Category Archives: Infrastructure & Collapse

90% of why we live past 50 due is clean water (and food) from water treatment facilities and sewage treatment plants that are all falling apart. Oil & gas pipes essential to heating and cooking are rusting apart. Dams, bridges, roads — all built when the EROEI of oil was 100:1 need replacing at a time when the EROEI has fallen below 15:1

What can California do about sea level rise?

Posted on November 11, 2020 by

Projected sea level rise from one meter (dark red) to six meters (light orange) in California’s Bay Area. (Weiss and Overpeck 2011) Preface. Nearly all, if not all, possible solutions to rising sea levels along all the coasts in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Energy Infrastructure, Infrastructure & Collapse, Rail, Roads, Sea Level Rise, Transportation | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on What can California do about sea level rise?

Saudi oil infrastructure at risk from drone attacks

Posted on September 19, 2019 by

Preface. This NYT article was published 4 months ago, and its warning just came true. Quite prescient! Drones make it pretty easy to anonymously attack the thousands of miles of pipelines across the Arabian peninsula, oil tankers, pumping stations, and … Continue reading →

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Threats to America’s oil pipeline grid

Posted on May 30, 2019 by

Preface. At some point of energy decline there will be Americans who tap into pipelines to get scarce oil for themselves and to sell it on black markets. Just look at the massive amount of oil being stolen in Nigeria … Continue reading →

Posted in Fuel Distribution, Oil & Gas, Terrorism | Tagged | 1 Comment

Concrete: the most destructive material on Earth

Posted on May 12, 2019 by

Preface. Some of the points I found most alarming or interesting: After water, concrete is the most widely used substance on Earth. Concrete is a thirsty behemoth, sucking up almost a 10th of the world’s industrial water use. This often … Continue reading →

Posted in Concrete, Infrastructure & Collapse | Tagged | 7 Comments

Rising Sea Levels – What to do?

Posted on July 10, 2018 by

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

Preventing economic shock wave: Securing the port of Houston from a terrorist attack

Posted on March 29, 2018 by

                    [ An attack on (LNG) ships, oil tankers, or the Houston port facilities Houston would cause an oil shock, since a third of oil refining takes place there, and it’s … Continue reading →

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Will the Navy go out with a whimper instead of a bang?

Posted on December 5, 2017 by

Preface. This house hearing is about the continuing decline of the Navy There are fewer and fewer ships. The remaining ships are overused, some past their normal lifespan, and under-maintained. As the U.S. descends into fascist plutocracy enabled by the … Continue reading →

Posted in Infrastructure & Fast Crash, Transportation Infrastructure | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Transportation: How long can we adapt before we fall off the Net Energy Cliff?

Posted on August 27, 2017 by

Preface. There are too many factors besides geological depletion to predict a future timeline of collapse. Plus each region will be more or less affected by each factor, sooner or later as well. This is a unique crash – there … Continue reading →

Posted in Cascading Failure, Electric Grid & EMP Electromagnetic Pulse, Energy Infrastructure, Exponential Growth, Exports decline to ZERO, Infrastructure & Fast Crash, Transportation, Transportation Infrastructure | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

Coal power plants depend on railroads to deliver coal

Posted on February 18, 2017 by

[ The extract of a Senate hearing below is mostly spent on testimony by utilities bashing the railroads for not delivering enough coal due to a disaster in the Powder River Basin, Wyoming area, where coal dust infiltrated the stone … Continue reading →

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Why is Detroit falling apart so fast?

Posted on February 6, 2017 by

Using Google street view history, www.goobingdetroit.com records the decay of homes in Detroit. Above shows homes September 2009, September 2011, and September 2013 I’ve been fascinated with the decline of Detroit since a guy in my dormitory told me back … Continue reading →

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