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!

American Physical Society: has the Battery Bubble Burst?

Aug/Sep 2012. Has the Battery Bubble Burst? Fred Schlachter. American Physical Society. APS News Vol 21, number 8. Phys.org Three years ago at a symposium on lithium-air batteries at IBM Almaden there was great optimism. The symposium “Scalable Energy Storage: … Continue reading

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David Korowicz: Catastrophic shocks through complex socio-economic systems

David Korowicz. 2013. Catastrophic Shocks through Complex Socio-Economic Systems. The globalized economy has become more complex (connectivity, interdependence, and speed), delocalized, with increasing concentration within critical systems. This has made us all more vulnerable to systemic shocks. This paper provides … Continue reading

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Terrorism and the Electric Power Delivery System. National Academy of Sciences.

Much of what follows is from the National Academy of Science 2012  (for the Department of Homeland Security): “Terrorism and the Electric Power Delivery System” & 2013 “The Resilience of the Electric Power Delivery System in Response to Terrorism and … Continue reading

Posted in Electric Grid & EMP Electromagnetic Pulse, Electricity Infrastructure, Infrastructure & Fast Crash, Oil & Gas, Water Infrastructure | 1 Comment

Biggest Waste of Wealth in All of history: America’s Interstate Highway system

A book review by Alice Friedemann of: Swift, Earl. 2012. The Big Roads: The Untold Story of the Engineers, Visionaries, and Trailblazers Who Created the American Superhighways. Related articles $46 Trillion Infrastructure in USA, $6 Trillion is Transportation Expressways & … Continue reading

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$46 Trillion Infrastructure in USA, $6 Trillion is Transportation

James Howard Kunstler has written that Suburbia will be the largest waste of money and physical assets in human history. The end of the age of oil means that just about everything will be useless too.  Below is just the … Continue reading

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Gail Tverberg: How this collapse differs from past collapses

Converging Energy Crises – And How our Current Situation Differs from the Past  May 29, 2014 by Gail Tverberg At the Age of Limits Conference, I gave a talk called Converging Crises (PDF), talking about the crises facing us as we reach energy … Continue reading

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Expressways & Interstates are only designed to last for 20 years

Preface. I make the case that civilization would end in a week if trucks stopped running in my first book, and though I had in mind that they would be running low on diesel fuel on the downside of world … Continue reading

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Energy price increases and the 2008 financial crash: a practice run for what’s to come?

Hall, C.A.S., Groat, A. 2010. Losing Faith in Economics. Energy price increases and the 2008 financial crash: a practice run for what’s to come? The Corporate Examiner. 37: No. 4-5: 19-26. The summer of 2008 saw the third year in … Continue reading

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Human Nature is to blame

Many people have said this, as I run across examples in my archives I’ll add them to this post. Catton would say that no one is to blame, overshoot and die-off is the fate of all species. Ilargi at theautomaticearth: … Continue reading

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Why our Capitalist Gene is pushing us to destruction

Why our Capitalist Gene is pushing us to destruction Paul B. Farrell.   Feb 12, 2014. Marketwatch. Yes, we’re all capitalists. Today 7.2 billion. Soon 10 billion humans, all with a Capitalist Gene that says “me first, climate later.” Human nature. … Continue reading

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