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Recent Posts
- Book Review “The Outlawed Ocean” by Ian Urbina
- Underestimating the Challenges of Avoiding a Ghastly Future
- Motherboards: too complicated to make after oil
- “More and More and More” one of the best books on energy ever written
- The staggering destruction of knowledge by Christians in the Roman Empire
- The staggering cost of Net Zero in Britain
- Why the R/P Reserves to Production ratio does not show when oil will run out
- Catton on Collapse “Bottleneck: Humanity’s Impending Impasse”
- Book Review of Grain Brain: Extraordinary claim not backed up by evidence
- Why did everyone stop talking about Population & Immigration?
- What would happen if trucks stopped running?
- How to survive a nuclear winter
- The insect apocalypse will kill billions more people than climate change
- The war on drugs. A book review of “Chasing the scream”
- Peak crude oil did not happen in 2018. But we are running out of time
Category Archives: 1) Decline
Peak soil: Industrial agriculture destroys ecosystems and civilizations: Biofuels make it worse
Preface. In 2018 I thought it was time to reorganize this post, as it grew more and more bloated and disorganized with new information. Eventually it turned into my 2021 book Life After Fossil Fuels: A Reality Check on Alternative … Continue reading
Posted in Alternative Energy, Biofuels, Biomass, Energy, Peak Biofuels, Peak Topsoil, Soil
Tagged aquifer depletion, biodiesel, biofuel, climate change, EROEI, EROI, erosion, ethanol, fertilizer, hunger, peak soil, pollution, topsoil
2 Comments
Book review of “1493 Uncovering the new world Columbus Created”
[ This book will be included in the “must read” category of my giant booklist when I get around to updating it. This book isn’t just about the past, the implications reverberate into the postcarbon future. Will slavery return without … Continue reading
Posted in 2) Overshoot, Agriculture, Disease, Pesticides, Soil
Tagged ecology, Famine, pesticides, potatoes, rubber, slavery
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Transportation: How long can we adapt before we fall off the Net Energy Cliff?
Preface. There are too many factors besides geological depletion to predict a future timeline of collapse. Plus each region will be more or less affected by each factor, sooner or later as well. This is a unique crash – there … Continue reading
Overfishing is driving large marine creatures extinct
[Overfishing is driving marine mammals extinct. Luckily oil will soon begin a relentless decline and fishing boats won’t be able to travel to the ends of the world using spotter planes to net the remaining schools of fish. And it … Continue reading
Posted in Extinction, Fisheries, Scientists Warnings to Humanity
Tagged extinction, fishery, marine, overfishing
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Nitrogen fertilizer poses significant threats to humans and the environment
NRC. 2015. A Framework for Assessing Effects of the Food System. National Research Council, National Academies Press. 19 pages. Nitrogen (N) is essential for agricultural productivity, but in its more reactive forms, it can pose significant threats to humans … Continue reading
Posted in Climate Change, Fisheries, Groundwater, Planetary Boundaries, Pollution, Soil
Tagged agriculture, fertilizer, nitrogen, runoff
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Anyone who whines about airplanes should have to take the Oregon Trail
Source: Book cover of “Oregon Or Bust: True Short Stories from the Descendants of Oregon Trail Pioneers, Prospectors, Trappers, and Settlers in the Great Northwest Hardcover” by Gentry Ward Cutsforth (2012), XLibris. Preface. Also listen to the Louis CK rant … Continue reading
Posted in Airplanes, Lithium-ion, Transportation What To Do
Tagged airplane, battery, oregon trail, transportation
3 Comments
Climate change may corrode concrete even faster
[ I’ve paraphrased and shortened this article about how climate change will corrode concrete faster in the future from increasing carbon dioxide levels, and in coastal cities, from the chloride ions in sea spray. After that is the introduction section … Continue reading
Biggest threat to biodiversity is not climate change: it’s agriculture, fishing, and hunting
[ This article makes the point that other factors are far more to blame for biodiversity loss than climage change. And with “peak everything“, especially peak oil, but also peak coal, and peak natural gas — greenhouse gas emissions will … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity Loss, Fisheries
Tagged biodiversity, extinction, fishery, seafood
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