Category Archives: Infrastructure

This site makes the case that collapse will take decades, not centuries. And the worst that ever has been or will be, it is fossil fuels that enabled 8.2 people to exist on the planet

Electric Cars and Biofuels switch dependence from foreign oil to domestic water and weather risks

Posted on December 29, 2016 by

  Figure 1. Energy/Water Nexus Amy Hardberger, Matthew E. Mantell, Michael Webber, Carey W. King, Karl Fennessey [ This Senate hearing covers a lot of ground. I found the most interesting testimony to be the intersection of water and energy, … Continue reading →

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U.S. House meeting on terrorist threats to energy security

Posted on December 22, 2016 by

[ Even though this hearing was over a decade ago, the issues are still the same.  Nothing has changed. Alice Friedemann   www.energyskeptic.com  author of “When Trucks Stop Running: Energy and the Future of Transportation, 2015, Springer] House 109-70. July 27, … Continue reading →

Posted in Caused by Scarce Resources, Chokepoints, Middle East, Oil Shocks, Transportation | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on U.S. House meeting on terrorist threats to energy security

Review of “The Powerhouse: Inside the Invention of a Battery to Save the World” by Steve LeVine

Posted on December 2, 2016 by

Preface. This is a book review of Steve Levine’s 2015 “The Powerhouse: Inside the Invention of a Battery to Save the World”. If you ever wondered why batteries are still not even close to powerful enough to replace fossil fuels, … Continue reading →

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U.S. House looks at how to improve the nation’s highway freight network

Posted on November 23, 2016 by

[ Like all books and articles I read on transportation for my book, this session assumes endless growth and worries about future congestion, which will not be a problem on the other side of peak oil, which is coming soon.  … Continue reading →

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Water as a geopolitical threat. U.S. House of Representatives

Posted on November 20, 2016 by

Preface. Water scarcity is causing unrest and could led to war in Asia and the Middle East. There’s a website that keeps track of conflicts over water going back for 3,000 years here — 655 of them.   The prevalence of … Continue reading →

Posted in Caused by Scarce Resources, Congressional Record U.S., Peak Water, Water | Comments Off on Water as a geopolitical threat. U.S. House of Representatives

Dams: last 100-200 years, make floods worse, an environmental disaster, most will soon be past their lifespan

Posted on October 31, 2016 by

Failing Dams in the news: 2017-2-23: America’s Aging Dams Are in Need of Repair. New York Times. 2017-2-20. California Dam Crisis Could Have Been Averted. A dismissed lawsuit to strengthen the dam because of climate change effects predicted catastrophic flooding.  … Continue reading →

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Are humans an invasive species?

Posted on October 22, 2016 by

Rob Jordan. April 5, 2016. Populations of early human settlers grew like an ‘invasive species,’ Stanford researchers find. Stanford University. When humans colonized South America, their populations grew like a typical invasive species – an initial explosive growth rapidly reached … Continue reading →

Posted in Biodiversity, BioInvasion, Peak Food | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Fruit and nut crops decline as climate change melts fog

Posted on October 16, 2016 by

Fimrite, P. May 22, 2014. As Central Valley fog disappears, fruit, nut crops decline. San Francisco Chronicle. California produces 95% of U.S. fruit and nut crops that depend on disappearing Tule fog. The soupy thick tule fog that regularly blanketed … Continue reading →

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Why is passenger rail so damned inefficient?

Posted on October 10, 2016 by

[ This is about passenger rail, not freight rail, which is incredibly efficient. Freight rail is efficient because to reduce aerodynamic drag and diesel fuel use (USDOT 2008), they travel on average  only 23 miles per hour (to reduce aerodynamic … Continue reading →

Posted in Mass Transit, Railroads, Transportation | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Why the demise of civilization is inevitable

Posted on September 30, 2016 by

MacKenzie, D. April 2, 2008. Why the demise of civilisation may be inevitable. NewScientist. Every civilization in history has collapsed. Why should ours be any different? Homer-Dixon doubts we can stave off collapse completely. He points to what he calls … Continue reading →

Posted in Infrastructure, Interdependencies | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment