Category Archives: 2) Collapse

The collapse of the financial system, breakdown of supply chains, blackouts, end of being able to make computer chips, and so on are symptoms of the underlying cause: LESS OIL AVAILABLE TO DO MILLIONS OF ESSENTIAL TASKS. Whether the house of cards goes from the financial shock of a natural disaster or from debt and corruption, blockage of the Suez canal, Export Land Model, or (nuclear war) — there is certain to be a series of dislocations that ultimately bring population down to 1 billion or less, and given past collapses, take about 20-30 years. Let’s hope there are some islands of sanity and that you, dear reader, are living on one of them!

Oil choke points vulnerable to war, chaos, terrorism, accidents, & piracy

Posted on April 12, 2024 by

Source: Ballout, D. 2013. Choke Points: Our energy access points. Oil Change. Preface. Below are several articles I’ve collected since 2005 on oil chokepoints. If oil tanker traffic were stopped on one or more, much of the world would plunge … Continue reading →

Posted in Chokepoints, Oil & Gas, Oil Shocks, Threats to oil supply | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

Peak Oil is Officially Here! World oil production peaked November of 2018

Posted on March 24, 2024 by

Preface. When I first published this post in February of 2022, I said that peak world oil production might have arrived, but it takes 5 years in the rear-view mirror to call it.  Now peak “crude oil including lease condensate … Continue reading →

Posted in Debt, How Much Left, Peak Oil | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

Rare Earth updates: recent research on why complex & intelligent life are rare in the Universe

Posted on March 15, 2024 by

Preface. These are updates to Ward & Brownlee’s book “Rare Earth: Why Complex life is Uncommon in the Universe”. If we are one of the few planets with intelligent life, what a shame it would be if we destroyed ourselves … Continue reading →

Posted in Evolution, Human Nature, Planetary Boundaries, Wood | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Book review of “Chip War” and the Fragility of microchips

Posted on March 8, 2024 by

Major semiconductor producing countries rely on each other for different types of chips. Top semiconductor producers’ 2021 export values by source and destination, billions USD.  Source: PIIE 2022 https://www.piie.com/research/piie-charts/major-semiconductor-producing-countries-rely-each-other-different-types-chips Preface.  We have become insanely dependent on technology that can’t possibly … Continue reading →

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Nuclear attack on U.S. could kill 90% of Americans

Posted on February 22, 2024 by

A map showing modelling by Princeton University’s Program on Science and Global Security showing the worst-case scenario effects of a strike on America’s nuclear missile silos. Researchers found as many as 300 million people would be at risk of a … Continue reading →

Posted in An Index of Best Energyskeptic Posts, Biodiversity Loss, Nuclear War, War & Violence | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Nuclear attack on U.S. could kill 90% of Americans

What percent of Americans are rational?

Posted on February 15, 2024 by

Preface. Why does rationality matter — what’s the harm in believing there’s a fat “Santa Claus” God in the sky noting down every time any intelligent creature in the entire universe is naughty or nice on the trillions of inhabited … Continue reading →

Posted in Critical Thinking, Critical Thinking and Scientific Literacy, Religion | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Off-Road vehicles & equipment need diesel fuel

Posted on February 1, 2024 by

Preface. Move over semi-trucks. You are not the most important truck in the world, even though I gave you the starring role in “When Trucks Stop Running”.  What really matters are the trucks that grow our fuel: Food. And mining … Continue reading →

Posted in Efficiency, Electric & Hydrogen trucks impossible, Infrastructure & Fast Crash, Transportation Infrastructure, Trucks | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Book review of “Prime Movers of Globalization: the History & Impact of Diesel Engines & Gas Turbines”

Posted on January 25, 2024 by

Preface. This is my book review of Vaclav Smil’s “Prime Movers of Globalization”. A topic near and dear to my heart after working for the 5th largest shipping company, American President Lines (now Neptune Orient Lines), for 22 years and … Continue reading →

Posted in Energy Books, Peak Resources, Rail, Roads, Transportation, Where to Be or Not to Be | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Mental Health. Coping with the future: notes from Jackson & Jensen’s “An Inconvenient Apocalypse”

Posted on January 18, 2024 by

Preface.  Because I’d been reading non-fiction since college across every section in bookstores for decades before I stumbled on Peak oil in 2000 (full story in about), I understood the horror and tragedy of energy decline and was depressed for … Continue reading →

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Why is everyone afraid of AI taking over? It makes stuff up!

Posted on December 13, 2023 by

Preface. AI is not intelligent, it is stupid! AI not only makes stuff up as explained below, but I have found it to be highly inaccurate and incomplete. For example, I asked about hours and costs of wine tasting in … Continue reading →

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