Category Archives: A Fast Crash

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

Opposition to mining will prevent a green transition to renewables

Posted on July 17, 2023 by

Source: Bare (2012) Environmentalists win review of two more plants near Rosemont copper mine. Arizona Capitol times. I could overwhelm you with world-wide trillions of tons of mining waste and how China has rendered 20% of its farmland too toxic … Continue reading →

Posted in Alternative Energy, An Index of Best Energyskeptic Posts, Energy Supply Chain, Mining, Peak Copper | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Opposition to mining will prevent a green transition to renewables

The electric grid could be down for years if LPTs destroyed

Posted on July 3, 2023 by

Large Power Transformer Source: ABB Conversations (2013) Preface. This post contains excerpts from two Department of Energy documents and one about large geomagnetic storms and how they would affect Large power transformers (LPT) and the U.S. electric grid. They are … Continue reading →

Posted in An Index of Best Energyskeptic Posts, Electric Grid, Electricity Infrastructure, Infrastructure & Fast Crash, Interdependencies | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

550,000 abandoned mines, $50 billion to clean the worst ones

Posted on June 26, 2023 by

Preface. Below are excerpts of a US House 2010 congressional hearing on cleaning up abandoned mines. Abandoned mines can cause soil erosion, heavy metal contamination (i.e., cyanide, lead, arsenic, mercury, uranium), and acid drainage that threatens thousands of streams and … Continue reading →

Posted in Chemical Pollution, Congressional Record U.S., Hazardous Waste, Mining, Pollution, Water Pollution | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Uranium waste from 50+ sites contaminating groundwater

Posted on June 12, 2023 by

Preface. One of the top priorities of collapse from energy decline is to clean up nuclear (Superfund and other hazardous) wastes NOW, while we have the energy and technical ability to do so. Future generations will be thrown back into … Continue reading →

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Infrastructure interdependencies: an attack on one is an attack on all

Posted on May 29, 2023 by

An Attack on Energy Infrastructure would affect all other Infrastructure I should consolidate my many posts on cyber attacks, EMPs, and other ways the electric grid could come down, but our dependencies are just so widespread that I don’t want … Continue reading →

Posted in CyberAttacks, Infrastructure & Collapse, Infrastructure & Fast Crash, Interdependencies, Natural Gas, Oil | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Infrastructure interdependencies: an attack on one is an attack on all

Why biofuels can not scale up to replace petroleum

Posted on May 22, 2023 by

Preface. This is my favorite paper on why we can’t replace crude oil with biofuels.  Of course, oil is a biofuel. But alas, not renewable, since it took over 100 million years to make them. Every year we burn fossil … Continue reading →

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Military Threats: Peak oil, population, climate change, pandemics, economic crises, cyberattacks, failed states, nuclear war

Posted on May 15, 2023 by

Mackintosh C (2010) Peak Oil “The debate is over”. Permaculture research institute. https://www.permaculturenews.org/2010/11/10/peak-oil-the-debate-is-over/ Preface. The military is more realistic about the challenges the world faces than congress or other branches and government agencies. In 2010, all of the military branches … Continue reading →

Posted in China and War, CyberAttacks, Disasters, Military, Pandemics, Peak Oil, War | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Military Threats: Peak oil, population, climate change, pandemics, economic crises, cyberattacks, failed states, nuclear war

Skyscrapers: A bad idea as energy declines

Posted on May 8, 2023 by

Preface. One reason Paris is such a lovely city is that it was built to human scale, with buildings of five stories or less, because that was about as high as people were willing to climb, so not surprisingly, rents … Continue reading →

Posted in Blackouts, Concrete, Earthquakes, Hurricanes, Infrastructure & Collapse, Infrastructure & Fast Crash, North Korea | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Skyscrapers: A bad idea as energy declines

Energy and potato crops. U.S. House Hearing 2011

Posted on April 24, 2023 by

Preface. We eat so many potatoes I thought it interesting how future oil shocks may reduce potato crops. Potatoes are very “oily” needing a great deal of diesel fuel over their life cycle of planting, harvest, delivery to sorting, grading, … Continue reading →

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Joseph Romm: we’re stealing from the next 100 billion people to walk the earth

Posted on April 17, 2023 by

Source: Lu (2021) Visualized: The Biggest Ponzi Schemes in Modern History. Visual Capitalist Preface. Joseph Romm writes that the exponential growth Ponzi Scheme is consuming the resources of the next 100 billion people. Our children and grandchildren.  Romm’s post was … Continue reading →

Posted in Exponential Growth | Tagged , , | 1 Comment