather, Mass migrations | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

America’s energy security, jobs & climate challenges

Preface. In this 2010 House of Representatives hearing, General Wesley Clark foresaw in 1973 “that US military forces might have to become engaged to defend or protect oil-producer governments”.  Today “we can look back on the continuing failures of American … Continue reading

Posted in Caused by Scarce Resources, Climate Change, Congressional Record U.S., Military | Tagged , , | 1 Comment