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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
Taking the Red Pill: How right-wing meme wars are ending Democracy
Preface. Trump was elected not only by the Christian evangelicals, but also by a large number of Hate Groups, who briefly came together at a “Unite the Right” (UTR) rally. Many are one or more of racist, white nationalist, misogynist, … Continue reading
Posted in Political Books, Politics
Tagged January 6, meme wars, misogyny, nationalist, Republican, right wing, Trump
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The growth of incarceration in the U.S. Causes and consequences. National Research Council 2014
Preface. This National Research Council 465-page report may be the most comprehensive study of the U.S. prison system there is. It will make you cry. I’ve excerpted about one-sixth of it below. It is shocking that the “U.S. penal population … Continue reading
Posted in Advice, Drug wars and the prison system, Energy Policy & Politicians, Politics
Tagged jail, prisons, reform
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Why do leaders & the public deny peak oil & limits to growth?
Preface. It’s strange that we’re on the cusp of Peak Oil, and yet the only existential threat you ever hear about is Climate Change. The New York Times has mentioned climate change over 15,000 times the past 5 years, and … Continue reading
Posted in Politics
Tagged climate change denial, limits to growth, optimism, peak oil, Republican, why denial
6 Comments
Republicans Brains are wired to deny science & reality
Preface. This is my book review of Chris Mooney’s 2012 “The Republican Brain. The Science of Why They Deny Science—and Reality”. This has grown from a review of this book (far below) to more recent science and writing on the … Continue reading
Posted in Evolution, Human Nature
Tagged bias, brain, conservative, curiosity, open to experience, Republican
7 Comments
Egads! An unfair distribution of wealth is good for the climate
Preface. Good grief!!! I never thought I would write a post with that title. I am pro Democracy, pro fair distribution of wealth! As you can see at posts here. But it has occurred to me that if if everyone … Continue reading
Posted in Distribution of Wealth, Overshoot, Poverty, Social Disorder
Tagged consumption, energy, manufacturing
5 Comments
Richard Heinberg: Environmental-Political Collapse Accelerates
Preface. Another wise post with great insights and predictions about where we are today from Richard Heinberg, the foremost scholar of Peak oil, overshoot, ecology, and more. Some excerpts: “…A basic understanding of overshoot reveals that our modern industrial way … Continue reading
Posted in Caused by Scarce Resources, Politics, Richard Heinberg
Tagged Authoritarian, collapse, democracy, heinberg, overshoot
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DOGE could have been great. Instead it blew everything up
Preface. You may remember that a movement called “Code for America” founded in 2009, used technology to improve government services and make them more efficient and accessible. This post is a book review of Pahlka’s 2023 “Recoding America” about how … Continue reading
Posted in Corruption, Corruption & Finance
Tagged book review, Code for America, corruption, DOGE, Recoding America
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Aside
Preface. After seeing the film “The Power of Community: How Cuba survived Peak Oil” in 2006, I thought about how those lessons might apply to California, which grows about a third of U.S. food. Much of what follows in the … Continue reading
The Nuclear Bomb is Back!
Preface. If you are not worried about nuclear war anymore, you should be. We have accidentally come close so many times.
Nuclear power is not the solution
Preface. This is a book review of Ramana’s “Nuclear is not the Solution: The Folly of Atomic Power in the Age of Climate Change.” A great overview that covers many topics, one of the best out there, and most recent. … Continue reading
Posted in Nuclear Books, Nuclear Power Energy, Nuclear War
Tagged nuclear, power, storage, war, waste, weapons
2 Comments