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Recent Posts
- A transition from fossil fuels to renewables could take a century – if it ever happens
- 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
- 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: Society
Saudi oil infrastructure at risk from drone attacks
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
Posted in Middle East, Oil & Gas, Peak Oil
Tagged attack, drone, infrastructure, oil
Comments Off on Saudi oil infrastructure at risk from drone attacks
Why technology can’t solve all of our problems
I have many posts about energy contraptions that have had hundreds of thousands of breakthrough stories in the media, yet here we are, without powerful enough batteries, hydrogen fuel cells, and so on to replace fossil fuels despite the exciting … Continue reading
Posted in Critical Thinking, Transportation
2 Comments
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
Rare Earth: Why complex life is uncommon in the universe
Preface. So much research on why complex life is rare in the universe has come out since this book I’ve created another post: Rare Earth updates: recent research on why intelligent life is probably rare in the Universe. And intelligent … Continue reading
Threats to America’s oil pipeline grid
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
Book review of Mikhail’s “The beekeeper: rescuing the stolen women of Iraq”
Preface. This is a gruesome post you may want to skip. My main interest in this book was what will happen to the hundreds of millions forced to flee in the future because of the crash of civilization as oil … Continue reading
Posted in Collapse of Civilizations, Mass migrations, Middle East, Refugee Camps, Social Disorder, Terrorism
Tagged collapse, Iraq, refugees
8 Comments
Book review of Jaczko’s “Confessions of a rogue nuclear regulator”
Preface. After presenting a lot of evidence for why nuclear power plants are inherently unsafe, Jaczko concludes: “There is only one logical answer: we must stop generating nuclear waste, and that means we must stop using nuclear power. You would … Continue reading
Concrete: the most destructive material on Earth
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
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