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)

Is there a long emergency plan for peak oil?

Posted on February 8, 2022 by

  Source: A year on the midieval farm https://www.medievalists.net/2014/06/year-medieval-farm/ Last updated March 2022. Ever since I learned about peak oil in 2000 after reading my grandfather Pettijohn’s memoir (Pettijohn 1984), I’ve wondered what The Plan To Cope with Oil Decline … Continue reading →

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Climate change will damage energy infrastructure, costing trillions

Posted on January 28, 2022 by

Preface. Climate change and extreme weather will harm oil and gas exploration and production, electric power generation and increase energy demand due to sea level rise, heat, drought, floods, more storms, and blackouts.  Extreme heat and drought will force electric … Continue reading →

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How to fix our inland waterway system

Posted on January 25, 2022 by

Preface.  As you can see in Table 1 below, water transport is far more energy efficient than land transport, especially once we’re back to muscle power after fossil fuels are gone. Kilojoules of energy used to carry one ton of … Continue reading →

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USGS Groundwater Depletion study of aquifer decline in the U.S.

Posted on January 7, 2022 by

Preface. I summarize two major research papers on the state of the Ogallal below.  It and many other aquifers are depleting rapidly, and polluted from pesticides, feedlot waste, intruding salts, and other pollution. Rainfall isn’t replenishing the Ogallala. Many won’t … Continue reading →

Posted in Government study predictions, Groundwater, Peak Food, Peak Water | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Toxic chemicals threaten health, reproduction, cause cancer, diabetes

Posted on January 4, 2022 by

Preface.  This post could have thousands more entries, but devoting energyskeptic to the tens of thousands of chemicals that are legally polluting our environment would be a full-time job. However scary the transition from fossils back to wood world may … Continue reading →

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Freshwater fish under threat of extinction

Posted on December 20, 2021 by

Preface. A third of freshwater fish are under threat from pollution, over fishing, dams, non-native species, climate change, disruption of river ecology and more.  Alice Friedemann  www.energyskeptic.com  Author of Life After Fossil Fuels: A Reality Check on Alternative Energy; When … Continue reading →

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Will Artificial Intelligence destroy us?

Posted on December 14, 2021 by

Preface. When it comes to artificial intelligence, most articles assume it will happen, so discussions range around when and how it will happen. Often speculation that a general AI may use its ability to find patterns in data will allow … Continue reading →

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Bill Gates on why Electric Airplanes won’t fly

Posted on December 11, 2021 by

Preface. I wonder if Bill Gates has read my book “When Trucks Stop Running”? As he says in the article below: “The renaissance of electrification that we’re seeing in passenger vehicles unfortunately won’t likely adapted to heavier forms of transportation … Continue reading →

Posted in Airplanes, Batteries | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Book Review “The Outlawed Ocean” by Ian Urbina

Posted on December 8, 2021 by

Note: Peak fish happened in 1996 at 130 million tonnes a year. Pauly D, Zeller D (2016) Catch reconstructions reveal that global marine fisheries catches are higher than reported and declining. Nature communications. Preface. This is a book review of … Continue reading →

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The latest monster ships could be a disaster

Posted on December 1, 2021 by

Preface.  The article below makes the case for the hazards of one of these enormous ships running aground or sinking, blocking a major shipping line, leaking oil, and possibly impossible to salvage. In 2020, the largest container ship is the … Continue reading →

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