Category Archives: Polycrisis

Google AI: A polycrisis is a single situation where multiple, distinct global crises occur simultaneously and interact in ways that amplify each other, making the overall damage significantly worse than the sum of its individual parts. Instead of dealing with isolated, sequential emergencies, a polycrisis features intersecting networks of stress across economic, geopolitical, ecological, and technological systems.
Core Characteristics
Causal Entanglement: A crisis in one system (e.g., a geopolitical conflict) directly triggers or worsens a crisis in another system (e.g., energy prices and global food supply chains).
Feedback Loops: The compounding effects bounce back and forth between systems, creating highly volatile and unpredictable domino effects.
Systemic Overwhelm: Because the crises are deeply linked, they cannot be successfully resolved one at a time, frequently paralyzing traditional governance and risk-management strategies

The Nitrogen Bomb: fossil-fueled fertilizers keep billions of us alive

Posted on August 30, 2021 by

Preface. There are two articles below that explain why natural gas fertilizers are keeping at least 4 billion of us alive today.  If you’re interested in this topic, here are a few more to read: Erisman JW, Sutton MA, Galloway … Continue reading →

Posted in Farming & Ranching, Life After Fossil Fuels, Natural Gas, Overpopulation, Peak Food | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Index of best energyskeptic posts

Posted on August 26, 2021 by

This is an attempt to boil down 1500+ energyskeptic posts into the 200 of the best ones. Alice Friedemann  www.energyskeptic.com Women in ecology  author of 2021 Life After Fossil Fuels: A Reality Check on Alternative Energy best price here; 2015 … Continue reading →

Posted in An Index of Best Energyskeptic Posts | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

We’re Running out of Antibiotics

Posted on August 9, 2021 by

Preface.  A collection of articles I’ve run across about potential antibiotic shortages some day.  By no means definitive, and maybe the Scientists Will Come Up With Something. Alice Friedemann   www.energyskeptic.com  author of  “Life After Fossil Fuels: A Reality Check on … Continue reading →

Posted in Antibiotics | Tagged , | 2 Comments

945 U.S. Superfund sites vulnerable to climate change

Posted on July 31, 2021 by

Preface. The energy crisis is likely to strike soon since global peak oil production was reached in November 2018 (EIA 2020). Let’s use energy to clean up these Superfund sites and nuclear waste, rather than wasting energy on wind turbines … Continue reading →

Posted in Chemicals, Climate Change, Hazardous Waste | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Was the fall of the Roman Empire due to plagues & climate change?

Posted on July 20, 2021 by

Preface. Harper (2017) shows the brutal effects of plagues and climate change on the Roman Empire. McConnell (2020) proposes that a huge volcanic eruption in Alaska was a factor in bringing the Roman Empire  and Cleopatra’s Egypt down. In addition, … Continue reading →

Posted in Pandemic, Roman Empire | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Biogas from cow manure is not a solution for the energy crisis

Posted on July 17, 2021 by

Preface. Smil’s article about biogas sums up why it won’t contribute to energy shortages as fossils decline. Biogass doesn’t scale and is easy to muck up. Hayes (2015) also makes this case, pointing out that even if every ounce of … Continue reading →

Posted in Biofuels, Biomass EROI, Peak Biofuels, Pollution | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

There are over 300,000 contaminated groundwater sites in the U.S.

Posted on July 1, 2021 by

Preface.  If peak oil did indeed happen in 2018 as the EIA world production data shows, then let’s use the oil we still have, before it is rationed, to clean up the 126,000+ sites that threaten to pollute groundwater for … Continue reading →

Posted in Chemicals, Hazardous Waste, National Academies of Sciences, Water Pollution | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

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

Why we aren’t mining methane hydrates now — or perhaps ever

Posted on June 10, 2021 by

Preface. Methane hydrates are far from being commercial, and probably always will be. Scientists and companies have been trying to exploit them since the first energy crisis in 1973 to no avail. Nor are they likely to trigger a runaway … Continue reading →

Posted in Alternative Energy, Global Warming, Methane Hydrates | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Why we aren’t mining methane hydrates now — or perhaps ever

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