Categories
-
Recent Posts
- The Green New Deal is not a solution for the real problem: Overshoot
- A transition from fossil fuels to renewables could take a century – if it ever happens
- Electrifying freight trains in the U.S. is a bad idea
- Why Nuclear Power can’t replace fossil fuels
- Energy, Water, & Climate Change are interdependent
- Why fusion power is Forever Away
- Climate Change dominates news coverage at expense of other existential planetary boundaries
- Excerpt from “The Geopolitics of Resource Wars”
- Homes & Buildings
- 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
- Why the R/P Reserves to Production ratio does not show when oil will run out
Category Archives: Pollution
The nine boundaries we must not cross or we may go extinct
Preface. This post has excerpts from the famous paper by Rockström et al (2009) as well as a more recent proposal by Running (2012) on an easier measure of how close we’re coming to rendering the planet uninhabitable. We have … Continue reading
Posted in Acidification, Biodiversity, Chemical Pollution, Climate Change, Extinction, Planetary Boundaries, Pollution, Sea Level Rise, Water, World's Best Scientists
Tagged atmospheric aerosol loading, biogeochemical nitrogen cycle, biological diversity, boundaries, chemical pollution, climate change, Earth, extinction, global freshwater use, global warming, IPCC, land system change, ocean acidification, ozone hole, peak oil, phosphorus cycle, stratospheric ozone, sustainability
Comments Off on The nine boundaries we must not cross or we may go extinct
Why Canadian oilsands will not help solve the energy crisis
Preface. I posted this back in 2011, but it is all still true, plus a lot more in my additional posts here. The Canadian oil sands are reputed to be the 3rd largest oil reserve (10%), and have a very … Continue reading
Posted in Energy, Hazardous Waste, Pollution, Tar Sands (Oil Sands)
Tagged energy, hazardous waste, oilsands, pollution, tarsands
Comments Off on Why Canadian oilsands will not help solve the energy crisis
Corn for ethanol & soy for biodiesel tremendously destructive
In the news: Cullen A (2024) Corn Belt fertilizer is killing the Gulf of Mexico. Washington Post. About 30 percent of the nitrogen applied for raising corn is lost to water, and much of it right now is draining off … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiesel, Peak Food, Pesticides, Soil, Water Pollution
Tagged aquifer depletion, biodiesel, corn, erosion, ethanol, pollution, soybeans, topsoil
Comments Off on Corn for ethanol & soy for biodiesel tremendously destructive
Coal Ash is a major toxic waste
Coal ash is what remains after coal is burned, and has numerous elements dangerous to human health, including known carcinogens such as arsenic, hexavalent chromium, and radium. A nuclear power plant generating as much energy as a coal plant generates … Continue reading
Posted in Hazardous Waste
Tagged arsenic, coal ash, radioactive, rare earth
Comments Off on Coal Ash is a major toxic waste
The Good News About Peak Oil
As oil declines, the threat of a greenhouse earth & extinction from climate change decline Carbon sequestration, wind, solar, geo-engineering, and other remedies are trivial compared to the effect declining fossil fuels will have on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The … Continue reading
Posted in Peak Natural Gas, Peak Oil, Pesticides, Planetary Boundaries, What to do
Tagged climate change, fertilizer, natural gas, peak oil, pesticide, rationing
Comments Off on The Good News About Peak Oil
Toxic chemicals threaten health, reproduction, cause cancer, diabetes
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
Posted in Chemical Pollution, Chemicals
Tagged bisphenol A, BPA, CFC, chemicals, EDC, endocrine disrupting chemicals, existential threat, health, phthalates, pollution, reproduction
Comments Off on Toxic chemicals threaten health, reproduction, cause cancer, diabetes
Largest oil spill on earth: Plastics
Preface. There have been thousands of articles since I published this back in 2003. Today I read a surprising study that claims glass is more harmful than plastic because it is mined from rare materials and requires more fossil fuels … Continue reading
Reducing pesticides with crop diversity
Preface. Pesticides are the main cause of the insect apocalypse, which reverberates up the food chain, leading to loss of biodiversity and extinction. And pesticides are made out of oil, which probably peaked globally in 2018, and pesticides only last … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity, Farming & Ranching, Pesticides
Tagged agriculture, biodiversity, pesticides
Comments Off on Reducing pesticides with crop diversity
Water Theft
Preface. As fresh water supplies are depleted worldwide and water crises increase, water theft is becoming more common. And damage to marine environments as well. It is estimated that between 30% and 50% of the global water supply is stolen … Continue reading
Posted in Food production, Groundwater, Peak Water, Water Pollution
Tagged agriculture, pesticides, theft, treatment, water
Comments Off on Water Theft
945 U.S. Superfund sites vulnerable to climate change
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