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Recent Posts
- Electrifying freight trains in the U.S. is a bad idea
- Why Nuclear Power can’t replace fossil fuels
- Energy, Water, & Climate Change are interdependent
- Why fusion power is Forever Away
- Climate Change dominates news coverage at expense of other existential planetary boundaries
- Excerpt from “The Geopolitics of Resource Wars”
- Homes & Buildings
- Book Review “The Outlawed Ocean” by Ian Urbina
- Underestimating the Challenges of Avoiding a Ghastly Future
- 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
- The staggering cost of Net Zero in Britain
- Why the R/P Reserves to Production ratio does not show when oil will run out
- Catton on Collapse “Bottleneck: Humanity’s Impending Impasse”
Category Archives: A Fast Crash
The Nobel Laureate Assembly Declaration for the Prevention of Nuclear War
Preface. Below is the declaration of the Nobel Laureate Assembly for the Prevention of Nuclear War from a three-day gathering in Chicago of 20 Nobel laureates and 60 leading nuclear experts, aimed at creating recommendations for policymakers and leaders to … Continue reading
Posted in Nuclear War, Scientists Warnings to Humanity
Tagged disarmament, existential threat, nobel laureates, nonproliferation, nuclear war, nuclear winter, scientists warnings to humanity
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Environmental effects of nuclear winter
Preface. This post is a summary of what I thought interesting and important from this 2025 National Academy of Sciences report “Potential environmental effects of nuclear war.” Unlike other nuclear winter papers reviewed in energyskeptic, the National Academy does not … Continue reading
Posted in Nuclear Power Energy, Nuclear Winter, War Books
Tagged existential threat, HALEU, nuclear waste, nuclear weapons, nuclear winter, polycrisis
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When will gold production peak?
Figure 1. Mine production of gold worldwide from 2010 to 2024 (in metric tons). Source: USGS – Mineral Commodity Summaries 2025, page 83 Preface. Ores are decreasing in gold concentrations, and found in deeper and more remote places, requiring more … Continue reading
Posted in Mining, Peak Precious Elements
Tagged peak gold
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Why do leaders & the public deny peak oil & limits to growth?
Preface. It’s strange that we’re on the cusp of Peak Oil, and yet the only existential threat you ever hear about is Climate Change. The New York Times has mentioned climate change over 15,000 times the past 5 years, and … Continue reading
Vaclav Smil on why there will be no energy transition
Preface. This post has excerpts from energy expert Vaclav Smil‘s 2024 free paper “Halfway between Kyoto and 2050“. Smil’s book is free, here. Below is a shortened, reworded article from Scientific American in 2014 written by Smil on this topic … Continue reading
Posted in Alternative Energy, Energy Books, Mining, Vaclav Smil
Tagged carbon capture, climate change, coal, energy transition, natural gas, oil, wind
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Egads! An unfair distribution of wealth is good for the climate
Preface. Good grief!!! I never thought I would write a post with that title. I am pro Democracy, pro fair distribution of wealth! As you can see at posts here. But it has occurred to me that if if everyone … Continue reading
Posted in Distribution of Wealth, Overshoot, Poverty, Social Disorder
Tagged consumption, energy, manufacturing
5 Comments
Book review of 2024 Scheyder “The War Below”
Preface. This post has excerpts from Scheyder’s 2024 “The War Below” about the metals and minerals renewables will need – over 6 times more than fossil fueled internal combustion vehicles, natural gas and coal plants, and nuclear power (IEA 2021). … Continue reading
Posted in Energy Books, Limits To Growth, Mining, Peak Copper, Peak Critical Elements, Peak Rare Earth Elements
Tagged antimony, cobalt, copper, lithium, mining, rare earth, tailings dams
1 Comment
Summary of Greenpeace “Nuclear Reactor Hazards”
Source: Nuclear power is dirty, dangerous and expensive. Say no to new nukes. Preface. This is a summary of: Hirsch H (2005) Nuclear Reactor Hazards Ongoing Dangers of Operating Nuclear Technology in the 21st Century. Greenpeace International. The revival of … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Nuclear Books, Nuclear Power Energy, Nuclear spent fuel fire
Tagged accident, aging, hazard, nuclear
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Richard Heinberg: Environmental-Political Collapse Accelerates
Preface. Another wise post with great insights and predictions about where we are today from Richard Heinberg, the foremost scholar of Peak oil, overshoot, ecology, and more. Some excerpts: “…A basic understanding of overshoot reveals that our modern industrial way … Continue reading
Posted in Caused by Scarce Resources, Politics, Richard Heinberg
Tagged Authoritarian, collapse, democracy, heinberg, overshoot
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