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- Energy, Water, & Climate Change are interdependent
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- Motherboards: too complicated to make after oil
- “More and More and More” one of the best books on energy ever written
- The staggering destruction of knowledge by Christians in the Roman Empire
- Why the R/P Reserves to Production ratio does not show when oil will run out
Category Archives: Collapsed & collapsing nations
Book Review: The Fall of the Roman Empire: A new history of Rome and the barbarians
Preface. Most historians see the fall of the Roman Empire as due to the invasion of barbarians from the North, partly pushed towards Italy by the brutal Huns. These lands had never been conquered by Roman armies because they were … Continue reading
Book Review of “Against the Grain. A Deep History of the Earliest States”
Preface. Energyskeptic.com is ultimately about the rise and fall of civilizations, although I didn’t know that when I first started writing this as an energy and resource blog. Our civilization too will fail as fossil fuels decline, and then we’re … Continue reading
15 Nations that Collapsed because of Drought: will we be the 16th?
Preface. Another repercussion of drought may be the Muslim religion as Fleitmann (2022) proposes below. This post began with 10 civilizations that collapsed due to drought (below), and I’ve added 5 more. Will the American South West be #16? Lynn … Continue reading
Posted in Collapsed & collapsing nations, Drought & Collapse
Tagged Akkadia, Anasazi, Arabia, civilization, collapse, drought, Harrapan, Himyar, Khmer Empire, Maya, Ming Dynasty, Tang Dynasty, Tiwanaku Empire
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Fall of Indus valley & Akkadian civilizations from climate change
Preface. Any civilization or region that survives energy decline must then survive climate change for many centuries. As far as the wind systems that collapsed the Akkadian empire, it’s already happening: “Greenhouse gases are increasingly disrupting the jet stream, a … Continue reading
Posted in Climate Change, Collapsed & collapsing nations
Tagged climate change, collapse
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Venezuela collapse: looting, hunger, blackouts, environmental catastrophe
Preface. Venezuela is experiencing a double whammy of drought and low oil prices, which has lead to blackouts and inability to import food, due to their oil production peaking in 1997. If you want to know how collapse will unfold … Continue reading
Nafeez Ahmed: Venezuela’s collapse is a window into how the Oil Age will unravel
Preface. Ahmed is one of the best writers on the energy crisis and other biophysical calamities. He’s written about why many states are failing now in part due to peak oil, but also drought and other biophysical factors in his … Continue reading
Posted in Peak Oil, Tar Sands (Oil Sands), Venezuela
Tagged collapse, peak oil, Venezuela
2 Comments
Civilizations last just 336 years on average
Preface. I stopped trying to find out why each civilization failed because it’s not always clear and historians bicker over it, so I was glad to run across this article that attempts to summarize this broad topic. It’s clear drought, … Continue reading
Part 1. How long do civilizations last?
This is most, but not all of Kemp’s BBC article, which you ought to read in its entirety at the link in the title below. I disagree with him when he says that: “The collapse of our civilization is not … Continue reading
What collapse is like: Guadalajara Mexico
Preface. Collapse can be local rather than national. There are 5 states within Mexico the State Department warns not to travel to: Colima,Guerrero, Michoacán, Sinaloa, and Tamaulipas because violent crime, such as homicide, kidnapping, carjacking, and robbery, are widespread. There … Continue reading
Posted in Collapsed & collapsing nations
Tagged collapse, crime, drugs, gangs, Guadalajara, kidnapping, mexico
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Book: John Perlin’s “A Forest Journey: The Story of Wood and Civilization”
Preface. This contains excerpts from John Perlin’s “A Forest Journey: The Story of Wood and Civilization”. It’s one of my favorite books about natural resources, exploring the role wood has played in the rise and fall of civilizations since they … Continue reading