Category Archives: Society

Energy and resources limits what humans can do. So do their own systems. Financial systems fail, corruption, wars, religion, politics and more all play a role in how successful societies are and how wealthy their citizens are. As the distribution of wealth grows more unfair, the population is so immiserated at some point that collapse and a new society emerge

Kurt Cobb Cheap oil, complexity and counter-intuitive conclusions

Kurt Cobb. March 22, 2015.   Cheap oil, complexity and counterintuitive conclusions. Resource Insights. It is a staple of oil industry apologists to say that the recent swift decline in the price of oil is indicative of long-term abundance. This … Continue reading

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Gail Tverberg The oil glut and low prices reflect an affordability problem

Tverberg, G. March 9, 2015. The oil glut and low prices reflect an affordability problem. ourfiniteworld.com For a long time, there has been a belief that the decline in oil supply will come by way of high oil prices. Demand … Continue reading

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Jared Diamond Why Societies Collapse

[ Whoops, Diamond left out peak oil: Book review of “In order to live: A North Korean girl’s journey to freedom” by Yeonmi Park Inside North Korea’s Environmental Collapse Who Lives, Who dies in a never-ending energy crisis. Book review … Continue reading

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The Empire of the United States, Roman Empire, War, etc.

[Several articles and comments from energy groups follow] Steven Strauss. December 31, 2012. 8 Striking Parallels Between the U.S. and the Roman Empire. Is our republic coming to an unceremonious end? History may not be on America’s side. Lawrence Lessig’s … Continue reading

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Syrian conflict due to climate change drought

Fountain, H. March 2, 2015. Researchers Link Syrian Conflict to a Drought Made Worse by Climate Change. New York Times. Drawing one of the strongest links yet between global warming and human conflict, researchers said Monday that an extreme drought … Continue reading

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Doomsday Clock moved closer to midnight

Since 2012 the Doomsday clock has been at 5 minutes to midnight, but on January 22, 2015 the clock moved 2 minutes forward to just 3 minutes short of midnight. This is because prominent scientists (including Nobel laureates) say that … Continue reading

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1177 B.C. The year civilization collapsed

[ These are my notes that are disjointed but can give you an idea of how fast our fossil-fueled civilization could collapse.  We are far more interdependent on much longer global supply chains (a wind turbine has 8,000 parts). We … Continue reading

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Population posts on the internet

[Below are posts I’ve run across on population. It will be left to Mother Nature to cut our numbers back to what the earth can support after fossil fuels decline.  In the brief 100 years or so the oil-boom lasted, … Continue reading

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Why You Should Love Trains

Why You Should Love Trains by Alice Friedemann    November 13, 2014 Trains rock! Trains are over 4 times more fuel efficient than trucks. On average it takes just 1 gallon to move a ton 473 miles, using just 2% of … Continue reading

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PNAS: Human population reduction is not a quick fix

Human population reduction is not a quick fix for environmental problems by Corey J. A. Bradshaw and Barry W. Brook Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Edited by Paul R. Ehrlich, Stanford University, and approved September 15, 2014 … Continue reading

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