Categories
-
Recent Posts
- Thorium nuclear bombs and reactors have too many challenges
- Who Killed the Electric Car & more importantly, the Electric Truck?
- President Carter’s energy solutions 1977
- Peak Menhaden
- Hemp for paper, textiles, the war on drugs, and more
- Why towns have a hard time adding EV, solar, heat pumps
- Building a national super grid in America
- The Mayflower from the book The Barbarous Years
- Deep Sea Oil
- Book review of “Livewired. The inside story of the ever-changing brain”
- The conveyor belt may be slowing down — Yikes!
- Battery Energy storage batteries (BESS) too complex to ever be commercial
- New war and energy alliances over next resource wars
- Book review of “Siege: Trump Under fire”
- Why do people vote for Trump?
Category Archives: 1) Decline
Venezuela collapse: looting, hunger, blackouts, environmental catastrophe
Preface. Venezuela is experiencing a double whammy of drought and low oil prices, which has lead to blackouts and inability to import food, due to their oil production peaking in 1997. If you want to know how collapse will unfold … Continue reading
Peak Sand
Preface. With world peak oil production in 2018 so far (Peak oil is here!) it looks like peak sand won’t be the main factor in the fall of our fossil-fueled civilization. After all, oil makes all materials and activities possible, … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity Loss, Concrete, Peak Sand, Soil
Tagged biodiversity, concrete, ecosystem destruction, food loss, peak sand, shoreline erosion
Comments Off on Peak Sand
Himalayan glaciers supplying water to a billion people melting fast, Andes too
Preface. The Himalayan glaciers that supply water to a billion people are melting fast, already 30% has been lost since 1975. Adding to the crisis are the 400 dams under construction or planned for Himalayan rivers in India, Pakistan, Nepal, … Continue reading
Posted in Caused by Scarce Resources, Climate Change, Dams, Peak Water, Planetary Boundaries, Water, Water Infrastructure
Tagged Andes, climate change, dams, glaciers melting, Himalaya
Comments Off on Himalayan glaciers supplying water to a billion people melting fast, Andes too
Pumped Hydro Storage (PHS)
Preface. This is the only commercial way to store energy now (CAES hardly counts with just one plant and salt domes to put more in existing in only 5 states). Though of course hydropower is only in a few states … Continue reading
Posted in Dams, Energy Production, Hydropower, Pumped Hydro Storage (PHS)
Tagged dams, energy storage, hydroelectric, NIMBY, PHS, Pumped hydro storage
15 Comments
The 10 countries with the most endangered species in the world
I don’t know whether to go to these countries to see these beautiful creatures before they’re extinct, or to spend my money on countries like Costa Rica and Tanzania that have set aside a quarter or more of their land … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity Loss, Deforestation
Tagged abortion, biodiversity, birth control, endangered species
3 Comments
How Much Oil is in an Electric Vehicle? by Nicholas LePan
LePan shows how plastics, made from fossil fuels, make up so much of a car, plus lighten the weight so the car can go further on gasoline. Since fossil fuels are finite, many assume we’ll just make them out of … Continue reading
Why technology can’t solve all of our problems
I have many posts about energy contraptions that have had hundreds of thousands of breakthrough stories in the media, yet here we are, without powerful enough batteries, hydrogen fuel cells, and so on to replace fossil fuels despite the exciting … Continue reading
Posted in Critical Thinking, Transportation
2 Comments
China is deforesting Russia
Preface. Here’s more than half of a New York Times article about China deforesting Russia. Yikes! Peak oil had better come soon before we denude the earth. Alice Friedemann www.energyskeptic.com author of “When Trucks Stop Running: Energy and the Future … Continue reading
Posted in Deforestation
Tagged china, deforestation, Russia
Comments Off on China is deforesting Russia
Going 100% renewable power means a lot of dirty mining
Preface. Everyone talks about oil spills, but what about the dirty mining that will have a huge polluting footprint on the earth of mercury, arsenic, and other toxic heavy metals. The Pebble mine is canceled for now, but if the … Continue reading
Posted in Groundwater, Manufacturing & Industrial Heat, Pollution
Tagged manufacturing, mineral depletion, mines, mining, pollution, renewables
Comments Off on Going 100% renewable power means a lot of dirty mining
Automated vehicles: more driving, energy wasted, & congestion
Preface. My main post on this is: “Why self-driving cars may not be in your future“. Alice Friedemann www.energyskeptic.com Author of Life After Fossil Fuels: A Reality Check on Alternative Energy; When Trucks Stop Running: Energy and the Future … Continue reading
Posted in Automobiles, Efficiency
Tagged automated vehicle, AV, cars, efficiency, self-driving
8 Comments