Category Archives: 2) Overshoot

The polycrisis/overshoot, 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: peak energy and peak everything, especially peak diesel since trucks, rail, and ships make this one-time only fossil fueled civilization possible. Wind, solar, nuclear, and so on also need fossil fuels for every single step of their life cycle, so that is a dead end. It is back to before the 15th century — wood world. Whether the house of cards collapses from chokepoints in the middle east such as the Suez canal, the financial shock of a natural disaster or from debt and corruption, Export Land Model, or nuclear war — there is certain to be a series of dislocations that ultimately bring population down to 400 million (population before fossil fuels) or less (due to overshoot factors such as top soil erosion, pollution, etc) Let’s hope there are some islands of sanity and that you are living on one of them!

The Great Game and future wars over oil: Will China and the U.S. collide?

[ I don’t think we will go to war with China because it would be over before we started it — they’d start a cyberwar and take down our electric grid, and we can’t retaliate because their grid is run … Continue reading

Posted in China and War, War & Violence | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on The Great Game and future wars over oil: Will China and the U.S. collide?

Dmitry Orlov: How Russians survived the collapse of the Soviet Union

[ A great post by Dmitry Orlov about what collapse may be like, the best strategies to survive, and why the Russian way of life and culture prepared them far better for hard times than will be the case in … Continue reading

Posted in Expert Advice, Oil shock collapse, Where to Be or Not to Be | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Dmitry Orlov: How Russians survived the collapse of the Soviet Union

Oil Infrastructure – pipelines, refineries, terminals

Sider, A. and Friedman, N. November 2, 2016. More than half of U.S. Pipelines are at least 46 years old. Building new systems has become harder amid opposition from landowners and environmental groups. Wall Street Journal. More than 60% of … Continue reading

Posted in Oil, Oil & Gas, Pipeline | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Oil Infrastructure – pipelines, refineries, terminals

Would Tesla, SolarCity or SpaceX exist without $4.9 billion in government subsidies?

[ Tesla has made no new battery breakthroughs. Batteries aren’t much better today than they were 200 years ago.  All Tesla did was build a better battery management system (BMS) by stringing tiny batteries together — thousands of them.  But … Continue reading

Posted in Debt, Lithium-ion, Photovoltaic Solar, Subsidies | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Would Tesla, SolarCity or SpaceX exist without $4.9 billion in government subsidies?

How different nations have coped with oil shortages

Preface. In this article, Friedrichs shows how differently Cuba, North Korea, and Japan coped after a sudden loss of most of their oil.  I first became aware of how essential oil was for nations when I read Daniel Yergin’s 1991 … Continue reading

Posted in Cuba, North Korea, Oil shock collapse, Peak Oil | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on How different nations have coped with oil shortages

Peak fossil fuels limits climate change to low-to-medium outcomes in IPCC report

Excerpts from 24 page:  Höök, M., Tang, X. 2013. Depletion of fossil fuels and anthropogenic climate change: a review. Energy Policy, 52: 797-809 Conclusion of paper: Fossil fuel constraints will limit anthropogenic climate impact towards the low-medium outcomes presented by … Continue reading

Posted in ! PEAK EVERYTHING, But not from climate change: Peak Fossil Fuels, Climate Change, Supply Chains, Transportation | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Peak fossil fuels limits climate change to low-to-medium outcomes in IPCC report

Global oil risks in the early 21st century, Energy Policy 2011

[This is a large excerpt from an excellent 18-page paper I think predicts how the future will unfold as well as a good overview of our predicament. Alice Friedemann] Fantazzini, Dean; Höök, Mikael; Angelantoni, André. 2011. Global oil risks in … Continue reading

Posted in Other Experts, Peak Oil, Scientists, Scientists Warnings to Humanity | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Global oil risks in the early 21st century, Energy Policy 2011

Peak soil, peak phosphate, peak fertilizer means Peak Food

Amundson, R., et al. May 7, 2015. Soil and human security in the 21st century. Science 348. A group of leading soil scientists has summarized the precarious state of the world’s soil resources and the possible ramifications for human security … Continue reading

Posted in Agriculture Infrastructure, Peak Food, Peak Topsoil, Scientists Warnings to Humanity, Soil | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Peak soil, peak phosphate, peak fertilizer means Peak Food

The Banking system is a House of Cards

Lynn Parramore. April 21, 2015. Our Banking System is a Giant House of Cards. Money & Banking. It Could Fall On You. Anat Admati teaches finance and economics at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and is co-author of The … Continue reading

Posted in Banking | Tagged , , | Comments Off on The Banking system is a House of Cards

Richard Heinberg: Only less will do

Richard Heinberg. March 16, 2015. Only Less Will Do. Post Carbon Institute. [portions of this article were cut, reworded, and rearranged] Almost nobody likes to hear about the role of scale in our global environmental crisis, because if growth is … Continue reading

Posted in Birth Control, By People, Climate Change, Overpopulation, Richard Heinberg | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments