Category Archives: 1) Decline

Decline will be death by a thousand cuts as too many problems occur and overwhelm societies ability to fix them (i.e. Tainter’s “complexity”). Already our infrastructure (oil and gas pipelines, electric grid, roads, bridges, etc) has a Report Card of D from the American Society of Civil Engineers. All 18 components of essential infrastructure, from the electric grid to the financial system are vulnerable to cyber-attack, The end of growth means bankruptcy for cities, pensions, families, and businesses, and no credit for energy companies to borrow for new projects to obtain oil, coal, and natural gas, the real drivers of the economy (just try putting dollar bills in your gas tank)

A Century from Now Concrete Will be Nothing But Rubble

Posted on June 26, 2021 by

Photo: road abandoned since 1984 in the Florida Keys Preface. Much of the material that follows is based on Robert Courland’s 2011 book Concrete Planet, which explains why concrete is an essential part of our infrastructure. And it’s all falling … Continue reading →

Posted in Concrete, Infrastructure & Collapse, Manufacturing & Industrial Heat, Peak Sand, Roads | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Population explosion to destroy 11% of remaining ecosystems and biodiversity

Posted on June 19, 2021 by

Preface. According to a recent paper in Nature Sustainability (Williams et al 2020), we are on the verge of destroying 11% of earth’s remaining ecosystems by 2050 to grow more food. We already are using 75% of Earth’s land. What … Continue reading →

Posted in Chemicals, Deforestation, Food production, Overpopulation | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Blackouts, firestorms, and energy use

Posted on June 7, 2021 by

Preface. Blackouts are more and more likely in the future from fires, hurricanes, natural gas shortages and more. Below is an account from a friend who had to evacuate due to a wildfire. Blackouts in the news: 2024: Half a … Continue reading →

Posted in Blackouts Electric Grid, Wildfire | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Reforestation for the return to biomass after fossil fuels

Posted on May 29, 2021 by

Preface. Below are excerpts from a New York Times article about forests. My book “Life After Fossil Fuels: A Reality Check on Alternative Energy” explains why the myriad ways we use fossil fuels can’t be electrified (or hydrogenized or anything … Continue reading →

Posted in Deforestation | Tagged , | Comments Off on Reforestation for the return to biomass after fossil fuels

Updates to Life After Fossil Fuels: A Reality Check on Alternative Energy

Posted on May 14, 2021 by

Updates to “Life After Fossil Fuels” Last updated 28 April 2024. Other posts related to this book here. My book is about our many dependencies on fossil fuels, quickly depicted in these very short videos:  Life without Petroleum  A Day … Continue reading →

Posted in Biofuels, Fusion, Groundwater, How Much Left, Hydrogen, Life After Fossil Fuels, Peak Water | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Forests make the wind that carries the rain across continents

Posted on April 29, 2021 by

Preface. This is a controversial theory that if true, “could help explain why, despite their distance from the oceans, the remote interiors of forested continents receive as much rain as the coasts—and why the interiors of unforested continents tend to … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate Change, Deforestation | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Forests make the wind that carries the rain across continents

Australian Senate hearings on Peak Oil & Transportation 2006

Posted on April 14, 2021 by

Preface.  This post has a summary of two of the nine senate hearings on Peak Oil in Australia in 2006. Someday historians may want to know which politicians knew about the energy crisis and when they knew it, probably to … Continue reading →

Posted in Energy Policy & Politicians, GOVERNMENT, Transportation | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Kurt Andersen: “Evil Geniuses” & wealth

Posted on March 11, 2021 by

Preface.  This is a well-written book with original insights into the economic, cultural, and politics behind how we got to a right-wing wannabe fascist incredibly unfair distribution of wealth.  But Andersen is unaware that energy, not money, is the basis … Continue reading →

Posted in Distribution of Wealth, Poverty | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Lifespan of infrastructure, transportation, and buildings

Posted on February 27, 2021 by

Preface. What follows is from the International Energy Agency 2020 report “Energy technology perspectives” on how to transition to net zero emissions by 2050. This might require the replacement of just about everything, since power plants, steel blast furnaces, cement … Continue reading →

Posted in Airplanes, Automobiles, Concrete, Dams, Electricity Infrastructure, Energy Infrastructure, Limits To Growth, Manufacturing & Industrial Heat, Oil & Gas, Transportation Infrastructure, Trucks | Tagged , , , , , , | 5 Comments

The Fragility of Microchips

Posted on February 6, 2021 by

Preface. This is an introduction to how microchips are made to give you an idea of how difficult and amazing they are.  This is a very high-level overview gathered mostly from the textbooks of Quirk (2001) and Van Zant (2004). … Continue reading →

Posted in 2) Collapse, An Index of Best Energyskeptic Posts, Infrastructure & Fast Crash, Interdependencies, Localization, Manufacturing & Industrial Heat, Microchips and computers, Supply Chains | Tagged , , , , , | 8 Comments