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Recent Posts
- 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?
- Book review of “Pandemic Politics: The Deadly Toll of Partisanship in the Age of COVID”
- The evolution of the Republican party from 1960 to 2024: from moderate democracy to extreme authoritarianism
- Why some people are conservative and others liberal
- Book review: Bring the War Home: The white power movement & paramilitary America
- Book review: How Democracies Die
- Book Review “Conservatives without Conscience” by John Dean
- Book review of “The Power Worshippers. Inside the dangerous rise of religious nationalism”
- Fox news estranges millions of families and instills hate and fear in its cult members
Category Archives: 1) Decline
Off-Road vehicles & equipment need diesel fuel
Preface. Move over semi-trucks. You are not the most important truck in the world, even though I gave you the starring role in “When Trucks Stop Running”. What really matters are the trucks that grow our fuel: Food. And mining … Continue reading
Book review of “Prime Movers of Globalization: the History & Impact of Diesel Engines & Gas Turbines”
Preface. This is my book review of Vaclav Smil’s “Prime Movers of Globalization”. A topic near and dear to my heart after working for the 5th largest shipping company, American President Lines (now Neptune Orient Lines), for 22 years and … Continue reading
Posted in Energy Books, Peak Resources, Rail, Roads, Transportation, Where to Be or Not to Be
Tagged diesel engines, microprocessor, ships, trucks
1 Comment
Tesla Semi trucks hauling corn chips
Preface. Many dismiss my writing about why heavy-duty class 8 battery electric trucks can’t replace diesel trucks because there are class 8 electric trucks. Most famously the Tesla semi trucks, which are under a trial at the PepsiCo Frito-lay plant … Continue reading
Posted in Electric & Hydrogen trucks impossible, Trucks: Electric
Tagged electric trucks, frito lay, pepsi, SuperTruck, Tesla Semi, trucks
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What is the plan for an electric grid outage that lasts for months?
Preface. There are three posts on Ted Koppel’s book “Lights out”: Book review of Lights Out. A Cyberattack. A Nation Unprepared. Surviving the Aftermath What is the plan for an electric grid outage that lasts for months? Want to survive … Continue reading
Where to be? Links to Superfund, hazardous waste and other toxic sites in U.S.
Preface. If you’re thinking of moving to another state that is under carrying capacity, where agriculture depends on rainfall rather than irrigation, with good topsoil and other ecologically important factors in the approaching postcarbon world, also make sure you’re not … Continue reading
Posted in Hazardous Waste, Where to Be or Not to Be
Tagged pollution, superfund, toxic wastes, wildfire
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Do you want to eat, drink, or fly?
Preface. In this post the New York Times writes about renewable airplane fuel from corn ethanol, and questions whether there is enough water and a few other problems. First I’m going to summarize their issues with this, and then follow … Continue reading
Posted in Airplanes, Biofuels, Biomass EROI, Groundwater, Peak Water
Tagged aquifer, aviation fuel, corn, EROI, ethanol
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The 10th planetary boundary: Salt
Preface. In 2009, Johan Rockström proposed that there were nine planetary boundaries we must not cross. In 2023, Richardson et al found that 6 of the 9 boundaries had been transgressed: Climate change CO2 and radiative forcing, Biosphere integrity, land … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity Loss, Planetary Boundaries, Pollution, Soil
Tagged biodiversity, existential threat, salt
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Unpave concrete & asphalt to save energy and money
Preface. The U.S. has 4.1 million miles of roads (1.9 million paved, 2.2 million gravel). About 3 million miles of roads have less than 2,000 vehicles a day, less than 15% of all traffic. The paved portion of these low-volume … Continue reading
Posted in Concrete, Roads, Transportation, Transportation What To Do
Tagged depave, roads, unpave
2 Comments
Nuclear waste will harm future generations for a million years without underground storage
Preface. This is a book review of “Too Hot to Touch: The Problem of High-Level Nuclear Waste” and the best book I’ve read on the topic, as well as additional research on the topic. Now that world wide production of … Continue reading